A CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – ISSUE OF HONOUR KILLING

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A CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – ISSUE OF HONOUR KILLING

A CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – ISSUE OF HONOUR KILLING Download

Abstract

Key Words

Honour Killing, Evil culture, patriarchy, voluntary killings, women’s security, social reforms.

Introduction

The origins of honour killing in India can be traced back to ancient times when the caste system and patriarchy were prevalent in society. In many cases, inter-caste marriages or marriages outside the community were perceived as a violation of social norms and resulted in honour killings. Over time, this practice has continued to persist in some parts of the country, despite efforts by the government and civil society to eradicate it.In recent years, there has been an increase in reported cases of honour killings in India.honour killings are an immoderate type of gendered domestic violence, with bizarre tendencies related to the social and cultural traditions of tribal, patriarchal societies. The killings are prompted through the purpose to restore a family’s collective popularity that has been damaged through the victim’s violation of very strict norms regulating girl sexuality, and they are appeared through the assailants as a legitimate punishment, often condoned through community companies and tolerated through state agencies.However, it is important to note that many cases go unreported due to fear of retribution or social stigma. In some cases, the perpetrators of honour killings are able to escape prosecution due to social and political influence.The Government of India has taken several initiatives to prevent and address the issue of honour killing. Some of the important government initiatives are: The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005) The act provides protection to women who are victims of domestic violence, including honour killing National Plan of Action for the Prevention and Control of Violence Against Women (2016): The plan aims to provide a comprehensive framework for addressing violence against women, including honour killing Special Cell for Women and Children: The Delhi Police has set up a Special Cell for Women and Children to investigate cases of honour killing and provide protection to victims Zero Tolerance Policy: The Government of India has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards honour killing There are several factors that contribute to the prevalence of honour killings in India. Some of the important factors are Patriarchy Patriarchal norms and values play a significant role in honour killings Caste System: The caste system in India is deeply rooted and has a significant impact on social and cultural practices Interfaith Marriages: Interfaith marriages are often viewed as a threat to religious identity and cultural practices Such marriages are perceived as a violation of social norms, and therefore, can be a reason for honour killings Lack of Education: In many cases, the perpetrators of honour killings are uneducated or have limited education. Lack of education can lead to a narrow and rigid mindset, which makes them more likely to follow cultural practices without questioning their morality in different cultures and communities, which can sometimes result in honour killings.As of early 2021, there have been reports of several cases of honour killings in India. However, it is important to note that due to the sensitive nature of these cases, many incidents may go unreported.In January 2021, a 20-year-old woman was allegedly murdered by her father and brother in the state of Haryana for eloping with a man from a different caste. In the same month, a 23-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were killed by the woman’s family in the state of Madhya Pradesh for eloping and marrying outside their caste.Honour killings are not unique to India, and unfortunately, they occur in several other countries as well. Some countries where honour killings are reported include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, among others.While there are similarities in the cultural and social factors that contribute to honour killings in these countries, there are also differences in the prevalence and legal frameworks around honour killings. In Pakistan, honour killings are a major issue, with hundreds of cases reported each year. The Pakistani government has introduced legal reforms to address the issue, including increasing the penalties for perpetrators of honour killings. However, the implementation of these laws remains a challenge, and many honour killings go unpunished.

Objectives Of The Study

To study the issue of honour killing from the people’s perspective in India.
To examine whether honour killing is a serious crime
To examine the role of law in honour killing.
To highlight the problems associated with honour killing
To analyse the attitudes of the varied group of people towards this issue to arrive at possible solutions.

