A disturbing new type of ‘honour’ killing
Women are often involved in ‘honour’ killings as perpetrators, but it has tended to be older women (such as aunts and mother-in-laws) who help with the murder. This case in India is the first I have read about in which it was the daughter of the victim who arranged the murder:
“The girl planned her mother’s murder and hired two contract killers for the job who eliminated Mohinder Kaur (45) in Malout town here on Saturday. Veer Pal [20] was incensed over her mother’s “illicit relationships” with two men who would frequent the house, with one of them routinely staying back with her overnight.
A source said Veer Pal decided on extreme action when, despite repeated suggestions and warnings, Mohinder continued with her liasions without a thought to the family’s prestige. During police interrogation, it was revealed that the girl hired two persons and promised to pay them Rs 1 lakh to get her mother killed.”
(Via Kawthar at the indispensable International Campaign Against Honour Killings)
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Filed in: Cultural Relativism, India
Women are often complicit in these crimes (and I am not referring here to the victims). It simply isn’t accurate to think of them as strictly man on woman crimes.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
“Reclaiming Honor in Jordan”
Terrible. Honor killings are typically inversely proportional to the illiteracy rate. One case in Canada really ticked me off. It shows just how much of a village mentality still pervades many south asians.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/12/11/girl-16-dies-after-hijab-dispute-with-father.aspx
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/12/11/aqsa-s-friends-she-wanted-to-live-her-life-the-way-she-wanted-to.aspx
#2: I’m sure the “village mentality” amongst south asians living in north america is of a much smaller magnitude than amongst south asians living in the UK.
Somehow, US and Canadian immigration law has much more successful at keeping out “village idiots” than UK immigration law has been.
One should not be surprised by this. After all, this has been the week when a Filipino man, widowed following an NHS hospital blunder has been told he will be deported. In contrast we have learnt that an individual who the govt describes as a major national security risk will not only NOT be deported – he has been granted bail !!!
I understand how this case is being called an honor killing because the daughter had her mother killed for destroying the family’s honor through her illicit relationships.
However, isn’t part of honor-killing the issue of power-differential? For example, the person committing the killing (i.e. father, brother, mother, and mother-in-law) generally has more familial power than the victim. This power hierarchy is one of the underlying reasons for why the victim is generally unable to freely express and protect herself. However, in this case, the mother has more familial power than the daughter. Thus, I am wondering how family power-hierarchy fits into this issue of honor-killings. Any ideas?
ERS:
Exactly.
Digitalcntrl:
I am not so sure about that. Often women from prosperous families can find themselves under threat as well.
Phulkari:
You raise a very interesting point. In nearly all cases it is the elders (sometimes working with younger members) who decide to carry out the murder. This case is different in that respect, but I wouls still class it as an ‘honour’ killing, on the basis that it was done to save face in the community, in the light of what were considered misdeeds.
How many cases are there like this to justify the description of ‘ a new TYPE of honor killing’ ? It is on the surface, an honor killing but women have always been complicit in these anyway, so why the surprise?
As for the question of power differential, anyone who has the wherewithal to hire contract killers for 1 lakh is not without power. Neither should you ignore the social approval and encouragement the oh-so-virtuous daughter has in her state/ethnic/cultural group – Punjab and Haryana tend to be the epicentres of such killings in India and the indian diaspora tends to reflect more honor killings amongst sikhs and hindus of punjabi origin.
Here we go again with the Asian bashing…
People who value chastity, modesty and personal respectability in personal behaviour should not be dismissed as ‘village idiots’. We have to accept that there will be cultural baggage amongst people who have only resided in the West for a mere generation or so. Honour crimes in the South Asian context also occur amongst middle and upper classes. Personal choice has to be balanced with responsibility. That view does not mean condoning violence against women.
Generally South Asians and especially our parents generation have to loosen up when it comes to lifestyle choices and choice of life partners. However, we the younger generation should hold to those parts of our culture ie. close family ties that are positive and not rush to take on board all the Western norms regardless of merit in a frantic bid to be ‘accepted’ and ‘integrated’. Who amongst the Asian ladies here wants to get wasted partying all night to find themselves waking up in bed beside a stranger? Does that feel ‘liberating’ and make one feel ‘progressive’?
We should eschew both extremes and adapt according to our own terms. Integration shouldn’t mean that South Asians are expected to behave in a way that is unnatural to most of our people, no matter how ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ one is.
Who amongst the Asian ladies here wants to get wasted partying all night to find themselves waking up in bed beside a stranger?
Asian laddies can whore as they please, of course.
“Asian laddies can whore as they please, of course.”
You got that right : D
“#2: I’m sure the “village mentality” amongst south asians living in north america is of a much smaller magnitude than amongst south asians living in the UK.
