Honor Killings In Pakistan And The Middle East A practice that hasnt been forgotten

First of all I would like to point out that I'm going to try to use no discrimination whatsoever in either sides Muslim or non-Muslim if you are a Muslim and feel this is going to be an offensive topic, please accept my apologies and press the Back button on your browser.

 

I've been studying areas of the Middle-east in Geography class and have done some research on regligious "rebels" or topics of the sort. I found an interesting keyword - "Honor killing" and decided to further my research based on it.

 

I found out that Honor killing is done in some cultures and societies today. It is the act of the male killing one of female relatives for betraying or otherwise "dishonoring" the family. This not only goes for people of Islamic heritage but of many other religions as well centuries ago where women are considered lower-class than men. There are still many, especially areas of the Middle-east where people trully believe in their religion, where families follow honor killing as a way of protecting and witholding the family honor. In fact, the practice of this is considered a private family matter and non-family members or courts are usually not involved.

 

The UN population Fund estimates a total of 5000 women whom are honor killed every year. The perpetrators base their reasons for commiting family murder on Islamic law. Unfortunately, there has never been such a law written down in the Kuran (I believe this is how you spell it).

 

To this, I will relate a certain story in an article from somewhere (Sorry i forgot the address). Reported in the 29th of December 2005. In Multan, Pakistan, a man, Nazir Ahmed relates with no shame at all, how he killed his 2 daughters and their 25-year-old step-sister. His only regret was that he had not killed the step-sister's alleged lover. It was said that Ahmed perceived the step-sister had had an affair with her boyfriend while in fact, by sources from neighbors and friends, she had been abused and forced to commit adultery by her boyfriend. Nazir Ahmed reports that the reason why he killed his 3 daughters along with their step-sister is because he didn't want his daughters to follow on their step-sister's footsteps. His family is poor, and family honor is all he has left and he will preserve it with his life.

 

This murder is one of the 260 honor killings that has been committed during the first 11 months of 2005. The number has risen the past decades and is believed to rise even further than before amidst many other religious conflicts.

 

I think the reason why this is being done is because religion is all these poor people have been taught and they have been told for centuries to follow their religion and keep faith in their god for their lifetime. Many have never been educated with the lifestyles and changes from the older generation to our present 21st century. Developing countries bring in new ideas for change. The old deny it, choosing to live like their ancestors did, the young follow it, choosing to stick with new trends and rebelling against their parents.

 

This scene would of course relate back to aplenty of other topics including suicide bombings, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and many more that can be quoted right off anyone's mind. The only other solution to this problem would be to enforce strict rules on these types of practices but governments find it hard as their people might rebel against them. There is so much difficulty in ending religious conflicts, and the people suffer because of it.

 

Please give your comments on this topic. I know its long-winded but I'd just like to give a shoutout and some general information on this very meaningful subject.

Thank you.

 

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Sources:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

(This is the one i forgot, i found it later on)

Maybe killing someone off because of an honor issue is a bit over the top, but I think you could say that every nation has it's own laws and ways of handling things. I am not saying we should all be killing everyone who did something unhonorable, but I mean that you can't judge someone else's moral rules by your own. Talking about religic motives, what about crusades in the middle ages?For instance, the death penalty is something similar to this. In the netherlands, we think it's bad and therefor it's forbidden, but in the US (some states) they still allow it. Same goes for firearms too. So if a country finds that adultry should be punishable by death, well.... Don't people promise at weddings that 'till death do us part' thingy? (I do think that being forced is another case)Honor is something long forgotten in the western countries, porn, prostitutes, greed... politics. A lot of unhonorable things happen here too. I think it's a good thing that people want to preserve their honor. Although slaying someone for it is a bit harsh I think.

Honor is something long forgotten in the western countries, porn, prostitutes, greed... politics. A lot of unhonorable things happen here too. I think it's a good thing that people want to preserve their honor. Although slaying someone for it is a bit harsh I think.

Thats really not appreciated, since you will find the things you listed in every other country as well, not just western. As for western nations not having honor .. what do you call the men and women making millions of dollars per year who leave their lucrative jobs and serve in the military to engage in what they believe is defending their country and her citizens? I call that quite honorable, regardless of your views on war.

