Jan 2004 - Issue 1
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Honor Killings
Due to recent media attention, the problem of ?honor killings? has come under increasing global scrutiny. In various countries throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East and parts of South Asia, women who bring dishonor to their families because of sexual indiscretions are forced to pay a terrible price at the hands of male family members.
Sadaf Mumtaz
Sadaf is a student of Mass Communication and free lance writer ...read her profile »
In Yemen as many as 400 honor killings took place in 1997. In Egypt there were 52 reported honor crimes in 1997.
In Bangladesh between 1996 and 1998 there was a four-fold increase in reported acid attacks from 47 to more than 200.
In India, it is estimated that more than 5,000 women are killed each year because their in-laws consider their dowries inadequate. A tiny percentage of their murderers are brought to justice.
In a National Geographic documentary (which aired February 13th,2002), Michael Davie investigated honor killings in Pakistan, where it is estimated that every day at least three women?including victims of rape?are victims of the practice.
The case of one of the victims Davie examined is heartbreaking but also hopeful. Zahida Perveen, a 29-year-old mother of three, was brutally disfigured and underwent extensive facial reconstruction in the United States. She is one of the only survivors in Pakistan to successfully prosecute the attacker?her husband. See Zahida's story and images.
The reason honor killings have emerged as a human rights issue is that it's the only way ultimately that it can be addressed Naming the problem and bringing international attention to it highlights the refusal of some of these governments to shine any kind of light on their failure to protect their own citizens.
Freeman from Amnesty International says:
Express Your Thoughts!"Change can't happen if it's just people working inside the system; they're overwhelmed. International campaigns and media attention give them some ballast and the ability to say 'Look, the world is watching what is going on here,' and provides support for making change in their own countries."