Honor Killing of Muslim Women

Honor Killings of Muslim Women Introduction Killings in the name of honor are undoubtedly a disaster, an unlawful act, a terror against humanity. Honor Killings of Muslim women is an antique trend followed in Islam in which male members of family and social community deliberately kill women and girls of their family or tribes as a result of belief that they have conducted any shameful act and ruined the reputation of family or tribe. Honor Killings in Muslims has been inherited from the ancient tribal days of 1200 BC when no major religion was came into being thus honor killing has no direct relation to Religion.

The concept of Honor Killings has developed as a result of several attitudes in culture based on classes and background, and religious groups, where women is considered as a property of men and possess no rights. The alleged degradation is mostly based upon suspicions only and these suspicious behaviors include unacceptable style of dressing, willingly marrying anyone by own choice particularly with someone who belongs to opposing community or tribe, conducting immoral sexual acts, or even engaging in homosexual acts.

Statistics show that about 20000 women become victim of honor killing every year particularly in Asia and Middle East (Fisk. R. , 2010, n. d. ). Honor Killing in the name of religion is the most hideous crimes and it is still occurring in most part of the worlds due to perceived shameful acts in the eyes of men and such tragic events have very valuable lesson in it for the educated and mature people. Discussion

Pakistan, the Islamic republic country, is deliberated as one of the most harmful and dangerous country for women to live in because of growing rate of crime in form of honor killing and other related valiances. According to a survey conducted in this regard, it was discovered that Pakistan was the fifth largest country in which women were killed for dowry and honor. Islam and law both prohibits in punishing victims unless there sin is proved and honor killings take place on the basis of doubts and suspicions of men and groups.

On the contrary Islam teaches to avoid punishment if there is a scope and does not consider pregnancy as an evidence of shameful sexual act. This is unfortunate that such terrible acts are false fully supported by few Islamic scholars who tend to justify these activates with respect to Islam. For instance; as per the saying of the Messenger of God in Islam that one should stop the crime with his own hands if he/she see it happening. These kinds of statements are misperceived by these scholars and play a vital role in encouraging honor killings of Women.

These scholars promote the point of view of taking law into hands and treating women as an object (Mufti. N. M. et al. , 2012, pp. 180-185). One of the popular examples set by the honor-killing victim named as Mukhtar Mai from Punjab, Pakistan, whose brother was claimed of raping a girl from upper caste family, thus, it was decided by the tribe to punish her bother in form of a revenge in which Mukhtar Mai was raped by a gang in order to satisfy the other party and then was forced to commit suicide, so that her family restore their pride and honor.

But Mukhtar Mai decided not to kill her self rather to fight against injustice. She belonged to a poor and illiterate culture, which was a real hindrance in her case and today she is running a school for women to educate them to raise voice against honor killings and injustice. She is a true figure for women in Pakistan who have been gang raped, spoiled faces with acid, and ripped nose as a result of Honor killings’ activities (Parker. H. , 2007, pp. 507-508).

As per statistics, 300 women were found to be killed for honor in 1997 in Pakistan, 23 murders on average are done for sake of honor in Jordon every year, 36 honor crimes were occurred in Lebanon from 1996 to 1998 in small cities and villages, 400 women were murdered in Yemen and 52 such crimes were reported in Egypt in 1997. Whereas, acid attacks increased from 47 to 200 in Bangladesh and 5000 women are murdered by their in laws per year in India as a result of Honor Killings.

Honor Crimes are also witnessed in European and Western Countries’ Immigrants communities. Because many women are unable to communicate to the state authority of the honor abuses due to linguistic issues. Such list of countries includes Germany, Sweden, Turkey, and UK. For instance, UK has witnessed 20 such deaths of women in the past five years due to honor crimes. India is a country which has sever traditions that are practiced even to date these include burning brides for sake of dowry, acid attacks, rapes and gang rapes, sexual harassments, illing and raping young girls etc and these apply to both Muslim and Hindu women in their culture. No matter how modernize a women becomes, but such kind of norm against women hardly changes (Tripathi. A. & Yadav. S. , 2005, pp. 63-78). Lessons Learned It is understood that people who indulge into Honor killings of Women and girls have emotional attachment with their views, belief, culture and religion. They consider such issues as a matter of pride and respect. In order to hinder such acts I believe one has to take serious actions.

According to my knowledge and understanding about the underlined topic, publishing and distributing actual Islamic sayings with references can reduce honor killings, more education should be given to people from all classes that marrying some one willingly is not a reason to kill anyone, print media and television should broadcasts open debates on these issues which are often avoided as a taboo, I believe one can use the mosque (A religious place of worship for Muslims) as a platform to educate illiterate people and notify them that it’s a crime, Government itself should contribute and initiate movements against such acts wherever honor killings are taken place in Muslim World. I believe it is everyone’s responsibility to stop this activity and nip the evil in the bud wherever witnessed for sake of saving humanity and women’s rights (Mufti. N. M. et al. , 2012, pp. 180-185). I believe such victims in case of survival should be provided with psychological rehabilitation and mental support.

Encouraging people who so ever witness these crimes to report immediately to the concerned authority. Government should provide financial aid to NGOs who are continuously working for this cause. Both boys and girls should be educated about equal human rights from the childhood (Tripathi. A. & Yadav. S. , 2005, pp. 63-78). Conclusion Honor Killings of Muslim women in the name of religion is just a means of escape for men, communities, tribal groups who believe in their so called norms, culture, tradition and values. Such terrible acts occur in almost every country where Muslims with conservative thinking are residing and they believe that women are just n object whose activities may affect their reputation severely.

These acts should be stopped by law and religious teachings. Concerned authorities should take serious actions against criminals involved in honor killing and punish them strictly. Works Cited Fist. R. The Crime wave that shames the world. The Independent. (2010) Web. 11 Oct. 2012. < http://www. independent. co. uk> Mufti. N. M. et al. Honor Killing in Pakistan: An Islamic Perspective. Asian Social Science. vol 8 no. (10) (2012) pp. 180-185 Parker. H. Reviews: Killing Women for honor. Contemporary Review. (2007) pp. 507-508. Tripathi. A. & Yadav. S. For the Sake of honor: But Whose Honor? Honor Crimes Against Women. Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law. vol 2 (2005) pp. 63-78.