by Dr. Ali Shehata
The Issue of “Honor Killings”
We now turn our attention to the issue of so-called “honor” killings, one of the true crimes of oppression in the world today. It must immediately be made clear that in no way does Islam condone, validate or support this oppressive and backward practice. Yet, most often when these heinous crimes are reported in the media, they often seem to occur in “Muslim countries”. This has unfortunately created an association in many people’s minds between these dreadful crimes and the religion of Islam. Is this justified though?
“Honor” killings are crimes that target women who have usually been victims of rape. Since these women have tarnished the “honor” of their families by being raped, they are then killed, almost always by a family member, in order to remove the dishonor from the family. Of course, in any civilized society this is quite inconceivable as these women should rather be receiving counseling and emotional support from their families after enduring the horror of rape.
As has been clearly explained above though, in the Shari’ah of Islam, a woman who has been raped is entitled to criminal court proceedings, not against her, but against her attacker. She should be protected by the Islamic governmental authority and given the emotional support that she needs, for she has done nothing wrong. Indeed, the Islamic punishment of her assailant should strike fear into the heart of any man who would even consider victimizing a woman.
The current reality though is that men all over the world are twisting the teachings of religion, not only Islam, but also Christianity*, to justify abusing their wives, sisters and daughters, leading to thousands of these "honor" killings a year in which secular courts provide virtual immunity for the perpetrator. In those countries where honor killings are known to occur, one would in fact be hard pressed to find any convictions of the family member who takes it upon himself to kill the raped woman.
* https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-christian-honourkilling-kerala-kevin-p-joseph-southern-dalit-a8375891.html
Horror stories of women, and even girls as young as seven, being beheaded, burned to death, maimed, beaten, raped, forced into suicide or mentally abused, underscore that patriarchal violence against women pays no heed to religion. In reality, almost all cases are rooted in cultural and tribal beliefs, rather than anything resembling religion.
When asked what role Islam has to play in honor killings Mrs.Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on Women's' Development replied, "Islam as a reason for the honor killings is rubbish".* She blamed such violence in Pakistan on "the feudal tradition, the culture and the tribal system." She also said that such men found it "very convenient to say that what they don't want to do is against Islam and what they want to do is in the name of Islam."*
In line with her statements, reports clearly show that "honor" violence also occurs among Christian families. "After we got married, Hell started," a Christian woman from the Middle East said during a taped interview. Beaten and raped for questioning her husband's business practices, she fled to Sweden when he threatened to sell her into prostitution.*
* Strupczewski, J. (2004, Dec 8). Experts: Men Distort Religion to Justify 'Honour' Killings. Reuters. Retrieved from: https://wwrn.org/articles/14661/
Such a horrific practice can only be uprooted by education and strict legal enforcement. It is a shame that such people have neglected or become ignorant of every advice of the Prophet to men regarding the treatment of women. He encouraged kindness and patience, and reminded men that God would indeed question them on the Day of Judgment concerning how they treated the women in their care.
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