Review Of Literature

Dietrich Oberwittler and Julia Kasselt(2014).The killings are motivated by the goal to restore a family’s collective reputation that has been damaged by the victim’s violation of very strict norms regulating female sexuality, and they are viewed by the assailants as a legitimate punishment, often condoned by local communities and tolerated by state agencies. It gives overview of the current state of research on honour killings in the Maghreb region, in western and central The legal provisions permitting an exceedingly lenient treatment of assailants in many of the most affected countries are examined, and the prospects for current criminal justice reforms that play a key role in the fight against honour killings are assessed.Hava Dayan(2019)Female honour Killing: The Role of Low Socio-Economic Status and Rapid Modernization.The study of female honour killing tends to focus on a cultural examination of honour cultures yet lacks exploration of possible social factors that may influence such gendered killing. Possible links between female honour killing incidence and various social factors, among them poverty, low social status, and rapid modernization, were recently postulated, however empirical validation of these hypotheses has yet to be thoroughly explored. This article offers empirical observations of an explorative nature of social factors that may play a role in the frequency of female honour killing.Matthew A. And Goldstein, J.D(2002)The biological roots of heat-of-passion crimes and honour killings.honour killings are universally reported yet vary in incidence culture-tO-culture.While typically among the most violent of domestic attacks, they are to different degrees protected in law.Nearly every culture has, or until recently has had, defences to male culpability based on the supposed effects of provocation. The invention and persistence of these defences needs explanation. This paper considers a biological perspective, in which heat-of-passion crimes and honour killings are understood as maladaptive by-products of an evolved male sexual aggression subject to intensification by external threats to paternal cer-tainty. Moral and procedural implications of this perspective, as well as its limitations, are discussed.Emiroğlu (2008).The violence concept contains attack, stroke, torture, suicide, terrorism and war. In this scope, the violence is identified as doing or making a person do an intentional action or an action not based on his demand by using force and applying pressure on a person, group of persons or a society. The violence is held as a way of special behaviour and it is accepted that a physical injury resulting from such violence is considered as bearing a wrongful intention.Hitchcock et al. (2000)Depending on violence events increasing all over the world, the violence theories have begun getting expanded as a result of the fact that the reason of violence is being investigated. Biological, psychoanalytical, feminist and social learning theories taking place among violence theories approach the prevention of violence, from different viewpoints, by explaining the violence through different reasons. The Social learning theory handles the importance of learning in violence display and considers the violence as preventable.Kardam F(2005),While the violence is studied with its cultural roots on one hand, it is compared to honour killings (such as the ones based on morals or honesty). As this kind of format, honour killings emerge from the culture of the societies, especially from their social values. The most important factor in the occurrence of honour killings is the brutal and pitiless morals. The morals take place within the social “norm” which is a social concept.Kocacık et.al(2000),As for killing on the basis of morals, it is a violence action which is culturally approved by the local community, which is directed to family members, especially to women, corrupting the structure of morals.It is a kind of violence being applied against girls and women putting a strain on the role of sedate and honest person which is expected within the family.Fendoğlu (2008).The violence used against women, with a preamble of killing them for sake of morals and honesty is in undeniable dimension in our country, even if this fact cannot be generalised nationwide. As result of the analysis work covering 81 provinces, conducted by the Public Order Department Presidency of General Security Directorate; in total 1091 honour killings were committed for the sake of morals within the years 2000 and 2005.Özdilek and Resmî Gazete( 2006).In prevention of honour killings, beside all these criminal and juridical measures, it is required that the citizen identity described in the framework of individual rights be acquired to everybody,it would be possible to get out of very stiff honest understanding; to limit applications to morals, even to prevent their execution.Kocacık (2000).Violence is a complex concept having different meanings on the basis of time and society.Stimulation of offensiveness taking place in base of violence could be learned in course of socialisation of the individual as explained on the social learning theory.To research the reasons of violence, honour killing for sake of morals or honesty directed to women and to make away with them, to upgrade the juridical, social, political and economical statutes of women.Roxanne Khan(2018 ),Attitudes towards ‘honour’ violence and killings in collectivist cultures ,This reviews the studies to ascertain whether there are gender differences in