Beda HONOR KILLING Muslim & honor killing Hindu

[anne]

Honor Killings Hindu vs. Honor Killings Islam
by Phyllis Chesler and Nathan Bloom
Middle East Quarterly Summer 2012, pp. 43-52
http://www.meforum.org/3287/hindu-muslim-honor-killings

Pers memang jarang memberitakannya tapi faktanya Muslim dimanapun didunia terlibat dalam hampir semua kasus honor killing (pembunuhan demi kehormatan keluarga). Karena takut dicap ‘Islamophobia,’ pers Barat hanya sedikit memberitakan ritual honor killing ini. Itupun hanya mengenai kasus2 di Timur Tengah dan Asia Selatan, sementara yang secara periodik terjadi di kalangan imigran Muslim di Barat, hanya dianggap sbg kasus domestic violence/penganiayaan rumah tangga biasa.


Afshan Azad (kiri), salah satu artis pendukung di film Harry Potter, disini bersama Rupert Grint, dipukuli dan diancam mati oleh ayah dan saudara laki-lakinya, 2010, karena teman dekatnya seorang non-Muslim.

Namun, beberapa tahun belakangan ini, media rajin memberitakan mengenai kasus2 honor killing ala Hindu di India, negara mayoritas non-Muslim dimana pembunuhan semacam ini masih terjadi [2]. Dengan segera para pembela Islam menyambar kasus2 ini sebagai bukti bahwa ini sebuah praktek universal, bukan eksklusif permasalahan Islam [3].

Walaupun tak kurang mengerikan, honor killing kaum Hindu sebagian besar terbatas hanya di bagian utara India, dan bertahan karena faktor sosiokultural khusus India. Jutaan umat Hindu India yang berimigrasi ke Barat tidak membawa praktek ini bersama mereka.

Peristiwa honor killing di India lebih merupakan akibat bentroknya nilai-nilai tradisional dan modern, yang timbul akibat pertumbuhan ekonomi dan meningkatnya mobilitas sosial. Menyoloknya pemberitaan juga merefleksikan meningkatnya liputan media terhadap kasus2 macam ini. Pemerintah India yang terpilih secara demokratis-pun telah mengambil langkah-langkah penting untuk memerangi praktek honor killing dan telah mencapai kemajuan berarti.

Namun, tidak demikian halnya dengan Republik ISLAM Pakistan, dimana disemua level pemerintahan, tidak ada kemampuan ataupun kemauan untuk mengatasi honor killings. Bagi Pakistan dan beberapa negara Islam lain yang belum mengalami tekanan sosial akibat pesatnya modernisasi, atau belum membangun semacam lembaga-lembaga politik yang bisa menghapuskan praktek yang sedemikian berakar dalam kepercayaan tradisional mereka, praktek tersebut tidak dianggap buruk.


Lingkungan sosial

Pembunuhan demi kehormatan merupakan pembunuhan terencana terhadap anggota keluarga (biasanya wanita muda) yang dituduh telah mencemarkan nama baik keluarga. Ini cenderung mendominasi dalam masyarakat dimana hak-hak individu dipangkas oleh solidaritas kelompok, struktur otoritas patrilineal, serta keyakinan agama dan suku yang sempit, tidak toleran. Dalam kondisi seperti ini, kontrol atas perkawinan dan reproduksi sangat penting bagi status sosial ekonomi keluarga/kerabat, dan aturan-aturan yang mengikat perilaku perempuan merupakan bagian integral dari persepsi kehormatan, yg dikenal dengan istilah maryada dlm bahasa India/HIndi, dan ghairat dalam bahasa Pakistan/Urdu dan Pashto.

Dalam lingkungan seperti itu, seorang perempuan yang menolak pengaturan pernikahan, meminta cerai, atau dianggap berperilaku tidak bermoral, akan dipandang keluarganya sbg pembawa aib sampai mencoreng martabat kerabat2 pria. Membunuhnya adalah satu-satunya cara memulihkan kehormatan keluarga, terlepas apakah ia benar-benar bersalah/dapat dibuktikan bersalah atas pelanggaran yang dituduhkan. Perbedaan tajam dengan kekerasan rumah tangga lainnya, honor killing seringkali dilakukan di tempat terbuka, dan pelakunya jarang bertindak sendiri. Unni Wikan, antropolog sosial dan professor di Universitas Oslo, mengamati bahwa pelaku pembunuhan biasanya melakukan pembunuhan “sebagai amanat dari keluarga besar.’[4] Penulis utama artikel ini mendokumentasikan peristiwa honor killing di Barat dan negara-negara mayoritas Islam, di tahun 2009 [5] dan 2010 [6].

