What is “Honor Killing” and why is it so prevelant in a select certain cultures?

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What is the mental gymnastics the culture performs to justify it?

Comments

  1. New-Number-7810 Avatar

    Honor killing is when someone is killed specifically because they harmed their family’s reputation. This mainly occurs in places where the wider family unit is considered more important than the individual, where a large emphasis is placed on family reputation, and where law enforcement is lax. 

    If you have a very individualist society, like those in the West, honor is seen as a personal matter rather than one that affects the group. People usually won’t ostracize your whole family over one member acting out.

  2. TheSilentTitan Avatar

    Usually it’s prevalent in ignorant cultures with little to no access to proper education and dominated primarily by men. Mix that with generational subjugation of a group or gender and you end up with truly backwards practices in cultures with “laws” and “religions” that justify such behavior.

  3. ProverbialProverb Avatar

    It’s a murder committed by a person’s family or partner (or on behalf of them) as a response to something the person has done that has been perceived to be dishonorable. It’s considered that this killing is necessary to restore the honor of the family.

    These ‘dishonorable actions’ are most commonly to do with romantic and/or sexual relations, such as having premarital sex, committing adultery, being raped, or refusing to enter an arranged/forced marriage. However, it can also happen due to things like disability, having friendships with someone of a different race or in a different social class, or even just wearing something perceived to be sexually provocative.

    Women are more often a victim of honor killings than men, as they are typically subject to stricter standards/rules. Female sexuality and even independence from their families’ desires and cultural traditions/expectations are more harshly criticised, which is a problem seen across many (dare I say almost all) cultures, just in different ways.

  4. redstonez Avatar

    It’s common in middle eastern and south Asian cultures where the men are insecure and the women are viewed as property

  5. cumthagod Avatar

    Shoutout Dubai