attitudes towards ‘honour’ based violence and killings similar to the established paradigm for general interpersonal violence, and if there is any consistency across populations. honour’ based violence has been reported widely across collectivistic cultures,Result of the increased media, social, political, and academic awareness of ‘honour’ crimes in Western Europe and North America, it soon became apparent that the mechanisms underlying perpetrators’ motivations for ‘honour’ violence and killings could be quite divergent from other forms of interpersonal violence.Mikael Kurkiala (2016),Treading on a Minefield: Anthropology and the Debate on honour Killings in Sweden.This research deals with the challenges its author faced in taking part in the highly politicised and morally charged public debates on honour killings in the Swedish press. Among these are avoiding undue over-simplifications while at the same time writing intelligibly and compellingly for a readership of lay persons.Chesler, Phyllis (2021)honour Killing: A Form of Femicide,An honour killing is the cold-blooded murder of girls and women simply because they are female. (This is the definition of femicide.) Being born female in a shame-and- honoured culture is, potentially, a capital crime; every girl has to keep proving that she is not dishonouring her family; even so, an innocent girl can be falsely accused and killed on the spot.Pedja Ilic (2016)honour killing attitudes among San Jose state university students,This study examines honour killing attitudes amongst a sample of sixty graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Justice Studies at San Jose State University and offers a systematic review of published academic literature on honour killings. It hypothesised that students who strongly adhere to patriarchal traditionalism are more likely to endorse legitimacy of honour killings, controlling for gender, education, family size, religion, religiosity/religious conviction, and female chastity expectations. Descriptive findings suggest that the majority of respondents disagree that honour murders are justified, regardless of circumstances, dependent variable honour killing attitudes.Moxnes(2003) honour and shame.honour crimes derive from a conceptualization of honour that is dominant in many ‘honour- based’ communities, particularly in the Mediterranean and Middle East .Notwithstanding local variations in meaning, the concept of honour in such com- munities can best be characterised as the public recognition of one’s moral worth, pres- tige and social standing.Even when honour might signify one’s inner quality in one’s own eyes, it ultimately requires group recognition for validation and confirmation.Kulczycki and Windle,( 2011)honour killings in the Middle East and North Africa,honour killing is one of the most violent acts against women. Based on the reports we reviewed, numerous women fall victim to honour killing despite the efforts of various organisations against this form of violence. As indicated in a recent systematic review despite the gravity and magnitude of the problem there is a paucity of social scientific investigation of this phenomenon.Durkheim(1997)The Division of Labor in Society,collective emotions aim to protect the group by creating soli- darity between group members. The honour system seems to have an important symbolic function to keep group members together and ensure that the rules and roles of the group are upheld. Such honour systems work as a form of social informal control, ensuring that deviance gives rise to emotional reactions of disgust and shame and that deviants from the social and sexual roles face punishment . honour systems are thus an effective way for local communi- ties to protect their members when there is a lack of appropriate social protection by the state and control over their community and its members.Smith A (2004) analyses the statements of a witness of the honour killing of a woman on the Tunisian island of Djerba. The witness was a member of the same com- munity and believed that the action was ‘motivated not by personal interests or individ- ual idiosyncrasies, but by specific cultural codes regarding honourable behaviour.’ In the eyes of the witness, ‘the murder is reframed as a culturally justified, and perhaps even expected, ‘honour’ killing’Vora M,et.al(2020)Honour killings and violence against women in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemicThe incidence of violence against women has increased worldwide since lockdowns to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 were implemented.Iran already had high levels of violence against women, with a reported 8000 so-called honour killings between 2010 and 2014.Honour killings are defined as the perpetration of violence against women by male relatives with the intent to murder.Dayan .H(2019)Female honour killing: the role of low socio-economic status and rapid modernization,Honour killings punish women for bringing so- called disgrace upon their families, for example by refraining from forced marriage, being the victim of rape, getting divorced, having sexual relationships, or adultery. The social construction of honour as a value system, norm, or tradition is the main justification for the perpetration of violence against women.The Middle East and North Africa are commonly identified as the geographical and cultural epicentre of honour killing.Honour killing is more common in countries with very high levels of political Islam; however, religious leaders deny that such violence against women has roots in Islam.

