Honor killing#Europe

Human Rights Watch defines "honor killings" as follows:

Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons including, refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has acted in a manner to bring "dishonor" to the family is sufficient to trigger an attack.{{cite web |title=Violence Against Women and "Honor" Crimes |url=https://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/un_oral12_0405.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041028023841/https://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/un_oral12_0405.htm |archive-date=28 October 2004 |access-date=6 April 2001 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}

Men can also be the victims of honor killings, either committed by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship; or by the members of their own families, the latter often connected to homosexuality or disability diagnosis.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39485348|title=Male 'honour' cases 'underreported'|last1=Razzall|first1=Katie|date=11 April 2017|access-date=28 January 2019|last2=Khan|first2=Yasminara|language=en-GB|archive-date=28 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128095838/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39485348|url-status=live}}[http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010816171115397111.html Afghan couple stoned to death – Central & South Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104051123/http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010816171115397111.html |date=4 November 2011 }}. Al Jazeera English (16 August 2010). Retrieved 1 October 2011.{{Cite web |title=Honour Based Abuse and Violence |url=https://derbyshirescbs.proceduresonline.com/p_honor_based_viol.html#:~:text=Girls%20and%20women%20are%20particularly,disability,%20sexuality%20and%20mental%20health. |access-date=2024-08-13 |website=Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership}}

Many honor killings are planned by multiple members of a family, sometimes through a formal "family council". The threat of murder is used as a means to control behavior, especially concerning sexuality and marriage, which may be seen as a duty for some or all family members to uphold. Family members may feel compelled to act to preserve the reputation of the family in the community and avoid stigma or shunning, particularly in tight-knit communities.{{cite web |url=http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/ |title=FAQ |publisher=Hbv-awareness.com |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=15 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815114026/http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/ |url-status=live }} Perpetrators often do not face negative stigma within their communities, because their behavior is seen as justified.{{cite web |url=http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p1.html |title=Introduction – Preliminary Examination of so-called Honour Killings in Canada |publisher=Justice.gc.ca |date=24 September 2013 |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=15 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215204942/http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p1.html |url-status=live }}

File:Mediterranean_Relief,_1028_x_1024.jpg

File:Middle east.jpg

File:South_Asia_non_political,_with_rivers.jpg, a region where honor killings occur too, namely by reasons of caste]]

Reliable figures of honor killings are hard to obtain, in large part because "honor" is either improperly defined or is defined in ways other than in Article 12 of the UDHR (block-quoted above) without a clear follow-up explanation. As a result, criteria are hardly ever given for objectively determining whether a given case is an instance of honor killing. Because of the lack of both a clear definition of "honor" and coherent criteria, it is often presupposed that more women than men are victims of honor killings, and victim counts often contain women exclusively.Malik, I.H. (2005). Culture and Customs of Pakistan. Greenwood Press, Westport; Çakır, R., Yavuz, M. F., and Demircan, T. (2004). Türkiye'de, Namus Saikiyle İşlenen Adam Öldürme Suçlarının Değerlendirilmesi [Evaluation of Honor Related Homicides in Turkey] Adli Tıp Dergisi [Journal of Forensic Medicine], 18(3-4):27–33. Öztürk, M.and Demirdağ, M.A. (2013). Namusunu Kanla Temizleyenler: Mardin Cezaevi'nde Namus Davası Nedeniyle Yatan Mahkûmlar Üzerine bir Araştırma [The Ones Who Restored Their Honour With Blood: A Sociological Research On Prisoners Convicted for Honour Related Issues in the Mardin Jailhouse]. Sosyal Politika Çalışmaları, 7(30):117–135. See also Ermers, R., 2018. Honor Related Violence. A New Social Psychological Perspective, Routledge, p. 196-197.

Honor killings occur in many parts of the world, but are most widely reported in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.{{cite web|url = https://www.amnestyusa.org/the-horror-of-honor-killings-even-in-us/|title = The Horror of 'Honor Killings', Even in US|date = 10 April 2012|access-date = 5 May 2020|archive-date = 27 June 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200627140540/https://www.amnestyusa.org/the-horror-of-honor-killings-even-in-us/|url-status = live}}

{{cite web|url=https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/09/honor-killings-united-nations-pakistan/85642786/|title='Honor killings': 5 things to know|access-date=28 September 2021|archive-date=22 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222223802/https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/09/honor-killings-united-nations-pakistan/85642786/|url-status=live}}

{{cite web|url=https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/tag/honor-killings/|title=Honor killings – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog|access-date=28 September 2021|archive-date=28 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928183034/https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/tag/honor-killings/|url-status=live}} Historically, honor killings were also common in Southern Europe, until relatively recently. Generational family feuds resulting in murders continue to take place in Sardinia in the 21st century.{{cite news | url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/article/ten-killed-in-two-decade-family-feud-t7dspmtc5 | title=Ten killed in two-decade family feud | date=14 September 2023 | last1=Rome | first1=Tom Kington }}

In French culture, stories about such homicides were romanticized and featured prominently in French literature of 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".{{cite journal | url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11623654/ | pmid=11623654 | year=1999 | last1=Lieberman | first1=L. | title=Crimes of reason, crimes of passion: Suicide and the adulterous woman in nineteenth-century France | journal=Journal of Family History | volume=24 | issue=2 | pages=131–147 | doi=10.1177/036319909902400201 | s2cid=10012012 }} In Corsica, there was a strong custom of vendetta, which required Corsicans to murder anyone who wronged their family honor. Between 1821 and 1852 approximately 4,300 vendetta killings were perpetrated in Corsica.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/20/corsica-intrigue-crime-politics | title=On Corsica, the intrigue of crime and politics claims another life | newspaper=The Guardian | date=20 October 2012 | last1=Willsher | first1=Kim }} 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".{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/why-france-dueling-capital-europe | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320151004/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/why-france-dueling-capital-europe | archive-date=20 March 2021 | title=Why France was the dueling capital of Europe | website=National Geographic Society | date=19 August 2020 }}

Honor is a common theme in classical Spanish literature, being an integral part of the traditional Spanish culture; one of the most well known Spanish literary works dealing with the concept of honor is El médico de su honra by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The short story The Point of Honour by English writer W. Somerset Maugham makes reference to El médico de su honra and discusses the role of honor in Spanish society at the end of the 19th century. The concept of honor was studied extensively by anthropologists from the Mediterranean culture, where women's chastity played a major role in those cultures of honor.{{cite web | url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199766581/obo-9780199766581-0188.xml | title=Honor in Latin America, to 1900 }}

Methods of murdering include stoning, stabbing, beating, burning, beheading, hanging, throat slashing, lethal acid attacks, shooting, and strangulation.{{cite web|title=Femicide: A Global Issue that demands Action|url=http://www.genevadeclaration.org/fileadmin/docs/Co-publications/Femicide_A%20Gobal%20Issue%20that%20demands%20Action.pdf|website=Genevadeclaration.org|publisher=Academic Council on the United Nations System|page=60|access-date=20 May 2018|archive-date=30 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630215522/http://www.genevadeclaration.org/fileadmin/docs/Co-publications/Femicide_A%20Gobal%20Issue%20that%20demands%20Action.pdf|url-status=live}} Sometimes, communities perform murders in public to warn others in the community of the possible consequences of engaging in what is seen as illicit behavior.

