The Shame of Honour Killing

international | gender and sexuality | news report

Saturday August 26, 2006 17:19

by iosaf

The case of Hina Salem whose mutilated body has been recovered from her parents' back garden in Italy reminds us that honour killing is still prevalent in Europe. Just as self-immolation is not a Buddhist tendancy, honour killing has no direct connection to religion. On the contrary such types of murder reflect patriarchial belief systems. The Killers are more often than not fathers or brothers who can not accept life decisions made by their sisters or daughters & thus kill their family members to preserve "honour". Hina was 20 years of age, her body was placed with head facing Mecca after her father and other male family members punished her for co-habitating with her 32 year old boyfriend. Their trial in Brescia near Milan in Italy raises inter-community tensions being pitched not surprisingly as an "Islamic fundementalist" question, considering her father of Pakistani origin came to live in europe in 1996.

Hina Salem was reported missing by her boyfriend earlier this month. Her corpse was found buried in her family's garden.

But it is neither about religion nor nationality.

A pan-EU criminal task force was set up in 2003 to deal with the prevelance of such murders. In the UK alone police began re-examination of 52 cases in the London area and 65 in other parts of England and Wales.

In the last years Turkey, as well as world Islamic conferences have condemned such murders. Little wonder, Turkey estimates 200 women die a year this way. In Germany the EU state with the most Turkish migrants police estimate 50 murders in the last 10 years.

The youngest confirmed European victim was a 15 year old girl.

Yet the phenomona shows no sign of abating. The Italian case follows quickly on the recent appeal by a "respected" member of the Dundee (England) muslim community. 54 year old Mohommad Arshad was convicted in 2003 after being found guilty of incitement to murder when he put a price of £1,000 on son-in-law Abdullah Yasin's head. His son-in-law had married his daughter Insha in 2001 against the family's wishes.

I repeat this has little to do with religion. It has everything to do with closed communities and patriarchal family organisation & an inability of community's to examine their values critically. It has not been too long since it was common place in Ireland for wayward daughters to spend their lives in Mary Magdalene homes. Our psichiatric services are still annually condemned by Amnesty International, no wonder - we still have inmates whose only "illness" was disobeying their father or brothers.