Tuesday 12 June 2007

No Honour In This Killing

Of all the oxymoron's in the English language, 'honour killings' has to be the most despicable. To kill a family member (almost always female) for some religious or ethical transgression defies belief and the practise has been forced to the front of our consciousness with news that a young Kurdish girls father and uncle have been convicted of her murder.
Her crime was to walk out of her arranged marriage when her husband began to beat her.
Just as disturbing is the ineptitude of the police in the matter as it was discovered that the murder victim told police four times in the month before her death that her family were trying to kill her and each time her pleas were dismissed.
Her body was found 3 months later in a pit, the bootlace used to strangle her still around her neck.
This really is a chilling and heart breaking tale of a life being snuffed by the very people we should be able to trust in life and the people who are there to protect us.
May her father and uncle rot in jail and may the police hang their head in shame.

6 comments:

hema said...

i know exactly what you mean, it just seems so senseless:(

Stef said...

'Honour killings' isn't an english phrase, just a translation. To a culture where this is acceptable, the phrase makes sense.

To everyone else it's just a murderous and particularly evil version of keeping up with the joneses.

Falling on a bruise said...

It makes sense in a twisted logic way in English because i understood it meant killing to preserve the families honour.

Cody Bones said...

I don't like blaming the police for this, I would rather put the blame where it belongs, on the killers, and their STUPID culture of martyrdom and honor.

Falling on a bruise said...

Of course cody, the blame for the murder lies completely with the family but for the police to dismiss the girls pleas 4 times, should not go without censure.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. The police are not responsible for the actions of her family, but they ARE responsible for their own inaction.