The Grave of Honour

S.G,

Columnist (Our World)

 

Surrounded by close family as she breathed her last breath, the family of Nidhi was not there to comfort her in her last moments. In fact they are the people allegedly responsible for Nidhi’s death. Nidhi Barak, 20, was killed because she intended to marry a person of her own choice. Her independent thinking and freedom of choice were dishonourable traits to her family, and therefore Dharmender Barak, 23, and Nidhi Barak were allegedly killed by members of Nidhi’s family. Nidhi was beaten to death and then Dharmender was dismembered alive without any remorse.

Human Rights Watch states, “Honour killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonour upon the family.”

The above honour killing incident is not the first time a life has been lost due to community honour. This act of cruelty is still a common occurrence around developing and developed nations alike; from the villages of India to the bustling streets of New York, there is seldom a nation which is safe from the vices of these dreaded murders.

Statistics on honour related violence and honour killing are difficult to obtain and are inaccurate due to the under-reporting of such incidents from victims and family members. The United Nations Population Fund approximates that as many as five-thousand women are murdered in this manner each year worldwide. According to a 2010 study analysis obtained from the English-language media around the world, there were a hundred victims murdered for honour in the West, including thirty-three in North America and sixty-seven in Europe. Up to seventeen-thousand women in Britain are being subjected to “honour” related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.

Surjit Athwal, a 27-year-old Sikh residing in the United Kingdom, disappeared after going to a family wedding in India in December 1998. Her mother-in-law Bachan Athwal, ordered Surjit’s death at a family meeting after discovering that her daughter-in-law, a customs officer at Heathrow airport, had been having an affair and wanted a divorce from her son Sukhdave. Another case has been recorded in Australia where James Ramage was prisoned for eight years for strangling and bashing his wife, Julie, to death in their house and burying her in a shallow grave. The details of the case reveal a textbook case of a controlling, abusive spouse who killed his wife rather than let her leave as this would seem lead to social dishonour.

Nearly a thousand women and girls in Pakistan were murdered in the year 2011 in which case the murders were classified as honour killings. A newlywed couple was murdered by the bride’s older brother, to restore the family honour. The incident took place in a Christian colony in Kalore Kot, a small town in the Bhaker district late Thursday night. The husband was Muslim and the wife was Christian. The bride’s family did not accept the marriage therefore the couple lost their lives for their family’s fatal honour.

It is a teary thought that in this day and age many lives are being lost due to the mindset of various indiscriminate communities around the globe. These murders have left a stain on the global community leading to segregation and limiting conciliation between cultures. Only by accepting its existence can we work to cease the trail of blood which is shed in the name of honour.

Image Courtesy: Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandora_6666/4024473494/lightbox/)