Honor Killing

Honor Killing
Author: David E. Stannard
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2006-05-02
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1440649219

In the fall of 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored, aristocratic wife of a young naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape. The ensuing trial let loose a storm of racial and sexual hysteria, but the case against the suspects was scant and the trial ended in a hung jury. Outraged, Thalia’s socialite mother arranged the kidnapping and murder of one of the suspects. In the spectacularly publicized trial that followed, Clarence Darrow came to Hawai’i to defend Thalia’s mother, a sorry epitaph to a noble career. It is one of the most sensational criminal cases in American history, Stannard has rendered more than a lurid tale. One hundred and fifty years of oppression came to a head in those sweltering courtrooms. In the face of overwhelming intimidation from a cabal of corrupt military leaders and businessmen, various people involved with the case—the judge, the defense team, the jurors, a newspaper editor, and the accused themselves—refused to be cowed. Their moral courage united the disparate elements of the non-white community and galvanized Hawai’i’s rapid transformation from an oppressive white-run oligarchy to the harmonic, multicultural American state it became. Honor Killing is a great true crime story worthy of Dominick Dunne—both a sensational read and an important work of social history

Inside an Honor Killing

Inside an Honor Killing
Author: Lene Wold
Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1771644389

A shockingly intimate look at the world of honor killings, as seen through the eyes of both the perpetrators and the victims. What drives a person to murder their sister, mother, or daughter? What is life like in a society in which women are imprisoned for their own “protection,” while their potential killers walk free? In this powerful and affecting book, writer and journalist Lene Wold offers a rare window into the world of “honor killings”—the controversial practice that sees more than five thousand women murdered at the hands of close relatives each year, all to restore their family’s reputation. Wold spent more than five years in Jordan, visiting prisons and mosques, reviewing newspapers and judicial archives, and interviewing imams, village elders, and other locals to understand these violent acts. But she also spoke with the killers themselves, including a man who murdered his mother and daughter and attempted to kill his other daughter. In Inside an Honor Killing, Wold shares what she learned, weaving a shocking tale of honor killing told from the perpetrators’ perspective as well as the victims’.

Honour Killing

Honour Killing
Author: Ayse Onal
Publisher: Saqi
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2012-07-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0863568076

Honour killing persists around the Middle East, where regimes refrain from tackling primitive traditions for fear of sparking unrest. Ayse Onal interviewed imprisoned men in Turkey convicted of killing their mothers, sisters, and daughters. The result is a revealing and ultimately tragic account of ruined lives - both the victims' and the killers' - in a country where state and religion conspire to hush up the killing of hundreds of women every year. 'Ayse Onal has done an immense service by revealing what it is like to live in an honour-based society and the terrible cost, not just to the women who are beaten and eventually killed, but to the perpetrators and other relatives.' -- Joan Smith. 'A compelling, disturbing examination of a tradition that stubbornly persists in modern Turkey' -- Guardian

American Honor Killings

American Honor Killings
Author: David McConnell
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1617751537

“Not only is this book the best sort of true-crime writing, but it is also a stunning exploration of the concept of manhood in America” (Sebastian Junger, New York Times–bestselling author of War). Through six detailed accounts of murders involving gay men, American Honor Killings examines the facts of cases that are too often politicized, sensationalized, or simply ignored. David McConnell researched killings from small-town Alabama to San Quentin’s death row, and here recounts both notorious and lesser-known crimes. We may tend to think these stories involve either the perpetrator’s internal struggle over his own identity or a victim’s fatally miscalculated proposition. They’re almost never that simple. These riveting narratives reveal how different factors played into each case, among them ideas and beliefs about masculinity. Together, they form a secret American history of rage and desire. In each story, victims, murderers, friends, and relatives come breathtakingly alive. The result is a true-crime book of unusual power, depth, and psychological insight—“a journalistic tour de force made all the more impressive by jailhouse interviews” (Publishers Weekly). “A masterpiece of reportage . . . At turns heartbreaking and terrifying . . . If Truman Capote were alive today, he would die of envy. David McConnell has taken the mantle of great American nonfiction writer.” —Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill

Shamed

Shamed
Author: Sarbjit Kaur Athwal
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2013-06-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1448133971

In 1998, Sarbjit Athwal was called by her husband to attend a family meeting. It looked like just another family gathering. An attractive house in west London, a large dining room, two brothers, their mother, one wife. But the subject they were discussing was anything but ordinary. At the head of the group sat the elderly mother. She stared proudly around, smiling at her children, then raised her hand for silence. ‘It’s decided then,’ the old lady announced. ‘We have to get rid of her.’ ‘Her’ was Surjit Athwal, Sarbjit’s sister-in-law. Within three weeks of that meeting, Surjit was dead: lured from London to India, drugged, strangled, and her body dumped in the Ravi River, never to be seen again. After the killing, risking her own life, Sarbjit fought secretly for justice for nine long, scared years. Eventually, with immense bravery, she became the first person within a murderer’s family ever to go into open court in an honour killing trial as the Prosecution’s key witness, and the first to waive her anonymity in such a trial. As a result of her testimony, the trial led to the first successful prosecution of an honour killing without the body ever being found. But her story doesn’t end there. Since the trial, her life has been threatened; her own husband arrested after an allegation of intimidation. Shamed is a story of fear and of horror – but also of immense courage, and a woman who risked everything to see that justice was done.