Often, minor girls and boys are selected by the family to act as the murderers, so that the murderer may benefit from the most favorable legal outcome. Boys and sometimes women in the family are often asked to closely control and monitor the behavior of their siblings or other members of the family, to ensure that they do not do anything to tarnish the 'honor' and 'reputation' of the family. The boys are often asked to carry out the murder, and if they refuse, they may face serious repercussions from the family and community for failing to perform their "duty".{{cite web|title=Honour Related Violence|url=http://www.humanrights.ch/upload/pdf/070419_Kvinnoforum_HRV.pdf|website=Humanrights.ch|publisher=Kvinnoforum|access-date=20 May 2018|year=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024614/http://www.humanrights.ch/upload/pdf/070419_Kvinnoforum_HRV.pdf|archive-date=5 March 2016|url-status=dead}}

{{Further|Namus}}

The cultural features which lead to honor killings are complex. Honor killings involve violence and fear as tools for maintaining control. Honor killings are argued to have their origins among nomadic peoples and herdsmen: such populations carry all their valuables with them and risk having them stolen, and they do not have proper recourse to law. As a result, inspiring fear, using aggression, and cultivating a reputation for violent revenge to protect property is preferable to other behaviors. In societies where there is a weak rule of law, people must build fierce reputations.{{cite web |url=http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |title=Historical Context – Origins of Honour Killing / Honour Killing – Worldwide / Honour Killing – In Countries with Islamic Law – Preliminary Examination of so-called Honour Killings in Canada |publisher=Justice.gc.ca |date=24 September 2013 |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=15 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215194049/http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |url-status=live }}

In many cultures where honor is of a central value, men are sources, or active generators/agents, of that honor, while the only effect that women can have on honor is to destroy it. Once the family's or clan's honor is considered to have been destroyed by a woman, there is a need for immediate revenge to restore it, for the family to avoid losing face in the community. An Amnesty International statement notes:

{{blockquote|The regime of honor is unforgiving: women on whom suspicion has fallen are not allowed to defend themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative but to remove the stain on their honor by attacking the woman.{{cite web|title=Broken bodies, shattered minds: Torture and ill-treatment of women|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT40/001/2001|publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=6 March 2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215092414/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT40/001/2001|archive-date=15 February 2008}}}}

The relation between social views on female sexuality and honor killings are complex. The way through which women in honor-based societies are considered to bring dishonor to men is often through their sexual behavior. Indeed, violence related to female sexual expression has been documented since Ancient Rome, when the pater familias had the right to murder an unmarried sexually active daughter or an adulterous wife. In medieval Europe, early Jewish law mandated stoning for an adulterous wife and her partner.

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, an anthropology professor at Rhode Island College, writes that an act, or even alleged act, of any female sexual misconduct, upsets the moral order of the culture, and bloodshed is the only way to remove any shame brought by the actions and restore social equilibrium.{{cite web|title=Cultural Relativism and Universal Rights |url=http://www.neiu.edu/~circill/luedke/anth212/cultu.pdf |first=Carolyn |last=Fluehr-Lobban |access-date=2 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619113253/http://www.neiu.edu/~circill/luedke/anth212/cultu.pdf |archive-date=19 June 2012 }} However, the relation between honor and female sexuality is a complicated one, and some authors argue that it is not women's sexuality per se that is the 'problem', but rather women's self-determination in regard to it, as well as fertility. Sharif Kanaana, professor of anthropology at Birzeit University, says that honor killing is:

{{blockquote|A complicated issue that cuts deep into the history of Islamic society. .. What the men of the family, clan, or tribe seek control of in a patrilineal society is reproductive power. Women for the tribe were considered a factory for making men. Honor killing is not a means to control sexual power or behavior. What's behind it is the issue of fertility or reproductive power.{{cite web|title=Commodifying Honor in Female Sexuality: Honor Killings in Palestine|url=http://merip.org/mer/mer206/commodifying-honor-female-sexuality|publisher=Middle East Research and Information Project|first=Suzanne|last=Ruggi|date=8 June 1998|access-date=8 February 2008}}}}

In some cultures, honor killings are considered less serious than other murders simply because they arise from long-standing cultural traditions and are thus deemed appropriate or justifiable. Additionally, according to a poll done by the BBC's Asian network, 1 in 10 of the 500 young South Asians surveyed said they would condone any murder of someone who threatened their family's honor.{{cite news|title=One in 10 'backs honor killings'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5311244.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=8 December 2001|archive-date=30 November 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081130101349/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5311244.stm|url-status=live}}

Nighat Taufeeq of the women's resource center Shirkatgah in Lahore, Pakistan says: "It is an unholy alliance that works against women: the killers take pride in what they have done, the tribal leaders condone the act and protect the killers and the police connive the cover-up."[http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/stop-violence-against-women-svaw/honor-killings/page.do?id=1108230 Culture of Discrimination: A Fact Sheet on "Honor" Killings] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219130620/http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/stop-violence-against-women-svaw/honor-killings/page.do?id=1108230 |date=19 February 2011 }}. Amnesty International. Retrieved 1 October 2011. The lawyer and human rights activist Hina Jilani says, "The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions."{{cite web|title=PAKISTAN Honour killings of girls and women|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/018/1999/en/|publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=15 April 2008|archive-date=13 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913163626/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA33/018/1999/en/|url-status=dead}}

A July 2008 Turkish study by a team from Dicle University on honor killings in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, the predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey, has so far shown that little if any social stigma is attached to honor killing. It also comments that the practice is not related to a feudal societal structure, "there are also perpetrators who are well-educated university graduates. Of all those surveyed, 60 percent are either high school or university graduates or at the very least, literate."{{cite news|title=Honor killing perpetrators welcomed by society, study reveals|url=http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=147349&bolum=101|newspaper=Today's Zaman|first=Murat|last=Gezer|access-date=15 July 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080719085429/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=147349&bolum=101 |archive-date = 19 July 2008}}{{cite web|title=Feminist Analysis of Honor Killings in Rural Turkey|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitsream/1807/17543/1/cultureofhonour.pdf|publisher=University of Toronto|first=AYSAN|last=SEV'ER|access-date=2 January 2015}} {{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In contemporary times, the changing cultural and economic status of women has also been used to explain the occurrences of honor killings. Women in largely patriarchal cultures who have gained economic independence from their families go against their male-dominated culture. Some researchers argue that the shift towards greater responsibility for women and less for their fathers may cause their male family members to act in oppressive and sometimes violent manners to regain authority.{{cite journal|title=Customary Killings in Turkey and Turkish Modernization|first1=Hilal Onur|last1=Ince|first2=Aysun|last2=Yarali|first3=Dogancan|last3=Ozsel|doi=10.1080/00263200903009593|volume=45|issue=4|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|pages=537–551|year=2009|s2cid=144871658}}

Fareena Alam, former editor of the British Muslim magazine Q-News, writes that honor killings which arise in Western cultures such as Britain are a tactic for immigrant families to cope with the alienating consequences of urbanization. Alam argues that immigrants remain close to the home culture and their relatives because it provides a safety net. She writes that {{blockquote|In villages "back home", a man's sphere of control was broader, with a large support system. In our cities full of strangers, there is virtually no control over who one's family members sit, talk or work with.}}

Alam argues that it is thus the attempt to regain control and the feelings of alienation that ultimately leads to an honor killing.{{cite news|title=Take the Honor Out of Killing|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/06/religion.prisonsandprobation|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Fareena|last=Alam|access-date=2 December 2011|location=London|date=6 July 2004|archive-date=28 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828035407/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/06/religion.prisonsandprobation|url-status=live}}

{{main|Forced marriage}}

Refusal of an arranged marriage or forced marriage is often a cause of an honor killing. The family that has prearranged the marriage risks disgrace if the marriage does not proceed,{{cite web |url=http://www.honordiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HD-FactSheet-HonorViolenceEast.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621134325/http://www.honordiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HD-FactSheet-HonorViolenceEast.pdf |archive-date=21 June 2017 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml |title=Ethics: Honour crimes |publisher=BBC |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=23 December 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053506/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17543/1/cultureofhonour.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 September 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054406/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17543/1/cultureofhonour.pdf |url-status=live }} and the betrothed is indulged in a relationship with another individual without prior knowledge of the family members.

A woman attempting to obtain a divorce or separation without the consent of the husband/extended family can also be a trigger for honor killings. In cultures where marriages are arranged and goods are often exchanged between families, a woman's desire to seek a divorce is often viewed as an insult to the men who negotiated the deal. By making their marital problems known outside the family, the women are seen as exposing the family to public dishonor.