Meskipun Islam atau Hindu, tidak mendukung secara langsung, keduanya berperan dalam melegitimasi praktek ini di Asia Selatan – jika tidak, pastilah kejahatan pembunuhan ini tidak dilakukan atau diberi hukuman ringan. Mereka gagal menggunakan otoritas relijiusnya untuk menghukum dan mengenyahkan kejahatan semacam ini. Masyarakat Hindu terbagi dalam kasta-kasta yang diwariskan turun temurun dan berlaku permanen. Dibagian terendah dalam struktur kasta, ada sekitar 150 juta warga India yang disebut Dalit (kaum tertindas), yang di Barat dikenal dengan ‘yang tak tersentuh.’ Walaupun banyak Dalit telah mencapai posisi tinggi dalam politik, spt mantan presiden K.R. Narayanan [7], mereka masih dipandang rendah oleh banyak warga India lainnya.[8].

Berdasarkan tradisi dan hukum agama Hindu, menikah atau melakukan hubungan seks dengan anggota kasta yang berbeda dilarang keras. Demikian pula hubungan romantik dengan seseorang dari sub-kasta yang sama (gotra) [9], sebuah larangan yang sangat kontras dengan budaya Islam, dimana pernikahan dengan sepupu satu kali justru dikenal luas. Sebagian besar korban honor killing Hindu adalah kaum muda India yang dicurigai melanggar salah satu dari kedua perintah ini. Di India Utara, pembunuhan seringkali diberi sanksi secara eksplisit atau bahkan diperintahkan oleh dewan berdasarkan kasta yang dikenal sebagai khap panchayats.[10] Walaupun UU Perkawinan Hindu 1955 melegalkan perkawinan antar kasta dan intra-gotra, namun masih belum diterima oleh sebagian besar umat Hindu India. Berdasarkan survey 2006, 76 persen warga India menentang perkawinan antar kasta. [11]. Di beberapa wilayah, perkawinan apapun yang tidak diatur keluarga dianggap tabu/terlarang. “Perkawinan berdasar cinta adalah kotor – hanya pelacur yang dapat memilih pasangan mereka,” kata salah seorang pimpinan dewan pada seorang reporter India. [12].

Walau Islam tidak secara khusus mengesahkan pembunuhan anggota keluarga perempuan, banyak honor killing dilakukan atas tuduhan perzinahan atau murtad, yang berdasarkan syariah harus dikenakan hukuman mati. Dengan demikian, perempuan yang menyimpang dan layak dibunuh, konsisten dengan ajaran Islam. Penolakan sebagian besar otoritas Islam untuk secara tegas mengecam praktek ini (bukan hanya menyangkal bahwa Islam mendukung honor killing) malah mendorong bertumbuhnya benih para calon pembunuh demi kehormatan.

Selagi Islam mengkhotbahkan kesetaraan semua umat Islam (atau setidaknya antar sesama pria Muslim), dan para pemimpin Islam berkoar mengecam jahatnya sistem kasta India, pengkastaan masih terdapat di kalangan Islam Pakistan, yang merupakan keturunan umat Hindu yang dipaksa masuk Islam di Abad Pertengahan dan bagian dari India sebelum 1947. [13]



