Honour Killing in the Second Decade of the 21st Century
Honour killing is considered the worst form of domestic violence against human beings, particularly against women. It is clear that societies across the world – through their laws and their courts – continue to countenance legal defences which overwhelmingly benefit males committing violence against females. Despite the statistics that honour killings are being reported from all over the world, the greatest number of shocking reports of honour killings come from Muslim countries.
Unfortunately, Pakistan is among those countries where women are facing various forms of violence in the name of religion, customs and traditions, and cases of honour killing are regularly reported there. It is imperative to understand and see killings in the name of honour from the perspective of those who have been directly affected by the socio-religious cultural norms which condone them. The findings gathered here show that honour killing is not only family or community violence or a tradition to preserve honour, but that behind these killings ulterior purposes are being served and therefore the number of the killings is increasing every year in Pakistan. This book will allow the reader to understand precisely the menace of honour killing and to consider how it can be addressed to save innocent lives and to stop these severe violations of human rights.
The recipient of a Charles Wales Scholarship in 2013, Dr Shahnaz Shoro is an Assistant Professor, is a well-known Urdu short-story writer and a translator. Her two collections of short stories and three books have been translated from Sindhi to Urdu. She received an MA in English Language Teaching from the University of Nottingham, UK, and completed her doctoral studies at the University of York, UK.
“Unlike other works addressing this theme, Shahnaz Shoro’s study is notable for the consistency of information on Pakistani society, in general, and particularly about the Sindh region. Moreover, the author puts the victims and the aggressors face-to-face through the interviews with survivors of honor killings (women who were declared kari) and the interviews with men who have committed honor killings. […] The author has structured her book in a way that makes it accessible both to the readers who are familiar with the subject matter and to those who came for the first time into contact with the issue of honor killings. […] It is important to notice the fact that the author is among few researchers who describe the way in which they were affected by the contact with survivors of serious acts of violence. […] Apart from the author’s own contribution to the understanding of the values and norms of the societies where honor killings are still practiced, one could assess as remarkable her contribution to the understanding of the way in which victims and perpetrators live the experience of honor killing and how they plan their lives after the act of violence. The volume can be used as support not only for teachers, researchers, but also students of the faculties of sociology, criminology, journalism, legal sciences, political studies or social work.”
Ecaterina Balica
Romanian Journal of Sociological Studies, 2, 2019
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