Sunday, July 09, 2006

Supreme Court of India rules honour killngs barbaric

Terming 'honour killing' as an act of barbarism, the Indian Supreme Court has ordered police across the country to take stern action against those resorting to violence against boys above 21 and girls above 18 who enter into inter-caste or inter-religious marriages.

Recently, this subject has generated intense interest by the media in Pakistan. The Hudood Ordinance is the Honour Killing Act. Honour killing or karo kari is a custom where male relatives kill those family members who bring shame to the family. Often, these are female family members who are accused of having illicit relations with a man.

According to independent reports in Pakistan, around 122 people have been killed in the name of honour in the first three months of this year alone, while 322 people were killed last year.

Honour killing refers to extra-judicial capital punishment of a female relative for supposed sexual or marriage offenses. The justification given is that the "offense" has brought "dishonour" to the family. This is a double standard, because a man will not be killed for such an offense; if he rapes a woman, it is she who "brings dishonour" to her family, not him.

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