Kecenderungan Empiris

Sulit memperkirakan secara akurat jumlah honor killing yang terjadi di Pakistan dan India, karena sebagian besar tidak dilaporkan. Tahun 2010, ada sekitar 900 pembunuhan yang dilaporkan di negara bagian Haryana, India Utara, Punjab, dan Uttar Pradesh saja, sementara 100 hingga 300 honor killing lagi terjadi di berbagai wilayah lain. [14] Di tahun 2010 juga, menurut Komisi HAM Pakistan, 800 perempuan dibunuh demi kehormatan di Pakistan.[15] Angka-angka tersebut tampaknya hanya puncak dari gunung es. Menurut Aurat Foundation, organisasi HAM Pakistan, “Sedikitnya 675 wanita dan anak-anak perempuan Pakistan sepanjang Sembilan bulan pertama tahun 2011 karena diduga mencemarkan nama baik keluarga.” Hampir 77 persen kasus berakhir dengan pembebasan. [16] Hasil penelitian serupa, dipublikasikan tahun 2011 oleh Kelompok Penelitian dan Pengembangan SDM Hak Perempuan, memperlihatkan bahwa di tahun yang sama, sejumlah 605 wanita dan 115 pria di Sindh dibunuh demi kehormatan atau dibunuh dalam perselisihan keluarga.[17]

Untuk membandingkan antara honor killing di India dan Pakistan, diambil sampel 75 honor killing Hindu India, terdiri dari 50 kasus yang secara khusus berdasarkan kasta, dan 25 kasus yang tidak secara khusus bermotifkan kasta. Kasus India ini dibandingkan dengan 50 kasus honor killing Islam di Pakistan dan 39 kasus honor killing Islam Pakistan di Barat. Kasus honor killing Hindu di Barat sudah sangat terlalu langka untuk dijadikan perbandingan statistik yang valid.[18] Para peneliti mengambil data berdasarkan laporan media berbahasa Inggris[19] dengan memilih kasus-kasus awal yang memenuhi kriteria honor killing Hindu atau Islam, dan yang sebagian besar dari tujuh variable berikut diketahui: lokasi/agama; jenis kelamin korban; motif; ada tidaknya penyiksaan; umur; jumlah korban per-insiden; dan apakah keluarga si wanita/pria yang melakukan pembunuhan.

Usia rata-rata semua korban dalam penelitian ini, baik pria dan wanita, adalah 22, tanpa perbedaan signifikan secara statistik antar kelompok. Disedemikan banyak kasus, keluarga pihak wanita-lah yang melakukan pembunuhan, bahkan dalam kasus dimana korbannya pria. Di India, 94 persen pembunuhan dilakukan oleh anggota keluarga pihak wanita. Empat persen dibunuh atas kerjasama pihak wanita dan pria; dalam satu kasus diduga dilakukan suami sang korban; tidak ada kasus dimana pembunuhan dilakukan dari pihak pria saja. Di Pakistan, pihak keluarga wanita bertanggungjawab atas 78 persen kasus, sementara 16 persen dilakukan suami dari wanita ‘yang tidak setia.’ Dalam 3 kasus (6 persen) keluarga pihak pria yang melakukan pembunuhan. Jumlah suami yang menjadi pembunuh, tertinggi di Pakistan karena sejumlah besar kasus (30 persen) adalah tuduhan perzinahan. Di kalangan umat Islam Pakistan di Barat, 97 persen pembunuhan dilakukan keluarga wanita. Sesuai perkiraan, karena wanita-lah yang dianggap sebagai penjaga kehormatan pria dan keluarga, serta bertanggungjawab menegakkan kode kehormatan yang diemban keluarga si wanita.

Sejumlah perbedaan signifikan yang menonjol secara statistik

Jenis kelamin korban.

Dari 40 persen kasus Hindu India, yang dibunuh adalah pria, sementara jumlah pria yang dibunuh dlm masy. Islam Pakistan hanya 14 persen terjadi di Pakistan, dan 15 persen terjadi di Barat. Persentase korban pria yang lebih tinggi di masy. Hindu India menggarisbawahi fakta bahwa honor killing Hindu lebih sering mengenai kemurnian kasta, daripada kemurnian seksual. Karena kemurnian seksual secara tradisional adalah tanggung jawab perempuan, perintah agama untuk mempertahankan batas-batas yang tegas antar kasta adalah kewajiban bagi semua umat Hindu, baik laki-laki maupun perempuan.

Motivasi.

