Posted on 06/27/2003 6:43:55 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- Arif has a decision to make. Should his wife live or die?
The reason for this quandary, whether to kill for honor, is starkly simple. Yet it reaches deep into the cultural complexities of life in rural villages in southeastern Turkey and into how men and women define their roles.
So-called honor killings occur around the world, although they are most frequent in countries with large Muslim populations. Recent reports to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights recounted these types of murders in at least 14 countries, including Britain, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Sweden and Turkey.
Advocacy groups estimate that thousands of women are killed each year worldwide in the name of family honor. Precise figures are impossible to determine, however, because so many of the murders are never reported.
In Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, the practice of honor killings isdifficult to eradicate. Though numbers are not available, experts here say that women die regularly throughout the country, particularly in the culturally conservative villages of the southeast.
"Honor killings are a hidden crime," said Leyla Pervizat, a human-rights activist in Turkey. "Sometimes they take the form of an extra-judicial killing. Sometimes they are forced suicides. Sometimes a woman just stumbles down a well. She disappears."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Honor killings are not committed by Arab Muslims alone. Arab Christians are a small minority today in places like Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories, but they account for a proportionate share of those killings, experts say.
IMHO, this paragraph was tossed into that lengthy article so as not to appear to be Islam-bashing. If I was a college prof grading this as a paper, I'd demand footnotes. Nothing personal, I just don't believe it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.