In certain cultures, an allegation against a woman can be enough to tarnish her family's reputation, and to trigger an honor killing: the family's fear of being ostracized by the community is enormous.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml#h1 |title=Ethics: Honour crimes |publisher=BBC |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=23 December 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053506/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml#h1 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |first=Bhaskar |last=Dasgupta |url=http://www.countercurrents.org/gender-dasgupta210204.htm |title=No Honour in Honour Killings |publisher=countercurrents.org |date=21 February 2004 |access-date=23 December 2013 |archive-date=11 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211120014/http://www.countercurrents.org/gender-dasgupta210204.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.octevaw-cocvff.ca/sites/all/files/pdf/factsheets/Honour_Killing.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=21 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921061605/http://www.octevaw-cocvff.ca/sites/all/files/pdf/factsheets/Honour_Killing.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2013 }}

{{main|Victim blaming}}

In many cultures, victims of rape face severe violence, including honor killings, from their families and relatives. In many parts of the world, women whom men have raped are considered to have brought 'dishonor' or 'disgrace' to their families.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml |title=Ethics – Honour crimes |publisher=BBC |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=16 August 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053506/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/honourcrimes/crimesofhonour_1.shtml |url-status=live }} This is especially the case if the victim becomes pregnant.{{cite news |last=Harter |first=Pascale |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13760895 |title=Libya rape victims 'face honour killings' |publisher=BBC |date=14 June 2011 |access-date=16 August 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921101600/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13760895 |url-status=live }}

Central to the code of honor, a woman's virginity, in many societies must be preserved until marriage.{{cite web |url=http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/5180/1/STARV24N1-2A4.pdf?origin=publication_detail |title=Archived copy |access-date=16 June 2014 |archive-date=13 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413024139/https://bitstream/handle/1808/5180/STARV24N1-2A4.pdf;jsessionid=21CA1C0650AA05657791E132497020A1?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}

{{Further|Violence against LGBT people}}

There is evidence that homosexuality can also be perceived as grounds for honor killing by relatives. It is not only same-sex sexual acts that trigger violence—behaviors that are regarded as inappropriate gender expression (e.g. male acting or dressing in a "feminine way") can also raise suspicion and lead to honor violence.

In one case, a gay Jordanian man was shot and wounded by his brother.{{cite news|title=Gay Jordanian now 'gloriously free' in Canada |first=Marina |last=Jimenez |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=https://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20040520%2FGAY20%2FTPNational%2FTopStories&ord=1145130566379&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |access-date=20 May 2004 |location=Toronto |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073849/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20040520%2FGAY20%2FTPNational%2FTopStories&ord=1145130566379&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true |archive-date=30 September 2007}} In another case, in 2008, a homosexual Turkish-Kurdish student, Ahmet Yıldız, was shot outside a cafe and later died in the hospital. Sociologists have called this Turkey's first publicized gay honor killing.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/europe/26turkey.html|title=Soul-Searching in Turkey After a Gay Man Is Killed|first=Dan|last=Bilefsky|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 November 2009|access-date=16 February 2017|archive-date=6 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006012300/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/europe/26turkey.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.taz.de/!5156656/|title=Ehrenmord in der Türkei: "Jeder soll wissen, ich bin schwul"|first=Deniz|last=Yücel|work=die Tageszeitung|date=7 September 2009|access-date=16 April 2016|archive-date=15 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415083110/http://www.taz.de/!5156656/|url-status=live}}The German Democratic Turkey Forum (DTF) has prepared a [http://www.tuerkeiforum.net/enw/index.php/The_killing_of_Ahmet_Y%C4%B1ld%C4%B1z_%282008%29 report with details on the killing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108234318/http://www.tuerkeiforum.net/enw/index.php/The_killing_of_Ahmet_Y%C4%B1ld%C4%B1z_%282008%29 |date=8 November 2017 }} and the subsequent court case. Retrieved 31 March 2011.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/europe/26turkey.html|title=Soul-Searching in Turkey After a Gay Man Is Killed|last=Bilefsky|first=Dan|date=26 November 2009|newspaper=The New York Times|pages=A16|access-date=26 November 2009|archive-date=6 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006012300/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/europe/26turkey.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-ahmet-yildiz-the-victim-of-turkeys-first-gay-honour-killing-871822.html|title=Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey's first gay honor killing?|first=Nicholas|last=Birch|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=27 September 2008|location=London|date=19 July 2008|archive-date=25 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625135723/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-ahmet-yildiz-the-victim-of-turkeys-first-gay-honour-killing-871822.html|url-status=live}} In 2012, a 17-year-old gay youth was murdered by his father in Turkey in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.{{cite web |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?pageID=238&nid=47579 |title=Father confesses to killing his own son in landmark homosexual murder case – LOCAL |work=Hürriyet Daily News |date=13 September 2011 |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=2 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502224749/http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?pageID=238&nid=47579 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/02/father-gets-life-imprisonment-for-murdering-gay-son-in-turkey/ |title=Father gets life imprisonment for murdering gay son in Turkey – LGBTQ Nation |publisher=Lgbtqnation.com |date=2 July 2012 |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424203609/http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/02/father-gets-life-imprisonment-for-murdering-gay-son-in-turkey/ |archive-date=24 April 2015 |url-status=dead }}

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states that "claims made by LGBT persons often reveal exposure to physical and sexual violence, extended periods of detention, medical abuse, the threat of execution and honor killing."[http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/48abd5660.html UNHCR Guidance Note on Refugee Claims Relating to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, II, B. para 14] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207064715/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/48abd5660.html/ |date=7 December 2016 }}. United Nations High Commission for Refugees.org (21 November 2008). Retrieved 1 October 2011.

A 2019 study found that antigay "honor" abuse found more support in four surveyed Asian countries (India, Iran, Malaysia, and Pakistan) and among Asian British people than in a White British sample. The study also found that women and younger people were less likely to support such "honor" abuse. Muslims and Hindus were substantially more likely to approve of "honor" abuse than Christians or Buddhists, who scored lowest of the examined religious groups.{{cite journal |last1=Lowe |first1=Michelle |last2=Khan |first2=Roxanne |last3=Thanzami |first3=Vanlal |last4=Barzy |first4=Mahsa |last5=Karmaliani |first5=Rozina |title=Anti-gay "Honor" Abuse: A Multinational Attitudinal Study of Collectivist- Versus Individualist-Orientated Populations in Asia and England |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |date=2021 |volume=36 |issue=15–16 |pages=7866–7885 |doi=10.1177/0886260519838493 |pmid=30924715 |s2cid=85566154 |url=http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/26187/8/26187%20JIP_%20Attiitudes%20AntiGay%20HBV%20-%28ACCEPTED%20DOI%2022.02.2019%29%20CLOK.pdf |access-date=25 August 2021 |archive-date=3 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103171333/http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/26187/8/26187%20JIP_%20Attiitudes%20AntiGay%20HBV%20-%28ACCEPTED%20DOI%2022.02.2019%29%20CLOK.pdf |url-status=live }}

In many honor-based cultures, a woman maintains her honor through her modesty. If a man disrupts a woman's modesty—such as through dating or having sex with her, especially if she was a virgin—the man has dishonored the woman, even if the relationship is consensual. Thus to restore the woman's lost honor, the male members of her family will often beat and murder the offender. Sometimes, violence extends to the offender's family members, since honor feud attacks are seen as family conflicts. In one case, a 16-year-old British Bangladeshi schoolboy from Blackburn, Lancashire was abducted and attacked by his Pakistani girlfriend's uncle, father, cousin and brother for dating her in an 'Honour Beating'.{{cite web|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1347&context=clr|title=Male Asylum Applicants Who Fear Becoming the Victims of Honor Killings: The Case for Gender Equality|access-date=12 February 2019|archive-date=12 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212130724/https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1347&context=clr|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Blackburn men jailed for 'honour attack' on boy, 16 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-42459644 |work=BBC News |date=22 December 2017}}

{{Further|Caste}}

Some cultures have very strong caste social systems, based on social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, customary social interaction, and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. The caste system in India is such an example. In such cultures, it is often expected that one marries and forms closed associations only within one's caste, and avoids lower castes. When these rules are violated, this can result in violence, including honor killings.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-women-crime-idUSKBN1EN0O4|title=In south India, a 20-year-old survivor of honor killing turns crusader|newspaper=Reuters|date=29 December 2017|via=www.reuters.com|access-date=11 June 2021|archive-date=11 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611133026/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-women-crime-idUSKBN1EN0O4|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/in-tamil-nadu-anatomy-of-a-caste-crime-families-devastated-by-honour-killings-speak-of-the-scourge-7033391.html|title=In Tamil Nadu, anatomy of a caste crime: Families devastated by honour killings speak of the scourge|date=August 2019 |access-date=10 July 2020|archive-date=22 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822231017/https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/in-tamil-nadu-anatomy-of-a-caste-crime-families-devastated-by-honour-killings-speak-of-the-scourge-7033391.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/150320/caste-kills-more-in-india-than-coronavirus.html|title=Caste kills more in India than coronavirus|date=15 March 2020|access-date=11 June 2021|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125171100/https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/150320/caste-kills-more-in-india-than-coronavirus.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45570981|title = India killing: 'My father ordered my husband's murder'|work = BBC News|date = 20 September 2018|access-date = 11 June 2021|archive-date = 11 June 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210611133026/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45570981|url-status = live}}