Laporan mengenai motivasi yang mendasari pembunuhan bervariasi secara signifikan di tiga kelompok. Para peneliti mengidentifikasi empat motif utama di kalangan Hindu India: ‘motif khusus kasta,’ ‘karakter moral,’ ‘tercemar karena hubungan,’ serta ‘hubungan gelap khusus non-kasta’ yang mencakup hubungan antar keyakinan, perzinahan, hamil di luar nikah dan hubungan terlarang yang dianggap memalukan dengan alasan yang tidak dijelaskan. Korban ‘tercemar karena hubungan,’ dibunuh bukan karena mereka telah melakukan sesuatu yang salah, namun karena hubungan mereka dengan pihak yang bersalah (kebanyakan anak-anak dari ibu yang dituduh melanggar norma-norma seksual).

“Karakter tak bermoral” korban dianggap sebagai tindakan memberontak atau tak pantas, namun bukan terlibat asmara dengan individu tertentu. Contohnya, gadis Pakistan-Kanada Aqsa Parvez, dibujuk untuk mati oleh ibunya dan dibunuh ayahnya karena ia tidak mengenakan jilbab.[20] Gadis India berusia 14 tahum, S. Rajinilatha, dibunuh ayahnya bukan karena terlibat asmara dengan pria, namun hanya karena ia menulis puisi cinta.[21] Meena, gadis Hindu berusia 18 tahun, ditembak karena ia meninggalkan desanya selama 3 hari, dan keluarganya tidak puas dengan penjelasan dimana ia berada.[22]

Dalam kasus umat Islam Pakistan, para peneliti mengidentifikasi tiga motif: hubungan gelap, tercemar karena hubungan, dan karakter tak bermoral. Hanya 4 persen korban Muslim di Pakistan yang dibunuh karena mereka terlibat asmara dengan orang dari kasta berbeda, dan kasta tidak pernah menjadi motif di kalangan Muslim Pakistan di Barat. Akibatnya, motif di sejumlah kecil kasus ini digolongkan hanya sebagai ‘hubungan gelap.’[23]

Motivasi dibalik honor killing Muslim Pakistan yang dilaporkan, berbeda dengan Muslim Pakistan di Barat. Di Pakistan, 12 persen korban adalah korban dari ‘karakter tak bermoral.’ Di Barat, 65 persen korban adalah korban ‘karakter tak bermoral.’ Ini mungkin karena begitu banyak kesempatan terjadinya asimilasi/kebebasan ‘tak bermoral’ di Barat, dan wanita muda Pakistan yang hidup disana mungkin mendorong batas-batas dengan lebih kuat.

Juga ada lebih banyak korban ‘tercemar karena hubungan’ di kalangan Muslim Pakistan, baik di Pakistan sendiri maupun di Barat, dibandingkan umat Hindu India. Contoh, sebuah kasus Muslim Pakistan di Barat, membunuh saudari ipar serta anak kecilnya dan mertuanya yang kebetulan di saat yang sama berada di rumah baru istrinya. Hanya 4 persen Hindu India yang dibunuh merupakan korban ‘tercemar karena hubungan (n=3), dibandingkan 22 persen korban Muslim di Pakistan (n=11) dan 19 persen korban Muslim Pakistan di Barat (n=7). Mayoritas pembunuhan Hindu terkait dengan kasta, biasanya ditujukan pada pria dan wanita muda segera setelah mereka kawin lari, dan sebelum memiliki anak. Honor killing Muslim Pakistan lebih sering mengenai kepatuhan secara umum, terutama kemurnian seksual, dan kemurnian seksual dan moral wanita tertantang seumur hidupnya.

Penyiksaan

bersambung….

[ali5196]

Penyiksaan

Korban disiksa guna memaksimalisasi rasa sakit. Contohnya, Anup Kumar, 17 thn, dari Haryana di-elektrokusi thn 2011 krn pacaran dengan gadis dari kasta rendah yg sama.[24] Di Islamabad, kakak2 wanita 40 thn bernama Elahi Husain mengikatnya pada pohon dan merajamnya sampai mati di thn 2007 krn pacaran dengan lelaki yg tidak disetujui keluarga.[25]

Tingkat penyiksaan Hindu di India (39%) sangat tinggi drpd tingkat penyiksaan Muslim di Pakistan (12%). Kebanyakan korban Hindu di INdia dibakar hidup2, di-elektrokusi atau dicincang sampai mati. Jenazah2 sering di-desekrasi[26] agar tubuh tidak dikenali shg memastikan kehormatan keluarga dgn segala cara. Kemungkinan juga tingkat penyiksaan di Pakistan sama tingginya dgn INdia tapi polisi dan media Pakistan lebih enggan memberitakan hal2 mengerikan spt ini.

