No Honor Killing Analysis

"No honour in killing"

-submitted by

-Anwesha Sarangi

A/2678/2014

Society, culture and human lifestyles are invariably linked to each other. On every level of life we face instances in day to day activity that show us how closely bound we are to the society we live in. They dictate our actions, our motives and shape our philosophies and thought processes in ways we can't even imagine. From our eating habits, our choice of clothes, our values, code of conduct, even something as personal as our marriage choices are decided by the so called pioneers of the society. With time, these rules and codes take the shape of a very rigid and unyielding set of laws. These laws when in some instances help to bind a group of people together by a common belief,

[3]An honor killing is the homicide of a member of a family by other members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonour upon the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their family, having sex outside marriage, becoming a victim of rape, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate or engaging in homosexual relations. [4]Most cases of honor killing involves the woman as the vicitm as it is a popular notion in many cultures that men are the bearer of honor and women can only destroy it. This shows an important facet of the male dominated patriarchal society we live in. The notion of what is considered as the "honor", of what actions are "disgraceful" to that is so strong that even a mother doesn’t think twice before killing her own child. This is how customs and traditions dictate our life. What has been prevalent since ancient times has been culturally passed down generations after generations. And even today, in the modern world, exist such dark forces that lead to these sorrowful

She feels that the rules and laws prevalent in her community are the only truth and everyone is bound to follow those. The involvement of outsiders is considered as intrusion and adultery. Such facets exist throughout the country who repeatedly criticize the city culture. Often the rural masses feel that the urban population are very vague and lack the essence of a community in their lifestyle. Arguably it is true that in a city everyone is the same, to a large extent people can't be differentiated on the basis of caste or religion from their dressing styles. But the names provide an undisputable glimpse of the person's origin. The urban lifestyle strives to create unity in fields of job and education but lacks the spirit of diversity. In rural "not so advanced" areas, where on one hand population is divided into communities, on the other hand the tie between members of a particular community is so strong that they can even give up their lives for each other. This is an example of how fission and fusion go hand in