{{Further|Purdah}}

In some cultures, women are expected to have a primarily domestic role. Such ideas are often based on practices like purdah. Purdah is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim (especially South Asian) and Hindu communities; it often requires having women stay indoors, the avoiding of socialization between men and women, and full body covering of women, such as burqa and hijab. When these rules are violated, including by dressing in a way deemed inappropriate or displaying behavior seen as disobedient, the family may respond with violence up to honor killings.{{cite news| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-pakistan-five-girls-were-killed-for-having-fun-then-the-story-took-an-even-darker-twist/2016/12/16/f2adbd5e-c13a-11e6-92e8-c07f4f671da4_story.html| title = In Pakistan, five girls were killed for having fun. Then the story took an even darker twist| newspaper = The Washington Post| access-date = 11 June 2021| archive-date = 8 December 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201208214508/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-pakistan-five-girls-were-killed-for-having-fun-then-the-story-took-an-even-darker-twist/2016/12/16/f2adbd5e-c13a-11e6-92e8-c07f4f671da4_story.html| url-status = live}}{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/18/asia/pakistan-honor-killing-hnk-intl/index.html|title=Pakistani women murdered after leaked video circulates online|date=18 May 2020 |access-date=2 June 2020|archive-date=2 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602203154/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/18/asia/pakistan-honor-killing-hnk-intl/index.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27619669|title = Why do families kill their daughters?|work = BBC News|date = 29 May 2014|access-date = 20 June 2018|archive-date = 23 June 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180623004024/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27619669|url-status = live}}

{{Further|Apostasy|Blasphemy|Heresy|Interfaith marriage}}

Violating religious dogma, such as changing or renouncing religion can trigger honor killings.{{cite web |url=http://www.stophonourkillings.com/about |title=About – Stop Honour Killings |publisher=Stophonourkillings.com |date= |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505204312/https://www.stophonourkillings.com/about/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-05-08-voa58-66554367/554684.html |title=Honor Killings Fuel Tensions in Iraq's Kurdish North |publisher=Voice of America |date=2009-10-27 |access-date=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125062349/https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-05-08-voa58-66554367/554684.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/454614/honour-killing-couple-who-converted-to-islam-%E2%80%98killed-by-family%E2%80%99 |title=Honour killing: Couple who converted to Islam 'killed by family' |publisher=Tribune.com.pk |date=2012-10-21 |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125070901/https://tribune.com.pk/story/454614/honour-killing-couple-who-converted-to-islam-%E2%80%98killed-by-family%E2%80%99 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |author=Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com) |url=https://www.dw.com/en/when-muslims-renounce-their-faith/a-17574172 |title=When Muslims renounce their faith | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 17.04.2014 |publisher=DW |date= |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125065034/https://www.dw.com/en/when-muslims-renounce-their-faith/a-17574172 |url-status=live }} Such ideas are supported by laws in some countries: blasphemy is punishable by death in Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia; and punishable by prison in many other countries.{{cite web |author=Text by: Sophie GORMAN |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20181031-blasphemy-middle-east-asia-bibi-europe-law-religion-ireland |title=Blasphemy is a crime not only in Pakistan, but Europe too |publisher=France24.com |date= 31 October 2018|accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125062347/https://www.france24.com/en/20181031-blasphemy-middle-east-asia-bibi-europe-law-religion-ireland |url-status=live }} Apostasy is also illegal in 25 countries,{{cite web |first=Virginia |last=Villa |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/29/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ |title=40% of world's countries and territories had blasphemy laws in 2019 | Pew Research Center |publisher=Pewresearch.org |date=2021-09-30 |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725201505/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/ |url-status=live }} in some punishable with the death penalty.{{cite web |title=Sharia law and the death penalty |url=https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PRI-Sharia-law-and-the-death-penalty-HR_smaller.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119175331/https://cdn.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PRI-Sharia-law-and-the-death-penalty-HR_smaller.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2022 |access-date=25 January 2022 |website=Penal Reform International}}

Refusing to wear clothes associated with a culture or a religion, such as burqa, or otherwise choosing to wear what is seen as 'foreign' or 'western' types of clothing can trigger honor killings.{{Cite web |last=McKee |first=Brianna |date=19 August 2021 |title=Afghan Woman killed for not wearing a burqa after Taliban pledge to uphold women's rights |url=https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/afghan-woman-killed-for-not-wearing-a-burqa-after-taliban-pledge-to-uphold-womens-rights/news-story/12a28fdff1ee93dc572bc372b0d09b5a |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=Skynews.com.au}}{{Cite web |date=28 February 2017 |title=Man convicted of killing daughter in clash over hijab dies in Ontario prison |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/muhammad-parvez-killer-daughter-hijab-clash-1.4002891 |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=CBC}}

Marriage or relations between people of different religions can result in violence and murder.

There are multiple causes for which honor killings occur, and numerous factors interact with each other.

Honor killings are often a result of strongly misogynistic views towards women and the position of women in society. In these traditionally male-dominated societies, women are dependent first on their father and then on their husbands, whom they are expected to obey. Women are viewed as property and not as individuals with their own agency. As such, they must submit to male authority figures in the family—failure to do so can result in extreme violence as punishment. Violence is seen as a way of ensuring compliance and preventing rebellion.{{cite web |url=http://edz.bib.uni-mannheim.de/daten/edz-ma/ep/07/EST18859.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224110631/http://edz.bib.uni-mannheim.de/daten/edz-ma/ep/07/EST18859.pdf |archive-date=24 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |author=Krishan Bir Singh |url=https://www.academia.edu/2233603 |title=Honour Killing – A Study of the Causes and Remedies in its SocioLegal Aspect |website=Academia |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=23 December 2013 |archive-date=13 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413024156/https://www.academia.edu/2233603/Honour_Killing-_A_Study_of_the_Causes_and_Remedies_in_its_Socio_Legal_Aspect......_Dr._Alka_Bhatia |url-status=live }} According to Shahid Khan, a professor at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan: "Women are considered the property of the males in their family irrespective of their class, ethnic, or religious group. The owner of the property has the right to decide its fate. The concept of ownership has turned women into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold".{{cite web|url=http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Itemid=259 |title=International Domestic Violence Issues |publisher=Sanctuary for Families |date=15 October 2008 |access-date=15 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016194204/http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Itemid=259 |archive-date=16 October 2014}} In such cultures, women are not allowed to take control over their bodies and sexuality: these are the property of the males of the family, the father (and other male relatives) who must ensure virginity until marriage; and then the husband to whom his wife's sexuality is subordinated—a woman must not undermine the ownership rights of her guardian by engaging in premarital sex or adultery.

The concept of family honor is extremely important in many communities worldwide. The UN estimates that 5,000 women and girls are murdered each year in honor killings, which are widely reported in the Middle East and South Asia, but they occur in countries as varied as Brazil, Canada, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Syria, Uganda, United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries.{{cite web |title=The Horror of 'Honor Killings', Even in US |url=https://www.amnestyusa.org/the-horror-of-honor-killings-even-in-us/ |website=Amnesty International USA |access-date=5 May 2020 |date=10 April 2012 |archive-date=27 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627140540/https://www.amnestyusa.org/the-horror-of-honor-killings-even-in-us/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://asiasociety.org/education/indian-society-and-ways-living|title=Indian Society and Ways of Living|website=Asia Society|access-date=22 August 2019|archive-date=22 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822122022/https://asiasociety.org/education/indian-society-and-ways-living|url-status=live}} In honor cultures, managing reputation is an important social ethic. Men are expected to act tough and be intolerant of disrespect and women are expected to be loyal to the family and be chaste. An insult to one's personal or family honor must be met with a response, or the stain of dishonor can affect many others in the family and the wider community. Such acts often include female behaviors that are related to sex outside marriage or way of dressing, but may also include male homosexuality (like the emo killings in Iraq). The family may lose respect in the community and may be shunned by relatives. The only way they perceive that shame can be erased is through an honor killing. The cultures in which honor killings take place are usually considered "collectivist cultures", where the family is more important than the individual, and individual autonomy is seen as a threat to the family and its honor.{{cite web |url=http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#twelve |title=FAQ |publisher=Hbv-awareness.com |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=15 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815114026/http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#twelve |url-status=live }}

Though it may seem in a modern context that honor killings are tied to certain religious traditions, the data does not support this claim.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Jonathan |title=Islam is not the Cause of Honor Killings. It's part of the Solution |url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution/ |website=Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research |access-date=5 May 2020 |date=25 October 2016 |archive-date=20 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520100540/https://yaqeeninstitute.org/jonathan-brown/islam-is-not-the-cause-of-honor-killings-its-part-of-the-solution/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Ryan |title=How to Understand Honor Killings |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/honor-bound/201608/how-understand-honor-killings |website=Psychology Today |access-date=5 May 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125171100/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/honor-bound/201608/how-understand-honor-killings |url-status=live }} Research in Jordan found that teenagers who strongly endorsed honor killings in fact did not come from more religious households than teens who rejected it. The ideology of honor is a cultural phenomenon that does not appear to be related to religion, be it Middle Eastern or Western countries, and honor killings likely have a long history in human societies which predate many modern religions. In the US, a rural trend known as the "small-town effect" exhibits elevated incidents of argument-related homicides among white males, particularly in honor-oriented states in the South and the West, where everyone "knows your name and knows your shame." This is similarly observed in rural areas in other parts of the world.

Honor cultures pervade in places of economic vulnerability and with the absence of the rule of law, where law enforcement cannot be counted on to protect them. People then resort to their reputations to protect them from social exploitation and a man must "stand up for himself" and not rely on others to do so.{{cite web |last1=Cooney |first1=Mark |title=Honor Cultures and Violence |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0160.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |access-date=5 May 2020 |language=en |archive-date=1 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601010412/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0160.xml |url-status=live }} To lose your honor is to lose this protective barrier. Possessing honor in such a society can grant social status and economic and social opportunities. When honor is ruined, a person or family in an honor culture can be socially ostracized, face restricted economic opportunities, and have a difficult time finding a mate.

A 2025 study in the American Sociological Review, using data from Turkey, found that honor killings were most common when honor norms are contested.{{Cite journal |last=Aksoy |first=Ozan |last2=Szekely |first2=Aron |date=2025 |title=Making Sense of Honor Killings |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00031224251324504 |journal=American Sociological Review |language=EN |doi=10.1177/00031224251324504 |issn=0003-1224|doi-access=free }}

File:World 1898 empires colonies territory.png

Legal frameworks can encourage honor killings. Such laws include on one side leniency towards such murdering, and on the other side criminalization of various behaviors, such as extramarital sex, "indecent" dressing in public places, or homosexual sexual acts, with these laws acting as a way of reassuring perpetrators of honor killings that people engaging in these behaviors deserve punishment.{{cite book |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=W_62ed13ZHUC}} |title=Women of the Jordan: Islam, Labor, and the Law |access-date=23 December 2013}}{{cite book|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=ujwLunL_rrQC}} |title='Honour': Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women |access-date=23 December 2013}}

In the Roman Empire the Roman law Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis implemented by Augustus Caesar permitted the murder of daughters and their lovers who committed adultery at the hands of their fathers and also permitted the murder of the adulterous wife's lover at the hand of her husband.{{cite book|first=Greg|last=Woolf|title=Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=18BCE+flagrante|year=2007|publisher=Barnes & Noble|isbn=978-1-4351-0121-0|page=386|access-date=19 October 2020|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125171054/https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=18BCE+flagrante|url-status=live}}

Provocation in English law and related laws on adultery in English law, as well as Article 324 of the French penal code of 1810 were legal concepts which allowed for reduced punishment for the murder committed by a husband against his wife and her lover if the husband had caught them in the act of adultery.{{cite web|url=http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/france/penalcode/c_penalcode3b.html|title=France: Penal Code of 1810|website=napoleon-series.org|access-date=7 January 2016|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423104832/http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/france/penalcode/c_penalcode3b.html|url-status=live}} On 7 November 1975, Law no. 617/75 Article 17 repealed the 1810 French Penal Code Article 324. 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).{{cite news |url=https://pomed.org/until-when-honor-killings-and-other-domestic-violence-against-women-in-jordan/ |title=Until When?! Honor Killings and Other Domestic Violence Against Women in Jordan – POMED |newspaper=Pomed |publisher=Pomed.org |date= |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=22 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122233604/https://pomed.org/until-when-honor-killings-and-other-domestic-violence-against-women-in-jordan/ |url-status=live }} 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;{{cite web|url=http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis/articles_and_books/intrafamily_femicide_in_defence_of_honour_the_case_of_jordan/|title=Secular Islam – Center for Inquiry|website=centerforinquiry.net|access-date=7 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410232904/http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis/articles_and_books/intrafamily_femicide_in_defence_of_honour_the_case_of_jordan/|archive-date=10 April 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1427&context=isp_collection |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 January 2016 |archive-date=28 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128152041/http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1427&context=isp_collection |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.comparativelawreview.com/ojs/index.php/CoLR/article/viewFile/18/22 |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044300/http://www.comparativelawreview.com/ojs/index.php/CoLR/article/viewFile/18/22 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}} 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

In Pakistan, the law was based upon on the 1860 Indian Penal Code (IPC) implemented by the colonial authorities in British India, which allowed for mitigation of punishment for charges of assault or criminal force in the case of a "grave and sudden provocation". This clause was used to justify the legal status of honor killing in Pakistan, although the IPC makes no mention of it.{{cite web |title=Section 352 in The Indian Penal Code |url=https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1672685/ |website=indiankanoon.org |access-date=5 May 2020 |archive-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425024725/https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1672685/ |url-status=live }} In 1990, the Pakistani government reformed this law to bring it in terms with the Shari'a, and the Pakistani Federal Shariat Court declared that "according to the teachings of Islam, provocation, no matter how grave and sudden it is, does not lessen the intensity of crime of murder". However, Pakistani judges still sometimes hand down lenient sentences for honor killings, justified by still citing the IPC's mention of a "grave and sudden provocation."{{cite book |last1=Welchman |first1=Lynn |last2=Hossain |first2=Sara |title='Honour': Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women |date=2013 |publisher=Zed Books Ltd. |isbn=978-1-84813-698-4 |pages=84–97 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AdjDgAAQBAJ |access-date=5 May 2020 |language=en |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308095823/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Honour/1AdjDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Idzikowski |first1=Lisa |title=Honor Killings |date=2017 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |isbn=978-1-5345-0133-1 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WntmDwAAQBAJ&q=according+to+the+teachings+of+Islam,+provocation,+no+matter+how+grave+and+sudden+it+is,+does+not+lessen+the+intensity+of+crime+of+murder&pg=PA74 |access-date=5 May 2020 |language=en |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804195557/https://books.google.com/books?id=WntmDwAAQBAJ&q=according+to+the+teachings+of+Islam,+provocation,+no+matter+how+grave+and+sudden+it+is,+does+not+lessen+the+intensity+of+crime+of+murder&pg=PA74 |url-status=live }}

{{main|Forced suicide}}

A forced suicide may be a substitute for an honor killing. In this case, the family members do not directly murder the victim themselves, but force him or her to commit suicide, in order to avoid punishment. Such suicides are reported to be common in southeastern Turkey.{{cite web|url=http://www.unicef.org.tr/en/content/detail/74/honour-crimes-and-forced-suicides-2.html |title=UNICEF Turkey: Protective Environment for Children; Honour Crimes and Forced Suicides |publisher=unicef.org.tr |access-date=23 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202235026/http://www.unicef.org.tr/en/content/detail/74/honour-crimes-and-forced-suicides-2.html |archive-date= 2 December 2013 }}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5010892.stm |title=UN probes Turkey 'forced suicide' |work=BBC News |date=24 May 2006 |access-date=23 December 2013 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224132315/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5010892.stm |url-status=live }} It was reported that in 2001, 565 women lost their lives in honor-related crimes in Ilam, Iran, of which 375 were reportedly staged as self-immolation.[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/088/2008/en/ Amnesty International (July 2008). Human Rights Abuses against the Kurdish Minority. London: Amnesty International.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108085147/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/088/2008/en/ |date=8 January 2016 }} Available at [https://web.archive.org/web/20080730191712/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/088/2008/en/d140767b-5e45-11dd-a592-c739f9b70de8/mde130882008eng.pdf www.amnesty.org] [downloaded 15 July 2009]{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/088/2008/en/|title=Document|date=30 July 2008 |publisher=Amnesty International|access-date=16 April 2016|archive-date=8 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108085147/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/MDE13/088/2008/en/|url-status=live}} In 2008, self-immolation "occurred in all the areas of Kurdish settlement (in Iran), where it was more common than in other parts of Iran". It is claimed that in Iraqi Kurdistan many deaths are reported as "female suicides" in order to conceal honor-related crimes.[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2007/393248/IPOL-FEMM_ET(2007)393248_EN.pdf Kurdish Human Rights Project European Parliament Project: The Increase in Kurdish Women Committing Suicide Final Report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527081537/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2007/393248/IPOL-FEMM_ET(2007)393248_EN.pdf |date=27 May 2019 }} {{cite web |url=http://www.uniraq.org/FileLib/misc/HR%20Report%20Nov%20Dec%202006%20EN.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=18 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210162729/http://www.uniraq.org/FileLib/misc/HR%20Report%20Nov%20Dec%202006%20EN.pdf |archive-date=10 December 2008 }}

{{Main|Forced marriage}}

In the case of an unmarried woman or girl associating herself with a man, losing virginity, or being raped, the family may attempt to restore its honor with a "shotgun wedding". The groom will usually be the man who has 'dishonored' the woman or girl, but if this is not possible the family may try to arrange a marriage with another man, often a man who is part of the extended family of the one who has committed the acts with the woman or girl. This being an alternative to an honor killing, the woman or girl has no choice but to accept the marriage. The family of the man is expected to cooperate and provide a groom for the woman.{{cite web |url=http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2007/honourkillings.pdf |title=United Nations Population Fund | Publications |publisher=UNFPA |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=18 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418000225/http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2007/honourkillings.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#twentytwo |title=FAQ |publisher=Hbv-awareness.com |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-date=15 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815114026/http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#twentytwo |url-status=live }}

Widney Brown, the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said that the practice "goes across cultures and religions". Resolution 1327 (2003) of the Council of Europe states that:{{cite web|url=http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-EN.asp?fileid=17106&lang=en|title=Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly|access-date=10 June 2016|archive-date=3 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603080525/http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17106&lang=en|url-status=live}}

{{blockquote|The Assembly notes that whilst so-called "honor crimes" emanate from cultural and not religious roots and are perpetrated worldwide (mainly in patriarchal societies or communities), the majority of reported cases in Europe have been among Muslim or migrant Muslim communities (although Islam itself does not support the death penalty for honor-related misconduct).}}

Many Muslim commentators and organizations condemn honor killings as an un-Islamic cultural practice.John Esposito (2011), What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, p. 177. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-979413-3}}. There is no mention of honor killing (extrajudicial killing by a woman's family) in the Qur'an,{{cite web |title=Preliminary Examination of so-called 'Honour Killings' in Canada |date=24 September 2013 |url=https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |publisher=Department of Justice of Canada |location=Ottawa |at=§ Honour Killing – In Countries with Islamic Law |access-date=23 May 2019 |archive-date=18 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418200129/https://justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |url-status=live }} and the practice violates Islamic law.{{refn|name=Preliminary Examination}}{{cite news |last1=Clarke |first1=Donald C. |display-authors=etal |title=Punishment |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/punishment |newspaper=Encyclopedia Britannica |at=§ Punishment in Islamic law |access-date=23 May 2019 |archive-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705152214/https://www.britannica.com/topic/punishment |url-status=live }} Tahira Shaid Khan, a professor of women's issues at Aga Khan University, blames such murdering on attitudes (across different classes, ethnic, and religious groups) that view women as property with no rights of their own as the motivation for honor killings.{{cite news |last=Mayell |first=Hillary |title=Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor" |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0212_020212_honorkilling_2.html |work=National Geographic News |publisher=National Geographic Society |date=12 February 2002 |access-date=22 August 2019 |archive-date=19 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019011522/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0212_020212_honorkilling_2.html |url-status=dead }} [https://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/212/readings/honor-kil-ng.pdf Pdf via unl.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613082601/https://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/212/readings/honor-kil-ng.pdf |date=13 June 2020 }} Ali Gomaa, Egypt's former Grand Mufti, has also spoken out forcefully against honor killings.

As a more generic statement reflecting the wider Islamic scholarly trend, Jonathan A. C. Brown says that "questions about honor killings have regularly found their way into the inboxes of muftis like Yusuf Qaradawi or the late scholar Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah. Their responses reflect a rare consensus. No Muslim scholar of any note, either medieval or modern, has sanctioned a man killing his wife or sister for tarnishing her or the family's honor. If a woman or man found together were to deserve the death penalty for fornication, this would have to be established by the evidence required by the Qur'an: either a confession or the testimony of four male witnesses, all upstanding in the eyes of the court, who actually saw penetration occur."Jonathan A.C. Brown, Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy, Oneworld Publications (2014), p. 180

Further, while honor killings are common in Muslim countries like Pakistan,{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} it is a practically unknown practice in other countries, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh (despite happening in some of its diasporas), Senegal, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. This fact supports the idea that honor killings are to do with society culture rather than religion.{{cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/honor-killings-in-asia-4059398|title=The History of Honor Killings in Asia|website=www.thoughtco.com|access-date=22 August 2019|archive-date=22 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822122309/https://www.thoughtco.com/honor-killings-in-asia-4059398|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html|title=Preliminary Examination of so-called "Honour Killings" in Canada|date=24 September 2013|access-date=3 May 2021|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227000216/https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://hbv-awareness.com/regions|title= Honour Killings By Region|publisher=Honour Based Violence Awareness Network}}

The late Yemeni Muslim scholar Muḥammad Shawkānī wrote that one reason the Shari'a stipulates execution as a potential punishment for men who murder women is to counter honor killings for alleged slights of honor. He wrote, "There is no doubt that laxity on this matter is one of the greatest means leading to women's lives being destroyed, especially in the Bedouin regions, which are characterized by harsh-hardheartedness and a strong sense of honor and shame stemming from Pre-Islamic times".Muḥammad b.ʿAlī al-Shawkānī, Nayl al-Awṭār, ed. ʿIzz al-Dīn Khaṭṭāb, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2001), 7:24

Matthew A. Goldstein, J.D. (Arizona), has noted that honor killings were encouraged in ancient Rome, where male family members who did not take action against the female adulterers in their families were "actively persecuted".{{cite journal |access-date=21 July 2012 |url=http://www.politicsandthelifesciences.org/Contents/Contents-2002-9/PLS2002-9-3.pdf |first=Matthew A. |last=Goldstein |title=The biological roots of heat-of-passion crimes and honor killings |journal=Politics and the Life Sciences |date=September 2002 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=29 |pmid=16859346 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915124300/http://www.politicsandthelifesciences.org/Contents/Contents-2002-9/PLS2002-9-3.pdf |archive-date=15 September 2012}}

The origin of honor killings and the control of women is evidenced throughout history in the cultures and traditions of many regions. The Roman law of pater familias gave complete control to the men of the family over both their children and wives. Under these laws, the lives of children and wives were at the discretion of the men in their families. Ancient Roman Law also justified honor killings by stating that women who were found guilty of adultery could be killed by their husbands. During the Qing dynasty in China, fathers and husbands had the right to kill daughters who were deemed to have dishonored the family.{{cite web | url=http://hbv-awareness.com/history/ | title=Historical Overview | access-date=11 October 2014 | archive-date=16 October 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016023011/http://hbv-awareness.com/history/ | url-status=live }}

Among the Indigenous Aztecs and Incas, adultery was punishable by death. During John Calvin's rule of Geneva, women found guilty of adultery were punished by being drowned in the Rhône river.

