Honor Killings in the US
It was bound to happen sooner or later. And it did happen, yet again. The incident was murder for the sake of family honor. Hardly a year after the last killing, another Pakistani father strangled his daughter to death in what has come to be known as “honor killings.” Of course, this is not likely to be the last time for this despicable act to be committed.
What “honor” is there in killing one’s own offspring? Can murdering one’s own flesh and blood restore family honor? No devout Muslim would believe that such actions are justified by the teachings of the Qur’an. And yet, this cultural practice is found with alarming regularity among Muslims. During the past few years the honor killing pathology has spread to America brought by arriving immigrants that populate the ever-growing Muslim community.
In the latest case, Chaudhry Rashid of Jonesboro, Georgia, the father was so infuriated at Sandeela Kanwal, the daughter for wanting to get out of an arranged marriage that he grabbed her and choked her until she was dead. The 25-year-old daughter by defying the will of the father was seen as bringing dishonor to the family.
Evidently, according to the logic of the honor killings tradition family honor must be preserved at all costs. It is the female members of the family who are universally victimized by this unfortunate practice. The punishment is almost always death by strangulation or stabbing. Occasionally, firearms are used to hasten the death of the alleged offender.
The question of showing mercy hardly ever occurs. The male relative who takes the law into his own hands understands neither the idea of justice nor the act of showing love but becomes obsessed with exacting revenge.
The daughter in Georgia had done nothing wrong but only wanted to get out of an arranged marriage that she was pressured into while in Pakistan. No ceremony had been performed. She apparently had second thoughts about the commitment the she was railroaded into undertaking.
Few months earlier in Canada in the midst of a fierce public controversy surrounding the oppression of women in the Islamic community a Pakistani father strangled his daughter as if to validate the charges that were being leveled. The father, Muhammad Pervez, a taxi-driver residing in Toronto, Canada, choked the life out of his daughter Aqsa Pervez in the heat of the moment. The seventeen-year-old daughter had protested the wearing of shalwar kameez and hijab regularly and had shown preference for Western clothing. There was neither discussion nor compromise on the matter. The father simply followed the tradition that he had learned and committed the act that he thought was expected of him.
The tradition of “honor killings” or “karo-kari” as it is commonly known is widespread in many of areas of Pakistan, as well as in much of the Muslim world. Many people consider it to be a justifiable requirement demanded by their religion.
The usual victims of honor killings are daughters, wives and sisters. Several years ago in Chicago, Illinois, a taxi driver locked his wife in his taxicab, sprinkled gas in the interior and lit a match. The woman was engulfed in flames and died screaming inside the vehicle as the husband stood by. All this because the man thought she had smiled at someone.
The newspaper that reported the incident noted that the wife, Shapara Sayeed, had come to the United States on a religious visa and the husband, Haroon Mohammed, was an activist ( a maulvi, perhaps) in the local Tableeghi Jamaat.
It ought to be clearly borne in mind that “honor killing” has nothing to do with Islam and has a lot to do with ignorance and the lack of education.
According to newspaper reports the punishment meted out to women because of alleged violation of norms governing family honor is an everyday affair. In Pakistan’s male-dominated culture women are considered to be mere property, indeed chattel, and are thought to be expendable. They are denied rights or importance as autonomous individuals. They are kept in the inner recesses of the house and are expected to be neither seen nor heard. Their sole functions are to raise children and to cook, serving largely as hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Today, even while Pakistan is a nuclear power the literacy rate for women is one of the lowest in the world, ranking in the bottom five percent. Pervez Musharraf was one of the first rulers to improve the status of women by opening up opportunities for them.
On the subject of women Pakistani expatriates have remained quiet not knowing what to do. They are finding out that the rules of their homeland do not work in the adopted lands to which they have migrated. If they control children or women through physical force the full force of the law will be brought against them. The Chicago taxi driver found that out when a twenty-year prison-term was meted out to him. The other two culprits are about to discover that reality while awaiting incarceration pending trial.
Most expatriate children raised in the West reject the authoritarianism of their fathers. Their socialization experiences are the exact opposite of their parents’ upbringing. Fathers and mothers are finding out that they have to interact with their offspring through bonds of love and affection. This is not easy for them to do. The transmission of language, culture, values and beliefs require an atmosphere of affective relationship.
Most Muslim parents persist on replicating their own upbringing as a model for children to emulate. That model does not work in the new social setting. In the three cases noted above the immigrants totally failed to adapt to the newer cultural environment.
Honor killing might be a big thing in Pakistan but in America it is against the law. Killing is a crime and the mechanism of law enforcement will be used against anyone who commits such acts. No one can buy or bribe one’s way out, as is often the case in Pakistan. In the West generally the state will ensure that law prevails and justice is done.