 

As for the main topic at hand .. ugh. I'd like to see some rock solid evidence, fully quoted. Articles from "I forgot where" and observations made with no quoted evidence is not a good thing. I disagree with many points of your article. Foremost is the line stating that:

 

I think the reason why this is being done is because religion is all these poor people have been taught and they have been told for centuries to follow their religion and keep faith in their god for their lifetime.

Well, what about in Saudi Arabia for example, where "Approximately 4,200,000 students of both genders are enrolled in educational institutions at all levels." (WEP). Thats a little over 50% of the population enrolled in school, and we can make the inference that the majority of those enrolled in school are males, who having read your post I would assume are pretty much soley responsible for these honor killings.

 

Regardless, thanks! It was a topic I was aware of, but had little knowledge in. I have to say that its my personal opinion these killings are wrong. However, this is from a Westerner's viewpoint. Although this may be inhumane and cruel to us, is our personal viewpoint always right? Of course not. From an Easterner's view I'm sure that these glory killings are quite acceptable - as you stated earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if they found many elements of American and Western societies horrendous. Basically what I'm trying to get at is I feel these killings are wrong, but who honestly can judge a man better than that man himself?

 

Once again, interesting topic/post.

derouge,Please be so good as to name a few millionaires who have joined the army to serve in Iraq????????

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the post and my research was worth something after all other than an A in the Geography project.

Thats really not appreciated, since you will find the things you listed in every other country as well, not just western. As for western nations not having honor .. what do you call the men and women making millions of dollars per year who leave their lucrative jobs and serve in the military to engage in what they believe is defending their country and her citizens? I call that quite honorable, regardless of your views on war.

 

I daresay you wouldn't find one. That's simple enough for anyone to find out. Where are the millionaires? Where are the top-level congressmen who help declare the war? Where are the armaments manufacturers who create all these weapons? They're definitely not out on the front lines. It's summed up very well in this essay by David Berg, and although it was written during the Vietnam war, I don't think the situation has changed one bit.

 

WAR-BOOM-BUST

 

"WAR" CALLS FOR AN INCREASE OF FACTORY OUTPUT (WEAPONS, ETC.). FACTORY INCREASE MEANS MORE WORKERS BEING HIRED AND PAID. This means more people have more money to buy products of all other industries (IDOLS). This increase in jobs and spending is a "BOOM," but this increase in money leads to inflation. INFLATION is when the value of the dollar drops (or the amount of things it can buy drops). It is the old law of "supply and demand." When something is scarce people value it more; when something is plentiful its value drops.

THE BOOM IS GOOD FOR THE POOR MAN AND WORKERS EXCEPT PENSIONERS AND THOSE WITH FIXED INCOMES, because even though the money is not as valuable, at least he has SOMETHING. The BOOM is when we have a time of plenty of money, and everyone has got some (even though its value is less)--because everyone is involved in jobs to produce weapons of war, and other jobs to provide idols that this increased working force will buy.

NOW THE BUSINESSMAN, OF COURSE, IS MAKING PROFITS from all this buying and selling. He makes BILLIONS of paper dollars, but these paper dollars have lost some of their value because of the great circulation of them. They are so plentiful people value them less, spend more and are willing to pay higher prices, so the dollars buy less. The loss in value comes from the fact that the sellers of commodities can ask higher prices for their things because they know that with all this money around, some sucker is going to buy their wares.--This is INFLATION: MORE MONEY FOR LESS PRODUCT. It is a seller's market!

THE OPPOSITE, DEFLATION, IS WHEN THE MONEY IS IN ONLY A FEW HANDS. This is when the sellers have to compete for the favour of the few buyers by dropping their prices to lure him to their place. This is a buyer's market. The money is actually more valuable in such a case because less of it buys the same.

THE MERCHANT WITH HIS BILLIONS OF PAPER DOLLARS FROM THE "BOOM" knows that each one of those dollars would be worth more if less people had money to spend. So he lowers the circulation of paper dollars by calling up the King, who in turns calls up the Captain of War and tells him to stop fighting. The Captain of War has no more use for rockets, planes, bombs, tanks, jeep, army clothes, boats, bullets, beer and all the multitude of things necessary to fight a war.

