Filming Honour Killing

Deeyah: Talking about Honour Killings

Chris Crowstaff talked to musician and human rights activist, Deeyah, founder of Memini - a site dedicated to vitims of Honour Killings.

Deeyah: Pop Star to Activist

Deeyah - Pop Star to Activist

Deeyah is a critically acclaimed singer and composer from Norway - first hitting the headlines as a child - and is now a prize winning human rights activist.

Deeyah was born in Norway to Muslim immigrant parents of Punjabi and Pashtun descent. Her success was a mixed blessing. The Norwegian media initially heralded Deeyah as an example of their new multi-cultural society. However, many in the Muslim community did not view her success in a positive light. Deeyah became the subject of threats, controversy and abuse.

Together with Freemuse, Deeyah co-produced the CD, 'Listen to the Banned', which features artists who have suffered censorship, persecution and even imprisonment.

Chris Crowstaff asked Deeyah about her life, successes and the challenges which led to her current activist work.

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Rona and Sahar Shafia Rona Shafia, left and Sahar Shafia, in a photo recovered from Sahar's cellphone, taken June 26, 2009.

Canada: Shafia sisters murder - should we call it ‘honour killing’?

Source: Montreal Gazette | Yasmin Jiwaniis & Homa Hoodfaris

The extensive media coverage of the Shafia trial and convictions raises important questions about how violence against women is framed in the media.

Just as a photograph is framed by the photographer, so is the media’s framing of a particular issue; the focus of our attention is on what is in the picture only.

Out of sight is the background we will never know. In the case of the Shafia murders, the media frame the story as an honour killing.

Some authorities argue that the notion of honour is key to defining this type of crime involving family members. Typically, the victims are women pegged as having deviated from the moral code and thus undermined the family’s honour; by killing them, family reputation and honour may be restored. Premeditation is put forth as a core component to differentiate honour killings from other types of murders, such as crimes of convenience or crimes of passion.

Acts of Femicide

But recent studies indicate that premeditation is as much a component in other cases of domestic violence and murder as it is in “honour killings.” So what separates “honour killings” from other murders of intimate partners or family members? More important, what is to be gained by framing the murders of the Shafia women and girls as honour killings rather than simply defining them as acts of femicide (the murder of women and girls solely on the basis of their gender)?

Calling the murders “honour killings” accomplishes two goals. First, it makes it seem as if femicide is a highly unusual event. Second, it makes it seem as if femicide is confined to specific populations within Canada and specific national cultures or religions in the world at large. But Canadian statistics prove otherwise.

According to StatsCan figures, from 2000 to 2009 an average of 58 women a year were killed in this country as a result of spousal violence. In that same period, 67 children and young people aged 12 to 17 were murdered by family members. In contrast, recent estimates tell us that there have been 12 or 13 so-called honour killings in Canada in the last decade. It does not take a genius to see that comparing 12 or 13 against the hundreds of women and children who were victims of familial violence serves only to frame “honour killing” as peculiar, when in reality it is part of a larger pattern of violence against women.

Aboriginal women

There is also, critically, the issue of affixing familial femicides to particular cultures. But if “honour killing” is truly reflective of particular cultural groups, what kind of cultural frame should we apply to the widespread murders of aboriginal women? Aboriginal women’s organizations have documented more than 500 cases of women murdered or missing (and by now we know that “missing” probably means murdered). Amnesty International has corroborated these figures, and the United Nations has requested an inquiry. The arrest and conviction of Robert Pickton, a serial killer who preyed on aboriginal women, suggests that many of these missing and murdered women were killed not by aboriginal men but by white men. A cultural frame typically affixes blame on the perpetrator’s cultural affiliation. The media, in this, and similar cases, did not.

Going back to the coverage of the Shafia murders, many reporters referenced the family’s Afghan cultural background and adherence to Islam, suggesting that the murders were motivated by cultural and religious beliefs. According to the 2006 census, there are 48,090 Canadians with Afghan ancestry. Yet the media have unearthed only this one high-profile case of multiple familial homicides.

If the phenomenon of “honour killing” is reflective of cultural practices or religious traditions, why is the number of incidents not higher?

The reality we as a society must face is that these murders are about gendered violence. They symbolize a wider, more prevalent logic that shows women and girls what is likely to happen to them if they don’t behave and conform to social and patriarchal expectations. Recall the Guy Turcotte case, where a father killed his own children after their mother began a relationship with a mutual friend. It is a notion that women are property: if they do not conform, they are likely to suffer the consequences.

Femicide is about gender. It is about women and girls being killed because they are women and girls.

That is the particularity of this kind of violence. It has nothing to do with honour, passion or convenience.

These are merely excuses and rationalizations.

About the Authors

Yasmin Jiwaniis an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University.Homa Hoodfaris a professor in Concordia’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

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Karachi-Refuge Won't take any more: Girls who have sought refuge in the Panah shelter home in Karachi. Photo: Meena Menon

A Pakistan shelter to protect the honour of women

By Meena Menon - The Hindu

In Sindh province alone, 1,652 cases of violence against women were registered

Some years ago, a young married girl was hounded by her family which tracked her down in Lahore and killed her husband who was from another tribe. The girl was shot and left for dead. She was taken to a hospital and finally ended up at Panah, a private shelter for women in Karachi.

