British Honor Killing Watch
Charles Johnson
Tue Dec 6, 2005 at 7:34 pm PST • Views: 226
Twelfth-century barbarism on the rise in 21st-century Britain: Britain grapples with gruesome ‘honor’ crimes.
LONDON (Reuters) - Rukhsana Naz was 19 when her mother pinned her to the floor of their family house and her brother strangled her with a length of plastic cable.
Sahjda Bibi, 21, was preparing to celebrate her wedding when her cousin stabbed her 22 times with a kitchen knife. The father of 16-year-old Heshu Yones slit her throat because he disapproved of her Western habits and non-Muslim boyfriend.
All were victims of “honor killings,” murdered by relatives who believed they had brought shame on their families through their behavior or choice of boyfriend, husband or lover.
Until recently, honor crime was rarely reported and often misunderstood in Britain, viewed as something which happened elsewhere — mainly in the Middle East or southern Asia.
But a series of gruesome killings has forced Britons to recognize that such crimes, although still rare, are committed here too, often within the country’s large ethnic Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani communities.
Girls and young women have been killed, abducted, physically abused and held prisoner in their own homes. Police believe scores have been taken out of the country, often to the Indian subcontinent, and have disappeared.
Frank says: