The History Of Honor Killings

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The brutality of ancient society has long since past, yet in this modern era of civility, honor killings still exist. Honor killings take place in certain cultures within a family. Honor killing victims are most frequently females. If the family feels that they have brought shame or have dishonored the family in anyway the only means to get rid of the shame or dishonor is to kill that member of the family. After that is done the honor is restored within the family again. Honor killings can commence due to multiple factors such as disobeying husbands, having affairs, talking to other males outside of the family, asking for a divorce, and many other harmless actions that many women do daily in other cultures. However a question still arise …show more content…

One could argue that culture can be changed and modified to fit today’s society. With the advancement in technology and resources cultures have changed. Many cultures have tweaked traditions and lifestyles to fit in with the new changes in society. For instance, “after several centuries of relentless pressure from European Americans to adopt their ways, Native American cultures have been largely acculturated. As a result, the vast majority of American Indians now speak English instead of their ancestral language, wear European style clothes, go to school to learn about the world from a European perspective, and see themselves as being a part of the broader American society.”( O'Neil). This proves that culture is not set in stone and can be changed or be modified to fit today’s society. Then again, honor killings have become a part of a “social norm” to the culture and are not questioned by the community. “Traditional misinterpretations of religion have played a role in developing a patriarchal culture that places and emphasis on female chastity and male superiority.” (Muhammad, 28). The people in these countries …show more content…

People are not fazed by it and do not think to stop it. The abuse of females is very common in the culture and not questioned. If no one questions this cultural practice it will keep reoccurring in society. The culture behind this tradition is male superiority. It is up to the men to decide if the tradition should still go on. Women do not have a say if they agree or disagree with this tradition. Studies on this event have found that “Families and communities contribute to covering up the perpetrator’s homicide by maintaining their silence because of their support for honour killing as a culturally acceptable and heroic act” (Muhammad,27). The community do not think twice to about covering up since in is imbedded to their culture and feel it must be done. This causes problems because if the authorities are not informed about the amount of honour killings occurring then nothing will be done to stop it. This is a huge problem because of the lack of awareness around this problem. In 2000 an estimated 5000 cases happen per year worldwide. (Cohan, 191). Although this number might seem low on a global scale it is not very accurate considering the

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