TAPI diantara korban penyiksaan Muslim Pakistan di BARAT, angka ini naik 59%. Mungkin karena Muslim Pakistan merasa super-malu dgn orang2 Barat yg dianggap kafir rendah najis shg niat mereka untuk mempertahankan harga diri keluarga semakin tinggi saat saudara2 Muslimah mereka mulai berasimilasi.

TINDAKAN PAKISTAN MENGATASI HONOR KILLINGS

Di Pakistan, wanita dianggap sebagai harta benda. Pakistan masuk ranking 133 dari 135 negara dlm laporan 2011 ttg Jurang Ketidakseimbangan Jender/Global Gender Report dari the World Economic Forum.[27] Survey thn 2011 oleh the Thomson Reuters Foundation menaruh Pakistan sbg NEGARA KETIGA PALING BAHAYA DI DUNIA BAGI WANITA (India masuk tempat keempat).[28] (No 1 Afghanistan, no 2 Kongo, no 5 Somalia)

Menurut Homa Arjomand, pengacara Kanada yg memimpin kampanye sukses melawan penerapan hukum syariah di Ontario, nasib anak2 wanita di Pakistan sangat menyedihkan karena pemerkosaan dan pemukulan dalam perkawinan sangat sering terjadi. Pematahan tulang dan pemukulan sampai gigi copot bukan hal aneh bagi wanita Pakistan; lama perkawinan dan keadaan tidak higienis atau berbahaya adalah sebuah permanent way of life; keluarga2 mereka tidak akan menolong mereka. [29]

Eksekusi setempat karena pelanggaran aturan2 moral dianggap SAH oleh rakyat Pakistan.[30] Pemimpin2 suku/marga sering mengijinkan praktek tsb [31] sementara polisi tidak pernah campur tangan.

--------------------------------------Because of this impunity, honor killing is sometimes used as a pretext for other crimes. For example, according to Muhammad Haroon Bahlkani, an officer in the Community Development Department in Sindh, Pakistan, a "man can murder another man for unrelated reasons, kill one of his own female relatives, and then credibly blame his first victim for dishonoring the second. Or he can simply kill one of his female relatives, accuse someone rich of involvement with her, and extract financial compensation in exchange for forgoing vengeance." Bahlkani has a name for this: the "Honor Killing Industry."[32]

In Pakistan, many honor killings are known as karo-kari killings, which literally means "black male" and "black female" in Urdu and refers to cases in which adulterers are killed together. However, according to Bahlkani, there is an escape clause, but only for the men who can run away, hide, or pay restitution. Women are confined to the home, and few people will shelter a female runaway.

Although senior Pakistani officials have frequently denounced the practice of honor killing, little of substance has been achieved in combating it. While the penal code was stiffened in 2005 to impose a 10-year minimum sentence for honor killing,[33] legislative initiatives to protect women from domestic violence have been repeatedly watered down or abandoned in the face of Islamist opposition. In 2009, Pakistan's National Assembly passed the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, which strengthened legal protections against domestic violence for women and children. However, the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body charged with assessing whether laws are consistent with Islamic injunctions, issued a statement saying the bill "would fan unending family feuds and push up divorce rates." After this, the bill was held up in the Pakistani senate and allowed to lapse. According to Special Public Prosecutor Nghat Dad, "The government's attitude towards pushing for the cause has been hopeless ever since the Council of Islamic Ideology's opposition."[34]

Under Shari'a-based provisions of Pakistan's judicial system, murderers can buy a pardon by paying blood money (dyad) to the victim's family. Since the family of honor killing victims are nearly always sympathetic to the honor killer as well as complicit to some degree, getting a pardon is usually just a formality.[35] Women's rights organizations in Pakistan have pressed parliament to disallow the practice of blood money in honor killing cases, but conservative Islamist groups have blocked the needed legislation.

