May 22, 2009
Pakistani vocalist Ayman Udas had just had her first major television appearance. The beautiful and talented singer had risen to fame over songs sung in her native Pashto language, songs that speak of love, courage, and death. But it seemed that the disapproval of her conservative Islamic family was growing at the rate of her popularity in Peshawar’s artistic society. The young mother of two had divorced and recently remarried, creating a stir in her family. But it was her television appearance that led to Udas’s death at the hands of her own brothers, men who killed their sister in the name of “honor.”
The artist had remarried only ten days before her brothers entered her flat on April 27, 2009, while her husband was away. They fired three bullets into her body and fled. The Times of India reported that the family “felt it was sinful for women to be performing on television.” Both brothers have yet to be caught.
James Emery, a journalist who has researched honor killings extensively, writes that “In the feudal, patriarchal societies of the Middle East, honor is based on what men feel is important, and reputation is everything.” Emery says that several thousand women are victims of honor killings each year. But he adds that “numerous murders are ruled an accident, suicide, or family dispute, if they're reported at all.”
The United Nations estimates that over 5,000 women a year are killed for “honor.” These killings happen all over the world – throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and even North America.
Dishonoring the Family
On New Years Day 2008, two teenage girls in Dallas, Texas, were found shot to death in a taxicab. Police believe that Amina and Sarah Said were murdered by their father, in what the girls’ aunt claims was an honor killing. Yaser Said, a Muslim from Egypt, and the father of both girls, had threatened to harm Amina when he found out that she was dating a non-Muslim. Said had also issued similar threats over the girls’ lifestyle and friendships. In an article in The Dallas Morning News, an unidentified senior at Amina’s high school recalled her father’s infamous threats. "I remember her telling me that her dad told her he would take her back to Egypt and have her killed," she said. "He said it's okay to do that over there if you dishonor your family."
Human Rights Watch defines honor killing as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” The organizations says that “A woman can be targeted by [individuals within] her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.”
Silent Killings
While the rise of honor killings in the United States has made national headlines, many thousands of silent murders continue to take place throughout the Muslim world. And they aren’t always over arranged marriages, divorces, or sexual assaults. Honor killings over religious conversions are also becoming an issue, as well as honor killings over Muslims dating non-Muslims.
On May 4, 2008, Adeel Masih, a young Pakistani Christian, was found dead in Hafizabad, Pakistan. While originally deemed a suicide, Masih’s family and human rights lawyers believe that his death was an honor killing, citing threats that the young man had received from the family of a Muslim woman he had a relationship with. The family threatened to kill Masih, saying that they “would not allow a Christian man to disgrace Islam this way,” according to the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement in Lahore, Pakistan.