Somehow, US and Canadian immigration law has much more successful at keeping out “village idiots” than UK immigration law has been.
One should not be surprised by this. After all, this has been the week when a Filipino man, widowed following an NHS hospital blunder has been told he will be deported. In contrast we have learnt that an individual who the govt describes as a major national security risk will not only NOT be deported – he has been granted bail !!!”
I will say that at least from the media reporting it does appear that the UK has a much more severe problem with honor crimes than the US/Canada. Aside from the one event in Canada I have not heard any other similar honor crimes in the media over here.
We should eschew both extremes and adapt according to our own terms. Integration shouldn’t mean that South Asians are expected to behave in a way that is unnatural to most of our people, no matter how ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ one is.
In other words we will carry on re-enacting the same male-dominated, insular, regressive gender patterns that we came over here with three or four generations ago and preserve them in a cultural bubble. We will then be given special concessions from social and multiultural institions in the host country to reinforce these values.
‘male-dominated, insular, regressive gender patterns’
Try telling that to the Sylheti lady Judge wearing a Hijab, whom I was before the other day. I’m sure that she was suitably repressed according to your world view.
People who find their own way to integration are generally more grounded in their identity than those who jump in with both feet without thinking, trying to please others. Behind the thin patina of Westernisation and adaptation, these people often tend to carry the same baggage they accuse others of carrying.
Culture is fluid but there are some constants. Asians generally are more communal culturally, socially and even politically. Westerners are more individualistic. It’s not just a South Asian thing.
Try telling that to the Sylheti lady Judge wearing a Hijab, whom I was before the other day.
She’ll only agree with me.
Digitalcntrl: I’m afraid the indespensible (thanks Rumbold) International Campaign Against Honour Killings reveals a more than one case of ‘honour’ killing in Canada: see here. Aqsa Parvez, Khatera Siddiqui, Amandeep Athwal…and Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu…all spring to mind.
@14 Galloise
I am sure you are correct that there are numerous honor crimes in North America. As I stated my impressions were from the news media coverage that seem to suggest that this problem occurs with greater frequency in the UK than the US.
Darth:
Lets not get bogged down in semantics. What makes it different is the fact that it is a younger woman killing one of her elders.
Ashik:
What do you mean by responsibility? Who judges this? What is the punishment for not being responsible?
There is nothing wrong with hanging onto the good parts of your culture. Women being treated as second-class citizens is not something to cherish though. There will always be a few women who rise to the top in such societies. America has never had a female leader, while Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have. As have sixteenth century England, Holland and Spain (amongst others). Yet in terms of how women are treated America is a better place to live.
The case I linked to took place in India not Britain.
Hi digitalcntrl. Remember that until the review of hundreds of cases after the Heshu Yones murder, the UK also only had a handful of cases, not much different from Canada as it stands. Now the estimate is 12 per year in the UK. As in Europe, the statistics are obscured by being included within the domestic category. Unless police have the ability to recognise such crimes, and there is a method to record them, it’s really impossible to say whether Canada’s appearance of being less affected does reflect less actual crime, or just less awareness. I don’t know: I have personal knowledge of cases of forced marriage in Canada, and I believe this is often a precursor to HRV. If you have any data I’d be interested.
It is very unusual for the young woman, so often the victim, to be the perpetrator of an ‘honour’ killing; where the dynamics privelege maleness and age over femaleness and youth. It’s not the first case I’ve seen though. Purna Sen argues that the participation of females makes honour-related violence distinctive as a form of violence against women (But what about FGM? And as Ellen says, there’s more to honour-related violence than violence against women, including many male victims.)
@ Galloise Blonde
Your concern is understandable. All we can do is throw up our hands and say we don’t know, it is virtually impossible to prove the negative, that something is not happening (e.g. honor crimes).
That being said, my view that this problem affects the US to a lesser extent(I am not so sure about Canada anymore) is formed by the fact that I know of no fellow South Asian that has experienced a forced marriage, physical threats, or extereme verbal abuse related to family honor.
If someone in my parents social circles said anything about dowry or forcing their kid to marry they would immediately be labelled as a village idiot from the old country and ostracised.
No doubt that social humilitation is the best way to get rid of this disease.
@ Galloise Blonde
Your concern is understandable. All we can do is throw up our hands and say we don’t know, it is virtually impossible to prove the negative, that something is not happening (e.g. honor crimes).
That being said, my view that this problem affects the US to a lesser extent(I am not so sure about Canada anymore) is formed by the fact that I know of no fellow South Asian that has experienced a forced marriage, physical threats, or extereme verbal abuse related to family honor.
If someone in my parents social circles said anything about dowry or forcing their kid to marry they would immediately be labelled as a village idiot from the old country and ostracised.
No doubt that social humilitation is the best way to get rid of this disease.