About six years ago I was sitting in a doctors office waiting for my friends appointment to be over. When I picked up a magazine and started glancing over it and an article caught my eye. The article was written by Amnesty International, a group which tries to protect women particularly from cruel and inhuman abuse they endure all over the world. They believe that women have rights to equal protection and rights under the law and that they should receive the same equality as men and not be stereotyped for being women. By the time I finished reading this article I was stunned, and I will never forget what sickening things I read about honor killings of women and girls. Honor killings take place in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza, as well as other countries. Women and girls face death by shooting, stabbings by axes, and burnings. Those are just a few common ways theyll die, and it usually never matters if they truly have brought shame to their families. They can be killed for many reasons such as choosing whom they wish to marry, divorcing an abusive husband, allegations of a sexual nature, or even by being raped. In most cases it is the girls own family that will carry out these heinous and indecent acts of bloodshed. Each year hundreds of murders take place and many murders go unreported.
What can be done to prevent or educate this culture that has for hundreds of years valued and believed that the only way to restore a familys honor is by blood, and do they even want to change? In these cultures they believe it is the only way to maintain traditions and strong integrity in their society, because of their beliefs they choose to maintain honor by all means necessary. With their government leaders and religious leaders defending this practice it shows that honor is a huge part of their culture. When honor is violated the family feels that they are the real victims and they carry out the honor killings.