Even when such arrangements do not take place, honor killers are rarely prosecuted for lack of cooperative witness testimony. For those few who happen to be convicted, a light prison sentence is far preferable to dishonor. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a recent report: "The legal, preventative, and protective measures needed to provide effective protection to women against violence perpetrated in the name of honor remained absent."[36]
India's Actions on Honor Killings

Indian society at large is no less misogynistic than that of Pakistan. Since boys are preferred and girls are seen as a burden, an estimated four to twelve million selective abortions of girls have occurred in India in the past three decades.[37] The 2011 Indian census found 914 girls for every 1,000 boys among children six or younger.[38] Dowry burnings, the practice of a man and his mother dousing his wife with cooking oil and burning her alive so that a new bride and dowry can be obtained, are as big a problem as honor killings in India.[39]

As the Indian media have fastidiously documented,[40] there has been a marked increase in the number of reported honor killings in recent years. In 2010, a government-funded study on the prevalence of honor crimes in India found that they are most common in regions dominated by khap panchayats and increasingly involve inter-caste, rather than intra-sub-caste marriages.[41] In these regions, local politicians turn a blind eye to the murders and resist efforts by the central government and parliament to deal with the problem while local police collude in honor killings[42] or help cover them up, often mischaracterizing the murders as suicides.[43] In 2011, theaters in Haryana refused to screen an Indian film on honor killings because of threats by khap panchayats.[44]

According to Prem Chowdhry of the Delhi School of Economics, honor killings were less frequent in the past "because elopements didn't happen … livelihood was so clearly tied to the land, and the land was so clearly enmeshed in these relationships."[45] Greater socioeconomic mobility has weakened these bonds. As khap panchayats struggle against modernization, preserving their traditional power means retaining control over reproduction, and they have resorted to violence to achieve this.

In sharp contrast to their Pakistani counterparts, Indian government officials have vigorously condemned honor killings in their country.[46] So, too, have liberal Indian media outlets,[47] some of which have done aggressive investigative reporting on the issue. In 2010, an undercover reporter working for the Indian television channel Headlines Today found two policemen from the northern state of Haryana who boasted about their willingness to hand over a young woman to be honor murdered. "Cut her into pieces and then throw her in some river," one said.[48] A number of Indian nongovernmental organizations are working to defend women from honor killings. The Love Commandos, with 2,000 volunteers and a 24-hour national hotline, are devoted to protecting newlyweds who defy their families.[49]

In 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered a cabinet-level commission to draft national legislation designed to eradicate honor killing.[50] The proposals included an amendment to the penal code allowing khap panchayats leaders to be prosecuted for sanctioning murders as well as the revocation of the 30-day notice period required by the Special Marriage Act, which has enabled families to track down and preemptively kill the couples.[51] In 2011, the Law Commission of India, under the Ministry of Law and Justice, drafted a new bill—The Endangerment of Life and Liberty (Protection, Prosecution and Other Measures) Act—designed to prevent khap panchayats from denouncing couples who violate caste restrictions. According to the bill,

It shall be unlawful for any group of persons to gather, assemble or congregate with the … intention to deliberate, declare on, or condemn any marriage or relationship such as marriage between two persons of majority age in the locality concerned on the basis that such conduct or relationship has dishonored the caste or community or religion of all or some of the persons forming part of the assembly or the family or the people of the locality concerned.[52]

The fate of this legislation is uncertain, however, as the khap panchayats' control over local voting blocs has enabled them to blunt legislative reforms in the past. The government has made more progress on the judicial front. In 2010, India's Supreme Court instructed the governments in Haryana and six other states to take steps to protect potential honor killing victims.[53] In 2011, it decried honor killing as a "barbaric and shameful" practice that must be "ruthlessly stamped out."[54] The court also declared honor killings ordered by khap panchayats to be illegal and warned that government officials who fail to act against honor crime offenders will be prosecuted.[55]

Although fear of caste ostracism makes it difficult to find cooperative witnesses, Indian courts have begun aggressively prosecuting honor killers and their accomplices. In 2010, a Haryana court sentenced five men to death for the honor murder of a young couple who had married despite being members of the same sub-caste while giving a life sentence to the head of the khap panchayat that ordered their deaths.[56] In November 2011, an Indian court sentenced eight men to death and twenty others to life imprisonment for involvement in three honor killings.[57] Increasingly, local police officials have been suspended and even arrested for collusion in honor killings.[58]

