honor killing

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ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
No 1 honor killing - an ancient tradition still sometimes observed; a male member of th
un . e family kills a female relative for tarnishing thefamily image
homicide - the killing of a human being by another human being
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/honor+killing. Dated:6-12-2015

honor killingSyllabification: honor killing

Definition of honor killing in English:
noun
In certain cultures, the killing of a relative, especially a girl or woman, who is perceived to
have brought dishonor on the family.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/honor
-killing dated:6-12-2015

Defining honourcrimes and honour killings

Laws should acknowledge honour crimes and honour killings are a form of violence
against women and girls. Drafters are encouraged to use an expansive definition for
honour crimes and killings. A definition must be broad enough to encompass honourbased violence in all its forms, such as murder, attempted murder, driving to suicide, rape,
gang rape, torture, assault, virginity testing, kidnapping, forced marriage, forced eviction,
harassment, threats, stove burnings, acid attacks and maiming. Legislation should clarify
that the detailed list should not serve to exclude from sanctions some behavior that is not
included. (For more information on legislation addressing sexual violence against women
and forced marriage, see: Sections onSexual Assault and Forced and Child Marriage.)
Defining Honour

Drafters should use the phrase so-called honour or use quotation marks around honour to
imply the absence of honour in these crimes. Drafters should be aware of the complexities
in defining honour-related violence. Laws that use the term honour risk reinforcing
discriminatory misperceptions that women and girls embody the honour of the male and
community and that there is honour in acts of violence against women. Additionally, using
this term masks political, social and economic motivations that may contribute to honourrelated violence. Nevertheless, drafters are urged to use the term honour when describing
these crimes against women and girls. Using the term honour, as opposed to a more
ambiguous or restrictive term such as custom or tradition, will properly identify honour
crimes as such and prevent loopholes that allow perpetrators to escape accountability.
Further, although some argue that designation of honour crimes as a distinct form of
violence masks the universal nature of violence against women and risks demonizing
cultures in which such crimes are more prevalent, the recognition of honour crimes as a
particular, contextually-informed type of violence against women rightly acknowledges the
unique characteristics of such crimes (such as their premeditated and collective nature).
Acknowledging these features in turn facilitates the adoption of effective, targeted laws and
policies to combat honour crimes. (See: Korteweg, Anna C. and Yurdakul, Gokce, Religion,
Culture and the Politicization of Honour-Related Violence, United Nations Research Institute
for Social Development, Gender and Development Programme Paper No. 12, October 2010;
Fournier, Pascale, Introduction: Honour Crimes and the LawPublic Policy in the Age of
Globalization, Canadian Criminal Law Review, Vol. 16, May 2012, p.103; CCMW Position on
Femicide [not honour killing], Canadian Council of Muslim Women, January 2012) In
addition, l aws should clearly state there is no honour in or justification for honour-based
violence. Such a statement serves to combat cultural relativist excuses for honour crimes.
Nonetheless, it is also important that drafters of honour crimes legislation refrain from
framing such crimes in a way that equates them with any particular culture or religion.

http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/731-defining-honourcrimesand-honour-killings.html

Honour killing is the unlawful killing of a woman for her

actual or perceived morally or mentally unclean and impure
behaviour (Hassan 1995). Honour killings are murders by
families on family members who are said to have brought
shame on the honour and name of family (Sheri & Bob Stritof
2005). These are acts in which a male member of the family

kills a female relative for tarnishing the family image (Free

Dictionary by Farlex 2007). The term is also defined as the
purposeful pre-planned murder, generally of a woman, by or
at the command of members of her family stimulated by a
perception that she has brought shame on the family (Oxford
Dictionary of Law Enforcement 2007). Honour killings can
also be described as extra-judicial punishment of a female
relative for assumed sexual and marriage offences. These
offences, which are considered as a misdeed or insult,
include sexual faithlessness, marrying without the will of
parents or having a relationship that the family considers to
be inappropriate and rebelling against the tribal and social
matrimonial customs. These acts of killing women are
justified on the basis that the offence has brought dishonour
and shame to family or tribe (Amnesty International 1999).
Another report says that the regime of honour is
unforgiving: women on whom suspicion has fallen are not
given an opportunity to defend themselves, and family
members have no socially acceptable alternative but to
remove the stain on their honour by attacking the woman
(Amnesty International 2001). Honour killings elucidates that
the custom is not related to a feudal societal arrangement,
There are also perpetrators who are well educated
university graduates. Of all those surveyed, 60 percent are
either high school or university graduate or at the very least
literate as per a study by Dicle University (Gezer 2001).

IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (JHSS) ISSN: 2279-0837, ISBN: 2279-0845.
Volume 5, Issue 6 (Nov. - Dec. 2012), PP 28-31 Www.Iosrjournals.Org www.iosrjournals.org 28 |
Page

Honour Killings and Law in India Puneet Kaur

Grewal

Senior Research Fellow Department cum Centre for Womens

Studies and Development, Panjab University Chandigarh, India

Honour Killing

Dilemma, Ritual, Understanding

Amir H. Jafri

Honour killing is a premeditated killing of a girl or woman who is perceived to have besmirched
her familys honour by her sexual conduct. It is committed by the accused womans male kin in
the name of restoring the familys honour. The genesis of honour killing is deeply rooted in history
and has been linked by various scholars with ascendant patriarchal structures in human societies.
It is not peculiar to particular geographical regions or belief systems. A large number of honour
killings have been reported, whether in the past or currently, from the Mediterranean region and
Latin American and some Muslim societies. Pakistan has one of the highest incidences of honour
killing in the contemporary world but scholarly research conducted on the subject has been
extremely limited. This book explores the various contexts in which men commit honour killing in
Pakistan, and analyses the discourses that deal with it. As a hermeneutic and critical study,
Honour Killing borrows from theorists and philosophers as diverse as Gebser, Foucault, Barthes,
Riceour, Gramsci, Said, and Spivak. Contextualizing and analysing the various representative
discourses in Pakistan, it comes to some understanding of the possible cultural, religious, and
historical reasons that create the exigency for men to kill a female member of their own family. It
looks at honour killing as a message in several contexts of Pakistani national life and analyses
how these messages are communicated and towards what rhetorical ends.

HTTPS://OUP.COM.PK/ACADEMIC-GENERALBOOKS/WOMEN-SSTUDIES/HONOUR-KILLING.HTML DATED:6-12-2015

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ISBN

9780199401086

WEIGHT IN KG

0.1500

RIGHTS

No

YEAR OF PUBLICATION

2014

BINDING

Paperback

PAGES

172 pages

honour
Honour-related murders involve a girl or woman
being killed by a male or female family member for
an actual or assumed sexual or behavioural
transgression, including adultery, sexual intercourse
or pregnancy outside marriage or even for being
raped (14). Often the perpetrators see this femicide
as a way to protect family reputation, to follow
tradition or to adhere to wrongly interpreted religious
demands. Murders in the name of honour may also
be used to cover up cases of incest (15), and there
are reports of people using the honour defence as a
way to receive community and legal acceptance of a
non- honour murder (5).
There are an estimated 5000 murders in the name of
honour each year worldwide, although this is
believed to be an underestimate (16). These killings
occur mainly in parts of the Middle East and South
Asia, but also among some migrant communities
for example, in Australia, Europe and North America.
Studies have reported honour killings being
committed by use of firearms, axes and edged tools;
through strangulation and stabbing; and by burning,
forcing a woman to take poison or throwing her from
a window (6,14).
Murders of women to save the family honour are
among the most tragic consequences and explicit
illustrations of embedded, culturally accepted
discrimination against women and girls. They are
often committed with
apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77421/1/WHO_RHR_12.3
8_eng.pdf

Legal Dictionary
HONOR. High estimation. A testimony of
high estimation. Dignity. Reputation. Dignified respect ofcharacter spr
inging from probity, principle, or moral rectitude. A duel is
not justified by any insult to our honor. Honor is
also employed to signify integrity in a judge, courage in a soldier,
and chastityin a woman. To deprive a woman of her honor is, in
some cases, punished as a public wrong, and by an action for
the recovery of damages done to the relative rights of a husband or
a father. VideCriminal conversation.
2. In England, when a peer of parliament is sitting judicially in
that body, his pledge of honor isreceived instead of an oath; and
in courts of equity, peers, peeresses,
and lords of parliament,answer on their honor only. But
the courts of common law know no such distinction. It
is needlessto add, that as we are not encumbered by a nobility, there
is no such distinction in the UnitedStates, all persons being equal in
the eye of the law.
HONOR, Eng. law. The seigniory of a lord paramount. 2 Bl. Com. 9f.
TO HONOR, contr. To accept a bill of exchange;
to pay a bill accepted, or a promissory note, on the day
it becomes due. 7 Taunt. 164; 1 T. R. 172. Vide To Dishonor.

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Honor

3
impunity owing to widespread acceptance of the
practice and legal and judicial statutes that protect
the murderer (5,17). In some cases, the murder may
be encouraged or even motivated by the wishes of
other family members, including women (14).