THE MERCHANT STOP HIS ASSEMBLY LINES AND THE SLAVES ARE SENT HOME AND THE PAY-CHECKS STOP. The other industries that don't make war equipment soon stop making idols because the slaves of the war industries have no paychecks to buy their idols with. This starts a chain reaction that even goes as far as the manufactures of NECESSITIES (food, clothes, houses, etc.) who have to stop producing necessities because now the slaves of both WAR and IDOL factories have no paychecks!

SO EVERYONE IS BROKE AND STARVING, BUT THE MERCHANT IS HAPPY BECAUSE THE VALUE OF EACH ONE OF HIS PAPER DOLLARS IS INCREASING because they become so scarce and buy more at lower prices. People will give up their houses and cars just to get their hands on a little money. The money is now worth a lot more because of its scarcity. THIS IS A "BUST", recession, or depression. This eventually ends with most of the people selling their possessions for a little money and the Big Merchant ends up with everything. Of course, there is always the chance of a slaves' revolt at this point (Revolution).

SO THE MERCHANT TAKES A FEW STRAWS OFF THE CAMEL'S BACK by having the King open up some soup lines, and even a WPA scene (government work projects). Sometimes it is cheaper to keep the slaves in line by giving them a few crumbs, than it is to contain them with firepower (police, guards, etc.). A few soup lines are cheaper to maintain than an armed occupation force.

BUT THE QUICKEST WAY OUT OF A SEVERE DEPRESSION IS, OF COURSE, TO START ANOTHER "WAR". THIS COMPLETES THE CYCLE by opening the war factories which puts enough money (paychecks) on the streets for the idol factories and manufacturers of necessities to start producing and selling again.

BUT THE VIETNAM WAR IS MANIFESTING A PECULIAR PHENOMENON. The threat of Revolution is so impending and well-advanced, that the powers that be (Business, Politics, Armed Forces) are aware that a recession would set it off. They know that a few soup lines, and lying promises won't be enough to hold back a Revolution in the event of a recession (which would be inevitable if the war ceased). They are also aware that their present policy of feeding the youth of the Nation into the war machine is also fuel for agitating the revolutionary element: so, either way--TROUBLE!

 

Humph! can't upload attached pic....here's the link though.

http://usera.imagecave.com/styx/untitled.GIF

Well, the comic explains a lot in a quite humour way, but that is the truth.. I used to discuss about different issues on war and Muslims and other places on various forums, but as matter of fact, I usually just ruined my nerves, especially if there is some "stupid" guy around or similar. Now I just like to feel neutral and avoid this kind of topics, same for religion topics. but it is interesting to read anyway..

True, flaming religion or political debates don't do much other than waste time. Each side comes away even more convinced that they're right.

 

Honor is something long forgotten in the western countries, porn, prostitutes, greed... politics. A lot of unhonorable things happen here too. I think it's a good thing that people want to preserve their honor. Although slaying someone for it is a bit harsh I think.

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In some cultures, particularly in the Middle East, being raped is dishonorable. No. Really. If a woman's raped, some male relative gets the distinct privilege of killing her because, oops, she's brought dishonor to the family's pure and holy reputation.

 

What's even crappier is that there doesn't even have to be evidence. Specifically, Pakistani people only need allegations of rape before they whip out the axes or torches.

 

 

I agree that honor is very important, and that Western culture has essentially forgotten about it, but there are some things that just aren't an indivudal's choice to make one way or another. At least here in the United States our death penalties are for people who commit murder (usually more than one).

 

 

 

 

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And as for the subject of millionaires in Iraq: does the name Pat Tillman spark a memory in anybody? Granted, the article is basically saying that there aren't very many pro athletes volunteering for the military, but at least one did.

What's even crappier is that there doesn't even have to be evidence. Specifically, Pakistani people only need allegations of rape before they whip out the axes or torches.

Agreed. Like i said in the article (I believe it did), the middle-eastern people don't even bother bringing this to court. They just slay who they want and these days, some men even take advantage of their "privelege" and start murdering their female family members for anjoyment and coming up with some bogus story about how that relative of him dishonored the family, then the rest of the family would just nod and pat the perpetrator's back as if he's done a good job. I'd also like to add that the person who actually commited the rape won't even be punished or held guilty at all. Unless of course, this matter is brought to court. How disgraceful!