Methodology

The nature of this study is mostly descriptive and analytical.According to the need of this study, all of the data was gathered through secondary sources.The sampling frame is Chennai and the sample size is 200 the independent variables like age,gender,educational qualifications were used. The data gathered through statistical measurements and it was Analysed using SPSS Software. SPSS software was used to Analyse and show the data from the frequency table, cross tabulation, chi-square tests, and ANOVA.In this research McQ type question, open ended and close ended questions, and scaling questions were used.

Hypothesis

Null hypothesis :

There is no relationship between the preferences of the gender of the population and mark your opinion on what causes the rise in honour killing in India.

Alternative hypothesis :

There is a significant relationship between the preferences of the gender of the population and mark your opinion on what causes the rise in honour killing in India.

Data Analysis

Fig 1 :

Legend: Figure 1 represents the gender of the population and marks your opinion on what are the main causes of honour killing in India.

Fig 2 :

Legend: figure 2 represents the educational qualification of the population and whether honour killing is violating women’s right according to article 21 of the Indian constitution.

Fig 3:

Legend: Figure 3 represents the occupation of the population and in the scale of 1 to 10 mark your agree ability towards the practice of honour killing in India

Fig 4:

Legend: Figure 4 represents the income of the population and in what ways the Honour killing is immoral

Fig 5:

Legend: figure 5 represents the age of the population and as per the following control measures mark your agreed ability level that could be the best way of controlling Honour killings in India by educating people both men and women.

Result

Figure 1 Most of the people have answered that the refusal to arrange marriage is 22.50 percent because it is the main cause of honour killing in India. in that the people belonging to the gender category of male answered more.Figure 2 Most of the people have answered yes 28.00% as they feel that honour killing is violating women’s right under article 21 of the Indian constitution under this the educational qualification category of post graduates have answered more.Figure 3 most of the people have answer 4 for the level of agreeability towards the practice of Honour killing in India in that people belonging to the occupation sector of self-employed have answered more.Figure 4 Most of the people have answered that casteism 20.00 % is a way The honour killing is immoral in that people belonging to the income category of above 40,000 have answered more.Figure 5 Most of the people who have answered strongly agree to the statement that educating people both men and women 20.00 % is the best way of controlling Honour killings in India in that people belonging to the age category of below 20 answered more.

Suggestions

Preventing honour killings in India requires a multi-pronged approach that involves addressing the root causes of such killings, changing societal attitudes and beliefs, and implementing effective legal and policy measures. Here are some suggestions:

Education and awareness: Education can play a vital role in changing societal attitudes towards women’s autonomy and their right to choose their life partners. Educational programs can also educate people about the harmful consequences of honour killings and the legal consequences of such crimes.

Strengthening laws: There is a need to strengthen existing laws and policies to prevent honour killings. The government should take a more proactive role in enforcing these laws and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.

Providing support to victims: It is important to provide support and protection to victims of honour killings and their families. This can include providing legal aid, counselling, and rehabilitation services to help them cope with the trauma of the crime.Honour killings are often rooted in patriarchal norms and beliefs that view women as property. Addressing these norms and promoting gender equality can go a long way in preventing such crimes.

Conclusion

References

Dietrich Oberwittler and Julia Kasselt (2014): Oberwittler, D., & Kasselt, J. (2014). Honour killings: An overview of research and theoretical perspectives. European Journal of Criminology, 11(3), 316-334.

Hava Dayan (2019): Dayan, H. (2019). Female honour killing: The role of low socio-economic status and rapid modernization. The Social Science Journal, 56(4), 436-449.

Matthew A. and Goldstein, J.D (2002): Matthew, A., & Goldstein, J. D. (2002). The biological roots of heat-of-passion crimes and honour killings. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 20(5), 501-518.

Emiroğlu (2008): Emiroğlu, K. (2008). Violence and aggression in society. Dusunen Adam, The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, 21(1), 41-47.

Hitchcock JE, Schubert PE, Thomas SA (2000) Community health nursing: Caring in action. Delmar Publishers, Boston.

Kardam F (2005) Birleşmiş Milletler Kalkınma Programı. Türkiye’deki namus cinayetlerinin dinamikleri, eylem programi için öneriler sonuç raporu. http://www.undp.org.tr/TRaboutUsDocvuments/Nam us Cinayetleri.pdf

Kocacık F (2000) Şiddet olgusu üzerine. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi 2, 111.

Fendoğlu HT (2008) T.C. Başbakanlık insan haklari başkanliği töre ve namus cinayetleri raporu. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.kamer.org.tr/eng/ content_images/tore_ namus_cinayetleri_raporu_02_ 07_2008.pdf

Özdilek AO (2006) Töre cinayetlerinin ekonomi politiği. Retrieved July 04, 2009, from http://www.turkhukuksitesi.com/makale_431.ht

Kocacık F (2000) Şiddet olgusu üzerine. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi 2, 111.

Kocacik2000https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.ubxPages 11eBook ISBN 9781315618777

Roxenne Khan, R. (2018). Attitudes towards honour violence and killings in collectivist cultures Aggression and Violent Behaviour 42110-118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2018.08.005

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A CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – ISSUE OF HONOUR KILLING

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