Marc Hauser in his book, “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong”, suggests that honour killings emerge in herding societies where there is a need to defend property. Women are considered as sexual property in the same way that cattle, sheep and goats are seen as material property. It is obligatory within such a society that a man defend his property and his honour against competitors. This doesn’t make honour killings right, it just provides a means for understanding it.

And with understanding there rests the possibility of behaviour change. Honour killing will be a thing of the past when the moderates within the offending societies stand up and let their neighbours know that they are willing to question the tenets of their faith, or the norms within their society and that they will not defend their honour at any cost. It will be a long struggle and part of the struggle will be that the victims of human rights violations, namely the women themselves, will not accept the treatment to which they are subjected. It was this process that over a number of decades changed the way that blacks were treated in the south (another honour-defending society by the way.)

TH

I wanted to say that I find you, the commenters here, thoughtful… clearly so many are writers, for you sling words with the best of them.

I wanted you to know, I consider various matters because of what you have said to me via your comments, that your thought does not simply fly out into the void. Though I know I cannot always read and respond to all things, I hope to give the effort to continue.
dr.e

Re writing about the murders of innocents, no matter which culture they have come from, I personally don’t “react viscerally to Muslim honor killings because of the cultural gulf it exhibits.” Not to say there isn’t some quasi person like that. It’s just I haven’t seen it at the sites I’ve worked at.

None of us has ‘the’ solution to all things. I wish that it were. And, my focus here in this article, is to put insofar as one can in such a tiny space, the story of Banaz before others that we might learn or find, or see, or speak more deeply about what for now, I’d call, the murder of innocence. Individual minds deepening in thought and response– not just remaining in ‘first reaction,’– can effect change at many levels, and often in many useful ways, and some surprisingly good ways that could not have been anticipated at the beginning, or middle…
dr.e

I have lived in India, Israel, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Korea during my 36 year business career in charge of International operations. I can assure you that many people around the world view our gun culture with the same horror as we view honor killings. The killings at Virginia Tech for example are unfathomable by many people.

I hope I’m totally wrong and completely off base.

Your parallel re Nicole Simpson. A sad truth. Proof that all can be trained, and still on some occasions, nothing. Nothing. We keep it above ground as an issue. That’s the work, I think. I am glad you wrote.
dr.e

Too, pacatrue, this cultural too slow change, but change nonetheless, reminds of many decades ago (1970) when we began a safe house here, how people of education and wealth thought there was no such thing as battered women, children, or men. That these things only happened to the ;derelict;, that whomever was beaten up had ;probably deserved it.;

Part of why I have hope for the women from families who believe in killing their children, is because I saw firsthand, stood with many others, spoke, lived through a time of change that seemed it could Never Change. Many many brave people raised their voices, and Change came… police departments changed, social work changed, laws changed, education changed. And many, not all, of those who’d routinely harmed people, changed. There are some good groups nationally who work precisely in that area with great dedication. They are pre-emptive as well as intervening. I am glad you came to comment. I think it is good to turn these matters over… and over and over. Things often become clearer… pathways, ideas, stands. Prayers.
dr.e

But yes, I’ll settle for them rotting in jail.

The saddest part of the 4 visits to the police part of the story is that Nicole Simpson also tried to get the police to stop her abuser from coming around. You would think that police would learn from the past.

Also, critically, holding these issues above the waterline is important for others men and women who are in direct line to make progress in these murderous ;traditions; being solved and eradicated.

There is hope… you could see that Banaz;s brother has something unruined in him. He was ordered to kill his sister, and he did hit her with a barbell in the head… and something in him, stronger than what was in his father, pulled him back. Made him weep and tell her it was his duty, but he couldn’t do it. There is hope is this. Some would say that is paltry, infinitesimal hope. I would say, good, I’ll take it, I’ll add it to these other tiny pieces we’ve collected, all of us. The seeds are very very tiny and do not show above ground, til one day…

(I agree about Evil. I’ve a piece I’m working on, Lynx, called “explaining evil” that I hope to post in the next few days. It’s slow going, the subject literally is heavy)
dr.e

This is evil, it just is, and only evil people would do something like this, just like only evil people would willingly kill thousands of civilians as happened on 9/11. As hard as I try I can’t wrap my mind around the idea that you can order/participate in the repeated rape and then brutal murder of YOUR OWN DAUGHTER (or niece) without being evil, I don’t give a damn WHAT the imam taught you. I refuse to believe you don’t think that’s wrong, that you’re merely following what you were taught was proper. It’s evil, it transcends religions and culture. Those men are monsters and as monsters they should be treated.