Honour killing are a big problem in some parts of the world.I think there needs to be a whole changing of attitudes towards women before these types of incidents are stopped but if officials don't take this seriously and send a strong message this isn't acceptable women will continue to be killed in this manner.
There have even been honour killings in countries such as England where you don't expect to hear about such things.I am not aware of any taking place in Canada and hopefully there won't be any in the future but it would be even better if there were none anywhere in the world.
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4 comments:
There's no doubt such things occur, however, keep in mind this is an area with a civil war going on, so saying why something happened before any evidence shows up is pretty irresponsible journalism. Just as easily it could be 'vengeance' because a family member supports a different militia or political party, it could be financially related, or it could be linked to Israel. They don't know, so saying what it 'might be' is political.
Making statements like that is like saying 'genocide is rampant in the "christian world"'. Just because something occurs, doesn't mean its related.
However, we have no reason to be smug. 12 people killed by 'honour killings' in a population larger than canada is statistically insignificant. Right here at home there is FAR more incidence, we just don't call them 'honour killings' but rather 'domestic violence'.
Our 'domestic violence' rarely even gets mentioned in the press let alone has a political movement trying address it.
So here in Canada, a recent survey estimated (based on a survey of 26,000 people) that almost TEN PERCENT of married and common law women were victims of violence by their spouse. (7% to be exact, but thats' pretty high)
In 1998 there were over 130,000 investigations of violence against children, half were substanciated which means we're pretty sure at least 65,000 kids were hurt bad enough to have investigations.
Police data from the last study I saw showed that 60% of all sexual assaults are under 18, and almost half of those (42%) were committed by parents.
Of all the murders of the past two decades, one third were done by family members. We don't know the details, but I'll bet you any money a good lot of those were cheating or 'immoral' spouses or jealous boyfriends.
That's not to say honour killings is not an issue, but during aggression against other cultures its common to fixate on 'bad' things that occur there, and ignore far more serious problems right here at home. These women in Canada barely get a mention in the press, for two decades prostitutes (in most cases native women) were being murdered by a serial killer with no interest whatsoever even by police.
So there are plenty of 'honour killings' right here in Canada, we just have a different name for them.
I am not aware of any taking place in Canada but there may have been some I have not heard of or that were not reported as such.
I think domestic violence and child abuse are separate issues from honour killing and the motivations behind them are different although they are just as bad if not worse in some cases than honour killings.
Dead is dead. Just because its not CALLED an 'honour killing' doesn't mean it isn't identical, or at least so close as to be definitionally the same.
The article states that women are killed for 'being immoral', although not always sexual. When it is three sisters that should make one particularly suspicious that all three were 'doing something immoral'.
However, an honour killing essentially means that a woman is treated as property and if she flirts, commits adultery, etc., then she is killed for it.
So there is this:
"Women are murdered by men every day, yet these acts of femicide barely make the news. Feminist memorializing and the acts of remembrance prevent these murders from becoming invisible and forgotten."
This is from the "cultural memory group", a group that erects monuments to these women, so far they have fifty such monuments.
Take a look at the particulars of one case:
The Coup d'Elle shelter was forced to close down 19 months ago after the brutal murder of Ginette Roger. Her husband, Marcel Samson opened fire inside the shelter in the summer of 1999 and shot her six times while she slept.
That is all too familiar occurence when wives or girlfriends leave their spouses. So no, WE don't call it an 'honour killing', but it is virtually identical.
In the arab world the worst offender is Pakistan, which also contributes to training terrorists but which our government is forming closer corporate ties with,even though its a military dictatorship.
This is simply a question of rights, women have very few rights in many countries, and even in countries like canada it is not taken seriously. 500 natives women have been 'missing' or killed yet we almost never hear about it. Notice that the canadian government is expanding its connections with Pakistan with no mention of human rights at all. There are a couple of programs, but mostly povery related.
From reading the literature, you could almost get the feeling that historically, the use of the burka and the veil is not just for the sake of modesty, but to cover bruises and injuries. However, again, that has nothing to do with Islam or even the laws of any country, because the issue is the lack of enforcement, which is often the same right here.
However, you can still go through court documents and find that leniency is often offered men for 'emotional distress', meaning, they can plead temporarily insane because of jealousy, etc., and often only serve a fraction of their sentence. Although we hear nonstop about scandals involving pedophiles getting let out early, we almost never hear about these cases.
So I'm not saying that Canada is like Pakistan, I'm saying that there are plenty of human rights abuses right here. Incidentally, you can go to Moncton and see one of those monuments, and across the petitcodiac in Riverview there is another. Yet although we idolize those fallen in battle, we try to hide away 'victims' of violence.
I wonder if there are any of these monuments in Miramichi I have never seen one, I agree that violence against women doesn't get as much attetion as it should.
When goverments are trying to forge ecconomic ties they never seem to pay much attention to human rights although they like to talk about our commitment to them often enough.
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