Recently, we heard of many cases of honour killings. However, leaders and judiciary both are failing to deter these types of killers under judicial procedure. Honour killing or ‘shame’ killing is given to the term for the homicide of a member of a family by other members, due to the perpetrators’ belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonour to the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion. Usually, this happened when girl refuse to enter an arranged marriage or she being in a relationship that is disapproved by their family. This may also happened when she is having sex outside marriage, becoming the victim of rape, dressing in ‘inappropriate’ ways according to them, engaging in non-heterosexual relations or renouncing a faith.
There was a shocking video which gone viral on Monday in Tamil Nadu. Video clip showing three persons attacking the Dalit youth in Tirupur district and hacked him to death. This triggered outrage in the state of TN. The girl’s father surrendered before a local court in Nilakottai in Dindigal district of the state, about 380 kms from Chennai. Kausalya, who too was assaulted, has blamed her father for the attack. 22 year-old Shankar showed his killers approaching him while he was with his wife, at Udumalpet in Tirupur district on Sunday. The men were seen attacking Shankar and his wife in a fit of rage, dealing repeated blows on the couple. Scared bystanders remained mute witnesses to the carnage on the busy road. Shankar was left lying by the roadside in a pool of blood. Facing no resistance, the three attackers left the place in a two-wheeler, not exhibiting any remorse over their bloody act. Though the incident was widely reported, the video showed the brutality of the episode, with political leaders decrying killing of Shankar and the attack on his wife.
As usual, the leaders will condemn the incident and appeal for immediate arrest of the culprits. Last year, there were series of honour killings but everything was forgotten with time. This is the very reason why this type of incidence continued.
Remember, the murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl from Pratapgarh district in Uttar Pradesh. The police recovered the body from an open field in Sujanganj police station area in Jaunpur on June 12 last year. The police arrested the girl’s parents, two brothers, two sisters and also the youth.
Here is a list of the ruthless honour killings that happened last year: Bulandshahr, June 2015: Mother arrested for killing her daughter. Afroz, 20, from Abda village was killed by her own mother Rubina after she refused to give up her relationship with a boy. Afroz had been working for the Pulse Polio drive when the incident took place. On the fateful day, Rubina, alias Bano, got into an argument with Afroz regarding her romantic alliance with a boy. The argument led to Rubina slitting Afroz’s throat with a knife. After receiving information on a police control room about a murder, police raided Rubina’s house where they found Afroz’s body.
New Delhi, April 10, 2015: 20-year-old youth crushed to death for loving a 16-year-old girl. Sagar’s rotting body was recovered by police from an isolated place in Sahibabad, after it was dumped there by the relatives of a minor girl with whom the victim had been having an affair for the past one year. Sagar had been beaten mercilessly by the girl’s relative after her brother-in-law spotted them together. They then confined Sagar for some hours and took him to Sahibabad in their car where they crushed him under the wheels of the car while the girl kept pleading for mercy. All the accused have been arrested.
Sonipat, April 2015: Bahalgarh police received a call regarding two unclaimed suitcases lying in a park, located on the GT road in Sonipat district. When the suitcases were opened, police recovered the naked bodies of a man and woman dumped separately in the two suitcases. While the woman’s body was intact and she wore glass bangles similar to those of a newlywed bride, the man’s limbs had been chopped and disposed of in the suitcase. The police were also suspecting this as a case of honour killing.
Lucknow, February 15: The police also suspect honour killing in the murder case of a minor girl in Kotwali area of Gonda district. The fact that the girl’s family did not inform the police about the murder made the police suspicious. The girl, who had left home to relieve herself, was found dead after half an hour. The girl’s body was intact with no injury mark but tests confirmed sexual assault.
Mathura, February 15: Girl burnt to death by mother and brother. Neeraj Kumari’s family was against her relationship with a youth Ajay from the same village. As complications cropped up for the marriage, the mother and the brother first strangulated Kumari and then set her body on fire. The accused first tried to dissuade the police by saying that the girl had committed suicide. However, the girl’s boyfriend told the police that he suspected the victim was first mercilessly beaten up and then set ablaze.
Honour killings are often a result of strongly patriarchal views on women, and the position of women in society. In this traditional male-dominated society, women are dependent first on their father and then on their husband, whom they are expected to obey. Women are viewed as a property and not as individuals with their own agency. As such, they must submit to male authority figures in the family – failure to do so can result in extreme violence as punishment. Violence is seen as a way of ensuring compliance and preventing rebellion. Legal frameworks can encourage honour killings. On one hand, such laws gives leniency towards such killings, and on the other side criminalization of various behaviours, such as extramarital sex, ‘indecent’ dressing in public places, or homosexual sexual acts, with these laws acting as a way of reassuring perpetrators of honour killings. People engaged in these types of behaviours deserve strict punishment. There is need to deter such people, else many innocent youngsters will lose their lives in the hands of these murderers.
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