An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of themselves or their family. Honor killings are often connected to religion, caste and other forms of hierarchical social stratification, or to sexuality. Most often, it involves the murder of a woman or girl by male family members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought dishonor or shame upon the family name, reputation or prestige. Honour killings are believed to have originated from tribal customs. They are prevalent in various parts of the world, it natively happens in the MENA countries and in South Asia especially in India, Pakistan and Nepal. They also occur in immigrant communities in countries which do not otherwise (or historically) have societal norms that encourage honor killings. Honor killings are often associated with rural and tribal areas, but they occur in urban areas too. Although condemned by international conventions and human rights organizations, honor killings are often justified and encouraged by various communities.
Europe
The issue of honor killings has risen to prominence in Europe in recent years, prompting the need to address the occurrence of honor killings. The 2009 European Parliamentary Assembly noted this in their Resolution 1681 which noted the dire need to address honor crimes. The resolution stated that:
The Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (HBVA) writes:
According to Anthropologist Charles Stewart, the majority of honor killings are committed by first generation migrants against "second and third generation migrants" who have become Westernized.
According to a study investigating 67 honor killings in Europe 1989-2009 by psychologist Phyllis Chesler, published in the Middle East Quarterly journal, 96% of honor murder perpetrators in Europe were Muslim and 68% of victims were tortured before they died.
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence prohibits honor killings. Article 42 reads:
Albania
Honor-based violence has a long tradition in Albania, and although it is much rarer today than it was in the past, it still exists. The Kanun is a set of traditional Albanian laws and customs. Honor (in Albanian: Nderi) is one of the four pillars on which the Kanun is based. Honor crimes happen, especially in northern Albania. In Albania (and in other parts of the Balkans), the phenomenon of blood feuds between males was more common historically than honor killings of females, but honor-based violence against women and girls has become more common in recent years.
Belgium
In 2011, Belgium held its first honor killing trial, in which four Pakistani family members were found guilty of murdering their daughter and sibling, Sadia Sheikh.
As a legacy of the very influential Napoleonic Code, before 1997, Belgian law provided for mitigating circumstances in the case of a killing or an assault against a spouse caught in the act of adultery. Adultery itself was decriminalized in Belgium in 1987.
Denmark
Ghazala Khan was shot and murdered in Denmark in September 2005 by her brother, after she had married against the will of the family. She was of Pakistani origin. Her murder was ordered by her father to save her family's 'honor' and several relatives were involved. Sentences considered harsh by Danish standards were handed out to all nine accused members of her family, and permanent banishment was ordered for those who were not Danish citizens.
Finland The first case of an honor killing in Finland happened in 2015 when an Iraqi man was sentenced to two years in prison for planning to murder his 16-year-old sister. He was also sentenced for assault. He and their mother had forbidden his sister from meeting people her own age and leaving the home beyond going to school.
In 2019, a 48-year-old Iraqi attempted to murder his 40-year-old ex-wife because she was associated with other men. The stabbing was done at an educational institution where both were studying. When she turned around, he stabbed her in the back. She was seriously wounded but survived. According to the accused, he was ridiculed by his friends because the couple had arrived in Finland in 2015 and divorced shortly after arriving.
France
France has a large immigrant community from North Africa (especially from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and honor-based violence occurs in this community, according to a 1995 article.Geesy, Patricia "North African Immigrants in France: Integration and Change" 1995 Substance 77(76) p137. A 2009 report by the Council of Europe cited the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, and Norway as countries where honor crimes and honor killings occur.
France traditionally provided for leniency concerning honor crimes, particularly when they were committed against women who had committed adultery. The French Penal Code of 1810, established under Napoleon Bonaparte, is one of the origins of the legal leniency concerning adultery-related killings in a variety of legal systems in several countries around the world. Prior to 1975, the French Penal Code stated at article 324 that "in the case of adultery, provide for by article 336, murder committed upon the wife as well as upon her accomplice, at the moment when the husband shall have caught them in the fact, in the house where the husband and wife dwell, is excusable" [meaning a punishment of 1 to 5 years, according to article 326]. This defense was available only for a husband, not for a wife. Leniency for such crimes in traditional French culture was strongly associated with the literary world of the 19th century which romanticized such homicides; stories about adulterous women, suicides and homicides committed due to 'passion' featured prominently in French literature in the 19th century, and "In literature as in life, unconventional women needed to be severely punished lest their defiant attitudes inspire further acts of rebellion". France also had a strong culture of dueling meant to uphold honor, and France was called by the National Geographic "the dueling capital of Europe".