The Real Stories behind Honour Killing

The Real Stories behind Honour Killing
Author: Shahnaz Shoro
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2019-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1527530531

Honour killing, as it is widely understood, is the cold-blooded murder of a woman or a man involved with her, by the male members of her household in order to cleanse the reputation of the family, clan, community or tribe. This violent tradition in the name of religion, custom and culture continues to be carried out in a significantly large part of the world. The majority of people still believe that honour killings happen for reasons such as marriage from choice or a love affair of a kinswoman, rape, a demand for divorce from a woman, or the birth of a female child, all of which are perceived as bringing shame on the family. However, current research on honour killing suggests that there are a number of intriguing and very cleverly knitted plots of jealousy, greed, violence and murder which show that, in the name of honour, various other purposes are being served and people are killed in ways which give the impression that they are honour killings. By collecting data from people involved in such situations, this book opens a Pandora’s box, showing that such killings are carried out not to assuage the hurt honour of a patriarchal society, but to serve a variety of malign intentions, goals and agendas. It will serve to let the world comprehend the phenomenon of honour-related violence where culture and crime unite under the umbrella of highly discriminating laws against women. This book consists of twenty-six testimonies from those involved in honour killings, bringing together interviews with killers, victims and the falsely accused.

Honour Killing in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

Honour Killing in the Second Decade of the 21st Century
Author: Shahnaz Shoro
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2017-08-21
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1527500659

Honour killing is considered the worst form of domestic violence against human beings, particularly against women. It is clear that societies across the world – through their laws and their courts – continue to countenance legal defences which overwhelmingly benefit males committing violence against females. Despite the statistics that honour killings are being reported from all over the world, the greatest number of shocking reports of honour killings come from Muslim countries. Unfortunately, Pakistan is among those countries where women are facing various forms of violence in the name of religion, customs and traditions, and cases of honour killing are regularly reported there. It is imperative to understand and see killings in the name of honour from the perspective of those who have been directly affected by the socio-religious cultural norms which condone them. The findings gathered here show that honour killing is not only family or community violence or a tradition to preserve honour, but that behind these killings ulterior purposes are being served and therefore the number of the killings is increasing every year in Pakistan. This book will allow the reader to understand precisely the menace of honour killing and to consider how it can be addressed to save innocent lives and to stop these severe violations of human rights.

A Family Conspiracy

A Family Conspiracy
Author: Phyllis Chesler
Publisher: World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781943003143

An honor killing is the cold-blooded murder of girls and women simply because they are female. Being born female in a shame-and-honor culture is, potentially, a capital crime; every girl has to keep proving that she is not dishonoring her family; even so, an innocent girl can be falsely accused and killed on the spot. Dr. Phyllis Chesler has been studying the nature of honor killings for the last fifteen years. During that time she has published four studies at Middle East Quarterly and is working on a fifth. While this barbaric custom is tribal in origin, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam have not tried to abolish it as a crime against God or humanity. Honor killings are also a family conspiracy, one in which women (mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, mothers-in law), as well as men (fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles, grandfathers) play a role. Those girls and women who manage to escape must live in hiding for the rest of their lives as their families will never stop coming after them. A girl's fertility and reproductive capacity is "owned" by her family, not by the girl herself. If a girl is even seen as "damaged goods," her fam¬ily-of-origin will be responsible for her care for the rest of her life. This is a killing offense. Her virginity belongs to her family and is a token of their honor. If she is not a virgin, the shame belongs to her family and they must cleanse themselves of it with blood; her blood. Most Westerners refuse to understand that this crime is not like western-style domestic violence and requires different approaches in terms of prevention, intervention, and prosecution. Honor killings (or femicide) is part of a shame-and-honor tribal culture as is gender apartheid. It is a human rights violation and cannot be justified in the name of cultural relativism, tolerance, anti-racism, diversity, or political correctness. As long as tribal groups continue to deny, minimize, or obfuscate the problem, and Western government and police officials accept their inaccurate versions of reality, women will continue to be killed for honor in the West. The battle for women's rights is central to the battle for Europe and for Western values. It is a necessary part of true democracy, along with freedom of religion, tolerance for homosexuals, and freedom of dissent. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the twenty-first century is joined.

Murder in the Name of Honour

Murder in the Name of Honour
Author: Rana Husseini
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1780740360

Murder in the Name of Honour is Rana Husseini’s hard-hitting and controversial examination of honour crimes. Common in many traditional societies around the world, as well as in migrant communities in Europe and the USA, they involve a ‘punishment’—often death or disfigurement—carried out by a relative to restore the family’s honour. Breaking through the conspiracy of silence surrounding this crime, one writer above all others has been instrumental in bringing it to the world’s attention: Rana Husseini.

In Honor of Fadime

In Honor of Fadime
Author: Anna Paterson
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2011-08-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1459627288

In 2002 young Fadime Sahindal was brutally muurdered by her own father. She belonged to a family of Kurdish immigrants who had lived in Sweden for almost two decades. But Fadime's relationship with a man outside of their community had deeply dishonored her family, and only her death could remove the stain. This abhorrent crime shocked the world, and her name soon became a rallying cry in the struggle to combat so - called honor killings. Unni Wikan narrates Fadime's heartbreaking story through her own eloquent words, along with the testimonies of her father, mother, and two sisters. What unfolds is a tale of courage and betrayal, loyalty and love, power and humiliation, and a nearly unfathomable clash of cultures. Despite enduring years of threats over her emancipated life, Fadime advocated compassion for her killers to the end, believing them to be trapped by an unyielding code of honor. Wikan puts this shocking event in context by analyzing similar honor killings, which are increasing throughout Europe and have now been reported in Canada and the United States. She also examines the concept of honor in historical and cross - cultural depth, concluding that Islam itself is not to blame - - indeed, honor killings occur across religious and ethnic traditions - - but rather the way that many cultures have resolutely linked honor with violence. In Honor of Fadime holds profound and timely insights into Islamic culture, but ultimately the heart of this powerful book is Fadime's courageous and tragic story - - and Wikan's telling of it is riveting.