India still has a long way to go. While the Indian government continues to face resistance and evasion of responsibility on the part of local officials, it has not encountered the same kind of virulent, often violent, opposition to women's rights typical of Pakistani Islamists. There is little doubt that India is determined to win what promises to be a long battle against honor killing. The Western media's interest in Hindu honor killings developed only after Indians themselves began exposing the practice and pressing for change.
Conclusion

Although Hindu honor killing is a gruesome and sordid affair, it differs in many important respects from honor killing in neighboring Pakistan and other Muslim countries. Indian Hindus murder men for honor more often than do Pakistani Muslims, and they murder for reasons mainly related to concerns about caste purity.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Hindu honor killings is the fact that Indians abandon the horrific practice when they migrate to the West whereas many Pakistani Muslims carry it with them. Part of the explanation may lie in their different patterns of acculturation upon immigrating to the West. Young Hindus in the West are no less prone to violate traditional social codes than young Muslims, and their parents may be no less furious when they do, but Hindu families in the West do not feel the same degree of public humiliation and shame as they might experience back in India. They are eager to preserve their cultural identity but not at the expense of alienating their adoptive communities. The absence of dreaded khap panchayats no doubt mitigates the consequences of dishonor.

Due in part to the spread of radical Islamist ideology, Muslim immigrants in the West are either radicalized or socialize predominantly within Muslim-only communities, and their conception of honor reflects this. Even affluent young women of Pakistani descent in the West can face the credible threat of death or severe bodily harm. Actress Afshan Azad, who played Padma Patil in the Harry Potter film series, was beaten and threatened with death in 2010 by her Pakistani father and brother for dating a non-Muslim.[59] If she can be victimized, anyone can.

While it is alarming that there are so many honor killings in India and Pakistan, there may yet be cause for hope. Every honor killing begins with a rebellion against tribalism and patriarchy—or with a fear that tribal and patriarchal values are under attack. Many of the victims in our study were people who believed that they could push traditional boundaries, that they could get away with asserting their rights. They were wrong, and they paid the ultimate price for that mistake, but the key is that they tried. More rebels will follow.

Phyllis Chesler is emerita professor of psychology and women's studies at the Richmond College of the City University of New York, author of fourteen books, and co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology and the National Women's Health Network. Nathan Bloom, a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, is a former assistant to Phyllis Chesler. The authors thank Tchia and Avraham Snapiri of IDEA-Management and Economic Consulting Ltd., for performing the statistical tests for this study, and Petra Bailey for help in gathering the data.