Narrating this story, Uzma Noorani, trustee of Panah, says the girl was five months pregnant when she was referred to them. She survived despite receiving two or three bullets in her body. Her mother used to visit her, even though it was her grandfather who got her husband killed.

The girl filed a case and managed to get two people arrested. She remarried and changed her identity for survival. In the fortress-like shelter, a 16-year-old girl is opposing her proposed marriage to a man from the Swat region since he will not let her study. “I ran away from home and found this place,” she says. She plans to annul her “nikah” and hopes to study further.

Another woman has left her violent husband and three children. ”My husband even tried to kill me once and sold my dowry. He doesn't know where I am. I am not scared now,” she says. Some girls have come here because they have no place to stay and another woman, a victim of domestic violence, has sought refuge for the second time.

In 2010, there were 229 women and 82 children. Of this, 66 women had sought protection and 33 came due to domestic violence. Ninety-seven women wanted a divorce while 29 left to marry men of their choice. There were four cases of rape.

According to statistics compiled by the Aurat Foundation, in its annual report for 2010, Sindh province, with 266 honour killings, reported the highest number for any province. As many as 1,652 cases of violence against women were registered, including 246 cases of abduction and 308 murders. The killing of a youth who allegedly had an affair with a girl (who was later reported to be missing) sparked off violence in the Shikharpur area of Sindh, leading to the death of three Hindu doctors last month. There were protests in Hyderabad and other areas after the attack and no one really knows if the incident was related to the “honour” of the girl in question.

Honour killings mostly occur in the tribal belts bordering Balochistan. Tribal traditions and the word of the archaic “jirga” (a tribal council) and panchayat systems hold sway. There is a practice of declaring any women a “kari” and the man involved “karo” meaning those who have brought disrepute to the family and this provides a “culturally condoned reason” for killing them, according to the report.

The report's analysis of the cases in Sindh province reveals a sorry state of affairs like the rest of Pakistan. Of the 1,652 reported crimes, police registered first information reports (FIR) in only 39.50 per cent or 653 cases. The majority 937 were not registered and no information could be obtained on 62 cases. Some 8,000 cases of violence against women were recorded in 2010 all over the country with 557 honour killings. The 2010 Global Gender Gap Index ranks Pakistan at 132nd place just above the last two countries Chad and Yemen.

Domestic violence

Mahnaz Rahman, resident director of the Aurat Foundation, says that the data is mostly collected from print media in the absence of reliable official records. The recent passing of the Prevention of Anti-women Practices Bill in the National Assembly was widely welcomed, but there are fears that it will be opposed in the Senate as in the case of the Domestic Violence Bill of 2009 which lapsed. Domestic violence is a major category of crime with a total of 486 cases reported in 2010 as against 608 in 2009.

Ms. Rahman says the Foundation helped a young woman who was about to be killed by her family for refusing to marry a person of their choice. The girl who wanted to study, escaped to Karachi where she met someone from her village. They ended up getting married but the families found out and she was harassed. Finally, the couple moved out to a foreign country.

She says the lack of land reforms is adding to the problem. Sometimes the threat of an honour killing is used for extortion. “As you go into the interiors, you go back in time,” she points out. Class is also an issue, poorer girls drop out early and get married. Many couples come to Karachi where the urban sprawl allows anonymity. ”We can't see women's issues in isolation — there is poverty, illiteracy and a feudal system of land holding. Unless the overall system is changed, women will bear the brunt,” she adds.

At Panah, Ms. Noorani explains that the shelter is geared towards giving women free legal help, dealing with trauma and rehabilitation. The majority of women who come here want a divorce or are escaping a forced marriage. Many are also under the threat of honour killing. The women from interior Sindh who want to marry of their own choice face death threats and have nowhere to go. “Once they leave the shelter to go to court, they have local police escort. Families turn up in court and try to attack them. There is a big risk factor,” she says.

The earlier shelter had a huge ground and people used to come there and even fire at it. “One husband ransacked our cars in 2002. I remember a retired army Major using all his clout to get his wife released from the shelter. I was threatened by him and once he confronted me and stalked me for years. There was no law under which he could be arrested,” she says.

Politicians aver their opposition to honour killings but as Naheed Begum, member of the Sindh Provincial Assembly says, low literacy and a male-dominated society don't help. “A girl can be killed for talking to her male cousin,” she adds. There is opposition from feudal landlords too on any law to protect women.

Anis Haroon, chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women, says there is so little importance attached to the security of women and it is considered a domestic issue. The rate of conviction is not even 5 or 6 per cent in all crimes. There is always a material basis for honour killings — money, enmity or land.

The class system is also responsible. “We are now focused on making as many laws as we can and mainstreaming women into policy. The major resistance is from the bureaucracy and when it comes to women they are conservative,” she adds.