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Honor Killings of Muslim Women

Introduction

Honor Killing in the name of religion is one of the most heinous crimes in the world, and it is still occurring in most part of the world due to perceived shameful acts by men. These tragic events have very valuable lesson for the educated and sensible people.

Killings in the name of honor are undoubtedly a disaster, an unlawful act, a terror against humanity. Honor Killings of Muslim women is an antique trend followed in Islam in which male members of family and social community deliberately kill women and girls of their family or tribes as a result of belief that women have conducted any shameful act and ruined the reputation of family or tribe. Honor Killings in Muslims had been inherited from the ancient tribal days of 1200 BC when no major religion was practiced; thus honor killing has no direct relation to Religion (Fisk. 1).

The concept of Honor Killings has developed as a result of several attitudes in culture based on classes and background and religious groups, where women are considered as a property of men and possess no rights. The alleged degradation is largely based upon suspicions only, and these strange behaviors include unacceptable style of dressing, willingly marrying anyone by own choice particularly with someone who belongs to opposing community or tribe, conducting immoral sexual acts, or even engaging in homosexual acts. Statistics show that about 20000 women become a victim of honor killing every year particularly in Asia and Middle East (Fisk. 1).

Pakistan, the Islamic republic country, is deliberated as one of the most harmful and dangerous country for women to live, because of growing rate of crime in the form of honor killing and other related violence. According to a survey conducted in this regard, it was discovered that Pakistan was the fifth largest country in which women were killed for dowry and honor (Mufti. 180-185).

Islam and law both prohibits in punishing victims unless their sin is proved and honor killings take place on the basis of doubts and suspicions of men and groups. On the contrary, Islam teaches to avoid punishment if possible, and does not consider pregnancy as an evidence of shameful sexual act. This is unfortunate that such horrendous acts are misleadingly supported by some Islamic scholars who tend to justify these activates with respect to Islam. For instance, as per the saying of the Messenger of God in Islam that one should stop the crime with his own hands if he or she saw something bad happening. These kinds of statements are misperceived by these scholars and play a vital role in encouraging honor killings of Women. These scholars promote the point of view of taking the law into hands and treating women as an object (Mufti. 180-185).

One of the popular examples of an honor-killing victim named Mukhtar Mai from Punjab, Pakistan, whose brother was claimed of raping a girl from upper caste family; thus the tribe decided to punish ...