The Napoleonic Code has been very influential, and many countries, which were former French colonies, or were inspired by French legal norms, enacted laws providing for lesser penalties or even acquittal for such crimes. The 1810 penal code Article 324 passed by Napoleon was copied by Middle Eastern Arab countries. It inspired Jordan's Article 340 which permitted the murder of a wife and her lover if caught in the act at the hands of her husband (today the article provides for mitigating circumstances). France's 1810 Penal Code Article 324 also inspired the 1858 Ottoman Penal Code's Article 188, both the French Article 324 and Ottoman article 188 were drawn on to create Jordan's Article 340 which was retained even after a 1944 revision of Jordan's laws which did not touch public conduct and family law; article 340 still applies to this day in a modified form. France's Mandate over Lebanon resulted in its penal code being imposed there in 1943–1944, with the French-inspired Lebanese law for adultery allowing the mere accusation of adultery against women resulting in a maximum punishment of two years in prison while men have to be caught in the act and not merely accused, and are punished with only one year in prison.
France's Article 324 inspired laws in other Arab countries such as:
Algeria's 1991 Penal Code Article 279 Egypt's 1937 Penal Code no. 58 Article 237 Iraq's 1966 Penal Code Article 409 Jordan's 1960 Penal Code no. 16 Article 340 Kuwait's Penal Code Article 153 Lebanon's Penal Code Articles 193, 252, 253 and 562 These were amended in 1983, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1999 and were eventually repealed by the Lebanese Parliament on 4 August 2011 Libya's Penal Code Article 375 Morocco's 1963 amended Penal Code Article 418 Oman's Penal Code Article 252 Palestine, which had two codes: Jordan's 1960 Penal Code 1960 in the West Bank and British Mandate Criminal Code Article 18 in the Gaza Strip These were respectively repealed by Article 1 and Article 2 and both by Article 3 of the 2011 Law no. 71 which was signed on 5 May 2011 by president Mahmoud Abbas into the 10 October 2011 Official Gazette no. 91 applying in the Criminal Code of Palestine's Northern Governorates and Southern Governorates Syria's 1953 amended 1949 Penal Code Article 548 Tunisia's 1991 Penal Code Article 207 (which was repealed) United Arab Emirate's law no.3/1978 Article 334 Yemen's law no. 12/1994 Article 232
The Napoleonic Code was also influential in Latin America; Haiti, a former French colony, maintained an honor killing law similar to that of the Napoleonic Code until 2005, when it was repealed. The Napoleonic Code was also influential in the "marry-your-rapist laws" (in force in France until 1994), which were exported to other parts of the world too.
Germany
Investigating criminal records for partner homicides from the years 1996–2005, the German Federal Criminal Police Office concluded that there were about 12 cases of honor killings in Germany per year, including cases involving collective family honor and individual male honor, out of an average about 700 annual homicides. An accompanying study of all homicides in Baden-Württemberg shows that men from Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Albania have a between three and five times overrepresentation for partner homicides, both honor and non-honor-related. The causes for the higher rate were given as low education and social status of these groups along with cultural traditions of violence against women. A 2009 book on honor killings reported that in some cases of honor killing that were brought before German courts, murder charges had been reduced to manslaughter. This has been called the "honor defense".
In 2005 Der Spiegel reported: "In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been murdered by family members". The article went on to cover the case of Hatun Sürücü, a Turkish woman who was murdered by her brother for not staying with the husband she was forced to marry, and for "living like a German". Precise statistics on how many women die every year in such honor killings are hard to come by, as many crimes are never reported, said Myria Boehmecke of the Tübingen-based women's group Terre des Femmes. The group tries to protect Muslim girls and women from oppressive families. The Turkish women's organization Papatya has documented 40 instances of honor killings in Germany since 1996. Hatun Sürücü's brother was convicted of murder and jailed for nine years and three months by a German court in 2006. In 2001, Turkish immigrant Mikdat Sacin murdered his 18-year-old daughter Funda Sacin as she refused to marry her cousin from Ankara, Turkey in a forced marriage and secretly married her boyfriend instead. Mikdat S. has fled to his home country Turkey and has yet to come before a court. In 2005, twenty-five-year-old Turkish man Ali Karabey murdered his sister Gönul Karabey for having a German boyfriend. "She disgraced the family", he testified and he felt called upon to punish her with death. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court in 2006.
In 2008, Afghan Morsal Obeidi was murdered by her brother in Hamburg. - Original German version: - PDF page In 2010, Turkish immigrant and devout Muslim Mehmet Özkan murdered his 15-year-old daughter Büsra Özkan because she refused to live an Islamic lifestyle and would chat with a young man she recently met. In 2016 an Arab woman was shot dead at her wedding in Hannover for allegedly refusing to marry her cousin in a forced marriage.