THE NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL ENGLISH IV FOURTH TRIMESTER PROJECT ON HONOUR KILLINGS: A CULTURE OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY NIMISHA JHA ROLL NO .: 2009BALLB01 ENROLMENT NO .: A-0863 PROF. MUKESH SRIVASTAVA 1 | Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. 03 HONOUR KILLINGS: HISTORY. 07 HONOUR KILLINGS: GLOBAL SCENARIO. ... 08 HONOUR KILLINGS: LEGAL MEASURES IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 15 A CULTURE OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN. 19 CAN HONOUR KILLINGS BE JUSTIFIED ??? 24 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 25 2 | Page
INTRODUCTION An honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a family or clan member by one or more fellow (mostly male) family members, in which the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonour upon the family, clan, or community. The perceived dishonour is normally the result of the following behaviours, or the suspicion of such behaviours: (a) Utilizing dress codes unacceptable to the family/community, (b) Wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice, or (c) Engaging in certain sexual acts, including those with the opposite or same sex. Such killings or attempted killings result from the perception that the defence of honour justifies killing a person whose behaviour dishonours their own clan or family. Honour killing is more prevalent where a member of a lower class (wrt, social status or wealth status) marries a person of relatively higher class (high social or wealth status). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the annual worldwide total of honour-killing victims may be as high as 5,000. In the modern age, the term was first used by a Dutch scholar of Turkish society, Ane Nauta in 1978. Nauta sought a term that could be used in contradistinction to the blood feud, with which honour killings should not be confused. 3 | Page