Honor killing in Pakistan
I just heard about this on the BBC World radios broadcast: A Pakistani couple murdered their 15 year-old daughter, burning her to death by pouring acid over her, even as she pleaded for mercy. Her crime? She looked at a boy as he rode past on a motorcycle. That's right. You didn't read it wrong, and I didn't write it wrong. These parents - yes, the mother, too - showed no remorse, shed no tears over having killed their own 15 year-old daughter by pouring acid on her. They said they had to do it to keep the girl from dishonoring the family. Her name was Anosh Zafar. Her parents were Mohammad Zafar and his wife Zaheen.
I don't know if we should charge this up to Islam, as it is practiced in many benighted countries of the world; if it's part of culture specific to the Indian subcontinent; or if it's simply an aspect of traditional culture - the death of which, as industrial culture overspreads the planet, many of its supporters decry. I'd be interested to hear from others as to which of the three suspects is the culprit. I'd also be interested in what punishment jref members think should be meted out to these horrid people. My own feeling is that the two of them should be submerged in a strong solution of sulphuric acid. On the other hand, perhaps they should be candidates for the Darwin Award for ending, or at least diminishing the likelihood of passing on their genes. ETA: Lest one is tempted to see this as an isolated incident, consider this one that occurred earlier this year (from the article): Islamabad: In a shocking incident, a Pakistani man, Arif Mubashir, has gunned down his six daughters on suspicion that two of them were in relationships with boys in the neighborhood. According to this site (not safe for office or school), 675 women were murdered in honor killings in the first nine months of 2011. ETA 2: According to this site, about 1,000 young people of both genders are killed per year in India, often for marrying outside their castes. |
Could it be possible to shame those killers publicly, heaping scorn and condemnation on their activities, showing that it is not "honorable" to murder children for being children?
Notoriety for being stupid and told that in their neighborhoods might peer-pressure those of similar moronic attitudes into withholding the death penalty. Couple of my lady friends were merely tossed out of the house, not killed, for similar offenses. But here in civilization, a single woman is not an object to be raped and murdered just because she has no male protector right there. |
I saw the BBC video today.
I can't get the face of the mother out of my memory. Where do they get the acid? |
Apparently, it's not just in Islam and not just on the Indian subcontinent that such atrocities happen. Consider this article from the Guardian (from the article, emphasis added):
Hassan Habash even gave his word to an emissary from a Bedouin tribe traditionally brought in to mediate in matters of family honour, a commitment regarded as sacrosanct in Palestinian society. But the next weekend, as Faten watched a Boy Scouts parade from the balcony of her Ramallah home, the 22-year-old Christian Palestinian was dragged into the living room and bludgeoned to death with an iron bar. Her father was arrested for the murder. Two days later, another ritual of killing unfolded a few miles away in Jerusalem. Maher Shakirat summoned three of his sisters to discuss a family uproar after one of them, Rudaina, was thrown out by her husband for an alleged affair. Maher listened to Rudaina's denials, and her sisters' pleas that they were not covering up the affair. Then he forced the three women to drink bleach before strangling Rudaina, who was eight months pregnant. The other sisters tried to flee but Maher caught and strangled Amani, 20. The third, Leila, escaped but was badly injured by the bleach Also from the article is this tale of a mother who killed her daughter for getting pregnant after tow of her brothers had raped her (emphasis added): Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud murdered her daughter, Rafayda, because she became pregnant after being raped by two of her brothers. "My daughter fell over and broke her knee. I took her to hospital and there the doctor told me she was pregnant. So I killed her. It's as simple as that," said Mrs Qaoud on her doorstep in Ramallah. Mrs Qaoud waited until the baby was born and given up for adoption. Then she presented her 22 year-old daughter with a razor blade and told her to slash her wrists. She refused so her mother pulled a plastic bag over her head, sliced her wrists and beat her head with a stick. The brothers were sentenced to 10 years for the rape. Mrs Qaoud spent two years in prison for killing her daughter. She has purged her home of all pictures of her older children, and declines to discuss the killing, saying all she wants is to forget about it. |
Usually batteries.
And unfortunately for us UKains we don't have to look outwards, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19068490 |
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The best you can say about this horrific act is at least the parents are in jail. |
When I worked for the state of georgia there was a sweet Pakistani woman who was always nice to me. She was nice everyday and everytime I saw her.