[1] Phyllis Chesler, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010, pp. 3-11.
[2] For example, see The New York Times, July 9, 2010, June 4, 2011; The Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2008.
[3] John L. Esposito, "Honor Killing: Is Violence against Women a Universal Problem, Not an Islamic Issue?" The Huffington Post, Sept. 4, 2010.
[4] Unni Wikan, "The Honor Culture," Karl-Olov Arnstberg and Phil Holmes, trans., originally published as En Fraga Om Hedre, Cajsa Mitchell, trans. (Stockholm: Ordfront Forlag AB, 2005).
[5] Phyllis Chesler, "Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?" Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2009, pp. 61-9.
[6] Chesler, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," pp. 3-11.
[7] The New York Times, July 26, 1997.
[8] "Caste-based Discrimination in South Asia," European Commission (Brussels) and the International Dalit Solidarity Network, June 2009; "Broken People: Caste Violence against India's 'Untouchables,'" Human Rights Watch, Washington, D.C., Apr. 1, 1999.
[9] The Australian (Sydney), Apr. 3, 2010.
[10] Times of India (Mumbai), Mar. 30, 2010.
[11] The New York Times, July 9, 2010.
[12] Times of India, Sept. 8, 2009.
[13] See Yoginder Sikand, "Islam and Caste Inequality among Indian Muslims," Asianists' Asia, first published in Qalandar (Paris), T. Wignesan, ed., Mar. 2004; Anatol Lieven, Pakistan. A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), pp. 101-2.
[14] The Hindu (Chennai, Madras), July 11, 2010.
[15] Dawn (Karachi), Aug. 9, 2011.
[16] Business Reporter (Karachi), Jan. 5, 2012.
[17] Ibid., Jan. 9, 2012.
[18] Chesler, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," pp. 3-11.
[19] For Indian Hindu cases: The Times of India, The Hindustan Times (New Delhi), Press Trust of India News Service (Delhi), The Independent (London), The Washington Post, Reuters, The Hindu, Indian Express (Chennai, Madras), Outlook India (New Delhi), Thaindian News (Bangkok), Indo-Asian News Service (New Delhi), and the BBC. For Pakistani cases: Associated Press, The Pakistan Daily Times (Lahore), stophonourkillings.com, The Daily Telegraph (London), The News International (Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad), The Regional Times of Sindh (Hyderabad and Karachi), Dawn, and Pakistan Today (Lahore). The Indian honor killings took place between 2001 and 2011; those in Pakistan between 1999 and 2011. The Pakistani honor killings in the West took place between 1998 and 2009.
[20] The National Post (Toronto), Dec. 12, 2007.
[21] "'Honour' Killings on the Rise in Tamil Nadu," Stop Honour Killings, London, Sept. 16, 2010.
[22] Times of India, Feb. 16, 2011; Mid-Day (Mumbai and Delhi), Feb. 15, 2011.
[23] See Sikand, "Islam and Caste Inequality among Indian Muslims."
[24] Times of India, Jan. 28, 2011.
[25] The Daily Telegraph, Jan. 31, 2007.
[26] Reuters, May 16, 2008; The Economist, Apr. 15, 2010.
[27] The Global Gender Gap Report 2011, The World Economic Forum, Geneva, Nov. 2011.
[28] "The World's Most Dangerous Countries for Women," Thomson Reuters Foundation, New York, June 15, 2011.
[29] Homa Arjomand, "Effect of globalization of political Islam on women," http://www.nosharia.com, accessed Mar. 28, 2012.
[30] See, for example, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, May 12, 2011; The China Post (Taipei), Mar. 10, 2012; BBC Urdu, Aug. 29, 2008.
[31] Lieven, Pakistan, pp. 101-2.
[32] Correspondence with Muhammad Haroon Bahlkani, 2010, 2011.
[33] USA Today, Dec. 28, 2005.
[34] Iffat Gill, "Can legal reforms protect women in Pakistan?" Worldpulse.com, Portland, Ore., Mar. 29, 2011.
[35] BBC, Mar. 2, 2005.
[36] "State of Human Rights in 2010," Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Lahore, Apr. 2011, p. 206.
[37] Prabhat Jha, et al., "Trends in selective abortions of girls in India: analysis of nationally representative birth histories from 1990 to 2005 and census data from 1991 to 2011," The Lancet, May 24, 2011, pp. 1921-8.
[38] The New York Times, May 24, 2011.
[39] BBC, July 16, 2003.
[40] The New York Times, July 9, 2010.
[41] The Tribune (Chandigarh, India), May 14, 2011.
[42] "India: Prosecute Rampant 'Honor' Killings: Amend and Enforce Laws to End Barbaric Practice," Human Rights Watch, New York, July 18, 2010.
[43] See, for example, Times of India, Mar. 15, 2011.
[44] Indian Express, July 30, 2011.
[45] The Australian, Apr. 23, 2010.
[46] See, for example, Times of India, Aug. 1, 2010.
[47] "Barbarian Face," ibid., July 4, 2007.
[48] India Today (New Delhi), Sept. 17, 2010.
[49] The Guardian (London), Oct. 10, 2010.
[50] Times of India, July 9, 2010.
[51] "India: Prosecute Rampant 'Honor' Killings," July 18, 2010.
[52] The Hindu, June 8, 2011.
[53] Times of India, June 21, 2010.
[54] BBC, Apr. 20, 2011.
[55] "Crime and Punishment," Times of India, Apr. 27, 2011.
[56] The Australian, Apr. 3, 2010.
[57] International Business Times (New York), Nov. 16, 2011.
[58] The Australian, Apr. 3, 2010.
[59] The Telegraph, Dec. 20, 2010.

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