I often wondered if it was safe for her to do so. I mean her family lived in Georgia and they were freshly immigrated from Pakistan. |
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I think these "honor" killings indicate that in Pakistan the perception is that a family's loss of honor or respect in a community will result in a significant loss of access to resources. These acts, though they are barbaric by our standards, are the result of cultural and social and economic pressures that we don't understand. I'm not saying it's OK, because it clearly isn't, but I would guarantee that the socioeconomic landscape which these people face (or have historically faced) has a lot to do with it.
Having said that, I can't imagine that this sort of behavior is at all common. That it is not unheard of is clear, but I think you're really talking about outliers among outliers. The reasons given for these murders are both banal and arbitrary. Surely 15 year old girls look at people where there father or mother would be able to see and they are not murdered by the family. |
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Proper punishment? Everyone around them who ever knew that family says "how dare you!" and pulls the family our of their house and beats them to within and inch of their life. While it's easy for me to get mad behind my computer I'm just as enraged that no one in their community hasn't done this. Hell, WE do this, just with due process.
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I have a simple mind on these things: if you can find out ahead of time, leave the planners of the mutilations/killings visibly dead and terribly mutilated (prior to the deathy thing) with an informal note carved in appropriately on them to explain the why and wherefore and suggest safwer paths to follow. If found out afterwards, a thorough flaying followed by a nice salting or warm alcohol bath (don't want infections) and then really hurt them and leave their bodies displayed for other potential miscreants of their ilk. I believe medical knowledge to be very useful in dealing with these turds.
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Note to cultural apologists: I have no problem with others following their chosen/familial/geographic culture for THEMSELVES AS AN INDIVIDUAL and with NO application of same to any other persons within or without of family or religious or political circles. I have no problem with their dissolution if they have a problem with my preferred policy.
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Seriously. Simply because you can't separate your emotional response from rational thought doesn't mean that those of us who wish to achieve a deeper understanding of behavior approve of murder. I'm certain it feels great to be righteously indignant at the murder of a teen aged girl, but your indignation serves no other purpose than to stoke your own sense of moral superiority. Furthermore, I don't think you actually know what the hell apologetics means. I see you and others bandy that word about as if it's equivalent to "approves of Muslim Terrorism". "Explanation" does not equal "justification", "analysis" does not equal "approval". Years ago, mental illness was treated as a moral failing. People who studied it were, in your opinion, simply apologists? Trying to recast human actions as anything other than the result of physical laws and objective material conditions is little more that idealism. |
Call me a 'Cultural Apologist', but that's their way. I don't have to like it or agree with it, but that doesn't give me any right to interfere. They will be punished accordingly if they have contravened their laws.
If they do this in a country that is not theirs where 'honour killing' is (quite rightly) treated as a primitive act of murder, and whose laws they have chosen to abide by, and are governed by whether they like it or not, then they should suffer the full force of those laws. |
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We in the industrialized portions of the world sometimes forget just how primitive is much of the "developing" portion.
In various states in Africa, witchcraft is seen as very real and each year there are reports of arrests and executions for same. As well, the local "witch doctors" still provide magical cures for AIDS and other diseases... There was an article on The World just a couple of years ago where in one of these nations it was believed that having sex with a healthy "pure" person would cure AIDS... So men were raping babies under the impression it would cure their disease. Here , we would think such things the acts of insane persons; but in much of the world these horrific crimes are deemed acceptable. I have listened to interviews with neighboring villagers in some of these "honor killing" cases who thoroughly approve of the murder... The only way the family could regain it's "honor". In regards to the economic underpinnings of some of these practices... I suppose a case might be made that smaller dowries might be expected if the family honor was besmirched, or that the daughters might prove entirely unmarriagable, which would be an economic hardship in many cases. Only peripherally related, but anthropologist Marvin Harris has pointed out that most all the strange religious dietary laws that exist have underpinnings in economics. |
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When I was a kid, it was completely normal to disown one's child if they were openly homosexual, all because of the same sort of bizarre code of family honor. The difference between that and this crime is one of degree. |
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This "culture" should go away, forever. Nobody who commits or aids an honor killing should be allowed to live. |
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You should note that in regions of the world where poverty is more crushing, the family unit is much stronger than here in the developed world. There's a reason for that. The family unit is a safer economic entity than a single person. Quote:
You and I certainly agree that these crimes take place in a much different cultural milieu, and I think we both agree that they should be examined in that light. I'm just quibbling. |
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While economics is an important driving force in human affairs, it's not the only thing, unless one is a Marxist fundamentalist. Cultural norms are enormously influential. It's quite possible that the insanity of honour killings springs from the conflict between the highly restricted world in which these people live, which nevertheless has access to the values of the West in a way never before possible. |
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Assuming one can apply the rules of biological evolution to cultural evolution, some things are selected that have a neutral advantage and even some traits with a negative selection pressure can be amplified by other circumstances. So, for example, a rich king might have children that survive to reproduce because the king has better resources and is more socially isolated (thus less exposure to contagious pathogens), but the same king might have more inbred offspring. Who knows how such a horrid culture evolved. There is evidence equal rights for women actually results in an economically better off culture. The fact such oppressive cultures are failing now compared to Western cultures where women have more equality suggests it is not economically advantageous to murder your daughters. |
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There are times when it is appropriate to consider another's cultural values as different but reasonable, and times where one can just say, that's wrong, I don't care what the involved people believe. |
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Evolution doesn't work quite so purely. Sometimes disadvantageous things evolve, genetically and culturally. Take for example, the human brain evolving to see relationships where sometimes only coincidence exists. That genetic survival trait might be useful in some circumstances but maladaptive in others. Is it not possible then for some maladaptive custom to evolve? |
I am struggling to find an answer to, what if the family were not to kill a daughter in a honour killing, what would happen to them then?
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Honor killing happens in all society where honor is put above other values, like life.
it is abhorrent, but a lot of stuff we find abhorrent, are still being done. Like witch hunting and burning of kids in Africa , and i apss many other vomit inducing stuff from all culture, none exempt. Also in case anybody is still mistaken about thinking this is an islam thingy : http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/29/us...in-brazil.html For those not wanting to read: that's brazil and the date is 1991. "Brazil's Supreme Court has ruled that a man can no longer kill his wife and win acquittal on the ground of "legitimate defense of honor."" Emphasis mine. ETA: "Although never part of the legal code of Brazil, the "defense of honor" strategy has been used by lawyers to win acquittals in thousands of cases of men on trial for murdering their wives. According to a study in Sao Paulo State for the period 1980-81, 722 men claimed defense of their honor as justification for killing women accused of adultery." In addition there were honor killing among italian, says my mother, through not only of kids in love with the wrong persons, also for other stupid stuff. |
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Not the greatest source, this is an issue world wide, but it stems mainly from the Middle East
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing#South_Asia Honor killings are directed mostly against women and girls and are most prevalent in Middle Eastern and South Asian Islamic cultures. It really is about power and honour "A complicated issue that cuts deep into the history of Arab society. .. What the men of the family, clan, or tribe seek control of in a patrilineal society is reproductive power. Women for the tribe were considered a factory for making men. The honour killing is not a means to control sexual power or behavior. What's behind it is the issue of fertility, or reproductive power." "The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions." "... the predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey, has so far shown that little if any social stigma is attached to honor killing. It also comments that the practice is not related to a feudal societal structure, "there are also perpetrators who are well-educated university graduates. Of all those surveyed, 60 percent are either high school or university graduates or at the very least, literate." It is purely about the culture system and honour and there appears to be no economic or religious belief reason behind it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izzat_%28honor%29 "Izzat (Hindi-Urdu Farsi: इज़्ज़त or عزت) refers to the concept of honor prevalent in the culture of North India and Pakistan.[1] It applies universally across religions (Hindu, Muslim and Sikh), communities and genders.[2][3][4] Maintaining the reputation of oneself and one's family (especially women) is part of the concept of izzat, as is the obligatory taking of revenge when one's izzat has been violated." |
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But consider this, what are the consequences of a loss of respect for an inmate of San Quintin? |
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(I'll leave aside the "so that makes it all right then...") |
I feel at this point it's safe to say that Sam Harris is right about there being superior and inferior cultures. Clearly there is at least a cultural acceptance if not pressure to kill your children, spouses other relatives in South Asian societies.
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