Honor killings have a long tradition in Mediterranean Europe.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/02/03/how-the-west-should-treat-honor-killings/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207122821/http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/02/03/how-the-west-should-treat-honor-killings/|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 February 2012|title=How the West should treat 'honor' killings|work=Reuters|access-date=20 April 2015|date=3 February 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/explainer-why-hard-to-stop-honor-killings-religion/25404748.html|title=Explainer: Why Is It So Hard To Stop 'Honor Killings'?|work=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|date=30 May 2014 |access-date=20 April 2015|archive-date=27 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427161355/http://www.rferl.org/content/explainer-why-hard-to-stop-honor-killings-religion/25404748.html|url-status=live|last1=Recknagel |first1=Charles }} According to the Honour Related Violence – European Resource Book and Good Practice (page 234): "Honor in the Mediterranean world is a code of conduct, a way of life and an ideal of the social order, which defines the lives, the customs and the values of many of the peoples in the Mediterranean moral".{{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.medinstgenderstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/hrvresourcebook.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018085919/http://www.medinstgenderstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/hrvresourcebook.pdf |archive-date=18 October 2014 |access-date=11 October 2014}}

{{Main|Honor killings by region}}

According to the UN in 2002:

{{blockquote|text=The report of the Special Rapporteur... concerning cultural practices in the family that are violent towards women (E/CN.4/2002/83), indicated that honor killings had been reported in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon (the Lebanese Parliament abolished the Honor killing in August 2011), Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries, and that they had also taken place in western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities.{{cite news |title=Abu-Ghanem women speak out against serial 'honor killings' |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/829440.html |url-status=dead |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=23 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225090106/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/829440.html |archive-date=25 February 2007}}}}

In addition, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights gathered reports from several countries and considering only the countries that submitted reports it was shown that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.{{cite web|title=International Domestic Violence Issues |url=http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Itemid=259 |publisher=Sanctuary For Families |access-date=5 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016194204/http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Itemid=259 |archive-date=16 October 2014}}

According to Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, the practice of honor killing "goes across cultures and religions."

File:Istanbul Convention (2011) participation map, current.svg, the first legally binding international instrument on violence against women, prohibits honor killings. Countries listed in blue on the map are members to this convention, and, as such, have the obligation to outlaw honor killings.]]

Honor killings are condemned as a serious human rights violation and are addressed by several international instruments.

Honor killings are opposed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/66 (adopted in 2000) and subsequent resolutions, which have generated various reports.{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/reports.htm#crimes|title=UN Division for the Advancement of Women - Reports and resolutions on violence against women|publisher=United Nations|access-date=24 January 2020|archive-date=23 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423014529/https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/reports.htm#crimes|url-status=live}}

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence addresses this issue. Article 42 reads:{{cite web|url=http://www.conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/210.htm|title=Council of Europe – Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (CETS No. 210)|access-date=20 April 2015|archive-date=16 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216041736/http://www.conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/210.htm|url-status=live}}

{{Blockquote|Article 42 – Unacceptable justifications for crimes, including crimes committed in the name of so-called honor

1. Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that, in criminal proceedings initiated following the commission of any of the acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, culture, custom, religion, tradition, or so-called honor shall not be regarded as justification for such acts. This covers, in particular, claims that the victim has transgressed cultural, religious, social, or traditional norms or customs of appropriate behavior.

2. Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that incitement by any person of a child to commit any of the acts referred to in paragraph 1 shall not diminish the criminal liability of that person for the acts committed.

}}

The World Health Organization (WHO) addressed the issue of honor killings and stated: "Murders of women to 'save the family honor' are among the most tragic consequences and explicit illustrations of embedded, culturally accepted discrimination against women and girls."{{cite web |url=http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77421/1/WHO_RHR_12.38_eng.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=13 March 2014 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308202603/http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77421/1/WHO_RHR_12.38_eng.pdf |url-status=live }} According to the UNODC: "Honour crimes, including killing, are one of history's oldest forms of gender-based violence. It assumes that a woman's behavior casts a reflection on the family and the community. ... In some communities, a father, brother, or cousin will publicly take pride in a murder committed to preserving the 'honor' of a family. In some such cases, local justice officials may side with the family and take no formal action to prevent similar deaths."{{cite web |url=http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/hb_eff_police_responses.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=13 March 2014 |archive-date=28 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528071406/http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/hb_eff_police_responses.pdf |url-status=live }}

Legislation on this issue varies, but today the vast majority of countries no longer allow a husband to legally murder a wife for adultery (although adultery itself continues to be punishable by death in some countries) or to commit other forms of honor killings. However, in many places, adultery and other "immoral" sexual behaviors by female family members can be considered mitigating circumstances in the case when they are murdered, leading to significantly shorter sentences.

Contemporary laws which allow for mitigating circumstances or acquittals for men who murder female family members due to sexual behaviors are, for the most part, inspired by the French Napoleonic Code (France's crime of passion law, which remained in force until 1975).{{cite web |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2007/385527/EXPO-JOIN_ET(2007)385527_EN.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=27 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527104020/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2007/385527/EXPO-JOIN_ET(2007)385527_EN.pdf |url-status=live }} The Middle East, including the Arab countries of North Africa, Iran and non-Arab minorities within Arabic countries, have high recorded level of honor crimes, and these regions are the most likely to have laws offering complete or partial defenses to honor killings. However, with the exception of Iran, laws which provide leniency for honor killings are not derived from Islamic law, but from the penal codes of the Napoleonic Empire.{{cite web |url=http://hbv-awareness.com/regions/ |title=Honour Killings By Region |publisher=Hbv-awareness.com |date=2012-03-18 |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=8 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208172508/http://hbv-awareness.com/regions/ |url-status=live }} French culture shows a higher level of toleration of such crimes among the public, compared to other Western countries; and indeed, recent surveys have shown the French public to be more accepting of these practices than the public in other countries. One 2008 Gallup survey compared the views of the French, German and British public and those of French, German and British Muslims on several social issues: 4% of the French public said "honor killings" were "morally acceptable" and 8% of the French public said "crimes of passion" were "morally acceptable"; honor killings were seen as acceptable by 1% of German public and also 1% of the British public; crimes of passion were seen as acceptable by 1% of German public and 2% of the British public. Among Muslims, 5% in Paris, 3% in Berlin, and 3% in London saw honor killings as acceptable, and 4% in Paris (less than the French public), 1% in Berlin, and 3% in London saw crimes of passion as acceptable.{{cite web |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/107521/common-ground-europeans-muslims-among-them.aspx |title=Common Ground for Europeans and Muslims Among Them |date=28 May 2008 |publisher=Gallup.com |access-date=16 August 2013 |archive-date=7 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907161300/http://www.gallup.com/poll/107521/Common-Ground-Europeans-Muslims-Among-Them.aspx |url-status=live }} The traditional culture of family honor was also connected to duel culture. The duel tradition survived well into the 20th century in France,{{cite web | url=https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/last-sword-duel-1967/ | title=The last sword duel in history, France, 1967 - Rare Historical Photos | date=8 May 2019 }} with France being called by the National Geographic "the dueling capital of Europe".{{Cite web |date=2020-08-19 |title=Why France was the dueling capital of Europe |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/why-france-dueling-capital-europe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320151004/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/why-france-dueling-capital-europe |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 March 2021 |access-date=2023-11-13 |website=History |language=en}}

According to the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur submitted to the 58th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2002 concerning cultural practices in the family that reflect violence against women (E/CN.4/2002/83):

{{blockquote|The Special Rapporteur indicated that there had been contradictory decisions with regard to the honor defense in Brazil, and that legislative provisions allowing for partial or complete defence in that context could be found in the penal codes of Argentina, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Peru, Syria, Venezuela and the Palestinian National Authority.{{cite web|title=Working towards the elimination of crimes against women committed in the name of honour|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/AllSymbols/985168F508EE799FC1256C52002AE5A9/$File/N0246790.pdf|publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights|access-date=8 February 2008|archive-date=25 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325122729/http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/AllSymbols/985168F508EE799FC1256C52002AE5A9/$File/N0246790.pdf|url-status=live}}}}

As of 2022, most countries with complete or partial defenses for murdering due to sexual behaviors or parental disobedience are MENA countries, but there are some notable exceptions, namely Philippines. The legal aspects of honor killings in different countries are discussed below:

• Yemen: laws effectively exonerate fathers who murder their children;{{cite news |url=https://daraj.com/en/36602/ |title="Honour" Killings in Yemen: Tribal Tradition and the Law |publisher=Daraj |date= 19 December 2019|accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125171035/https://daraj.com/en/36602/ |url-status=live }} also the blood money paid for murdered women is less than that for murdered males.{{cite web |url=https://daraj.com/en/36602/ |title="Honour" Killings in Yemen: Tribal Tradition and the Law |publisher=Daraj |date=19 December 2019 |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125171035/https://daraj.com/en/36602/ |url-status=dead }}
• Iran: Article 630 exempts a husband from punishment if he murders his wife or her lover upon discovering them in the act of adultery; article 301 stipulates that a father and paternal grandfather are not to be retaliated against for murdering their child/grandchild.{{cite web |url=https://www.mei.edu/publications/iranian-women-campaign-stop-rise-honor-killings |title=Iranian women campaign to stop the rise in "honor killings" | Middle East Institute |publisher=Mei.edu |date= |accessdate=2022-01-25 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123021641/https://www.mei.edu/publications/iranian-women-campaign-stop-rise-honor-killings |url-status=live }}
• Jordan: In recent years, Jordan has amended its Code to modify its laws, which used to offer a complete defense for honor killings.{{cite web|url=http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/belief-that-honour-killings-are-justified-still-prevalent-among-jordans-next-generation-study-shows|title=Belief that honour killings are 'justified' still prevalent among Jordan's next generation, study shows|date=20 June 2013|publisher=University of Cambridge|access-date=20 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214032106/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/belief-that-honour-killings-are-justified-still-prevalent-among-jordans-next-generation-study-shows|archive-date=14 December 2019|url-status=dead}}
• Syria: In 2009, Article 548 of the Syrian Law code was amended. Beforehand, the article waived any punishment for males who murdered a female family member for inappropriate sexual acts.{{cite web|title=Syria: No Exceptions for Honor Killings|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/28/syria-no-exceptions-honor-killings|publisher=Human Rights Watch|access-date=8 December 2011|date=28 July 2009|archive-date=6 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106034307/http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/28/syria-no-exceptions-honor-killings|url-status=live}} Article 548 states that "He who catches his wife or one of his ascendants, descendants or sister committing adultery (flagrante delicto) or illegitimate sexual acts with another and he killed or injured one or both of them benefits from a reduced penalty, that should not be less than two years in prison in case of killing." Article 192 states that a judge may opt for reduced punishments (such as short-term imprisonment) if the murder was done with an honorable intent. In addition to this, Article 242 says that a judge may reduce a sentence for murders that were done in rage and caused by an illegal act committed by the victim.
• In Brazil, an explicit defense to murder in case of adultery has never been part of the criminal code, but a defense of "honor" (not part of the criminal code) has been widely used by lawyers in such cases to obtain acquittals. Although this defense has been generally rejected in urbanized areas since the 1950s, it has been very successful in the interior of the country. In 1991 Brazil's Supreme Court explicitly rejected the "honor" defense as having no basis in Brazilian law.{{cite web |url=http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/738-decriminalization-of-adultery-and-defenses.html |title=Decriminalization of adultery and defenses |publisher=Endvawnow.org |access-date=16 August 2013 |archive-date=10 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410201544/http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/738-decriminalization-of-adultery-and-defenses.html |url-status=live }}
• Turkey: In Turkey, persons found guilty of this crime are sentenced to life in prison.{{cite news|title='Virgin suicides' save Turks' 'honor'|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/12/news/virgins.php|first=Dan|last=Bilefsky|newspaper=International Herald Tribune|access-date=12 July 2006|archive-date=17 July 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060717235201/http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/12/news/virgins.php|url-status=dead}} In practice however, younger male family members are sometimes pushed to murder because their sentences are much shorter. There are well documented cases, where Turkish courts have sentenced whole families to life imprisonment for an honor killing. The most recent was on 13 January 2009, where a Turkish Court sentenced five members of the same Kurdish family to life imprisonment for the honor killing of Naile Erdas, 16, who got pregnant as a result of rape.[http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/01/13/1231608651606.html Daughter pregnant by rape, killed by family – World] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712223526/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/01/13/1231608651606.html |date=12 July 2012 }}. BrisbaneTimes (13 January 2009). Retrieved 1 October 2011.
• Pakistan: Honor killings are known as karo kari ({{langx|sd|ڪارو ڪاري}}) ({{langx|ur|کاروکاری}}). The practice is supposed to be prosecuted as an ordinary killing, but in practice police and prosecutors often ignore it.{{cite web|title=Pakistan's honor killings enjoy high-level support|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/24/2003180222|work=Taipei Times|date=24 July 2004 |access-date=24 July 2004|archive-date=5 August 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040805134249/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/24/2003180222|url-status=live}} Often, a man who has committed murder must simply claim it was for his honor and he will avoid punishment. Nilofar Bakhtiar, an advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, stated that as many as 1,261 women were murdered in honor killings in 2003.{{cite news|title=Pakistan Tries to Curb 'Honor Killings'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/international/asia/27stan.html?oref=login|last=Masood|first=Salman|work=The New York Times|access-date=27 October 2004|date=27 October 2004|archive-date=22 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722021321/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/world/asia/pakistan-tries-to-curb-honor-killings.html|url-status=live}} The Hudood Ordinances, enacted in 1979 by President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, had the effect of reducing legal protections for women, especially regarding sex outside marriage. This law made it much riskier for women to come forward with accusations of rape. On 8 December 2004, under international and domestic pressure, Pakistan enacted a new law that made honor killings punishable by a prison term of seven years, or by the death penalty in the most extreme cases.{{cite web|title=Honor Killings Persist in 'Man's World'|url=http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/12/1382073.aspx|first1=Shahid|last1=Qazi|first2=Carol|last2=Grisanti|publisher=MSNBC|access-date=12 September 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922004859/http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/12/1382073.aspx|archive-date=22 September 2008}} In 2006, the Women's Protection Bill amended the Hudood Ordinances.{{cite book |author=Kwame Anthony Appiah |title=The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen |publisher=W.W. Norton and Company}} In 2016, Pakistan repealed a loophole which allowed the perpetrators of honor killings to avoid punishment by seeking forgiveness for the crime from another family member, and thus be legally pardoned.{{cite news|title='Honour killings': Pakistan closes loophole allowing killers to go free|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37578111|date=6 October 2016|work=BBC News|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-date=30 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630010525/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37578111|url-status=live}} Hundreds of women are murdered by family members in Pakistan each year in so-called "honour" killings for violating conservative norms governing women's relationships.{{Cite web |title=Man who murdered Pakistani model in 'honor killing' to be freed after parents' pardon |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/02/15/pakistan-murdered-sister-honor-killing-pardoned/6801301001/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}
• Egypt: Several studies on honor crimes by The Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, includes one which reports on Egypt's legal system, noting a gender bias in favor of men in general, and notably article 17 of the Penal Code: judicial discretion to allow reduced punishment in certain circumstance, often used in honor killings case.{{cite web |title=Honour: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women |url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/Publication_Abstracts.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007231849/http://www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/Publication_Abstracts.htm |archive-date=7 October 2009 |publisher=School of Oriental and African Studies|access-date=27 September 2008}}
• Haiti: In 2005, the laws were changed, abolishing the right of a husband to be excused for murdering his wife due to adultery. Adultery was also decriminalized.{{cite web |url=http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/searchDetail.action?measureId=10312&baseHREF=country&baseHREFId=605 |title=The Secretary General's database on violence against women |publisher=Sgdatabase.unwomen.org |access-date=16 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224102644/http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/searchDetail.action?measureId=10312&baseHREF=country&baseHREFId=605 |archive-date=24 December 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/uploads/Haiti%20-%20Decree%20Law%20on%20sexual%20assault%20%28fra%29.pdf |title=Le Moniteur: Journal Official de la Republique D'Haiti |date=11 August 2005 |publisher=Sgdatabase.unwomen.org |access-date=16 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224212850/http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/uploads/Haiti%20-%20Decree%20Law%20on%20sexual%20assault%20%28fra%29.pdf |archive-date=24 December 2013}}
• Uruguay: until December 2017,{{cite web| url = https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/leyes/19580-2017/82| title = Ley N° 19580| access-date = 23 September 2021| archive-date = 27 July 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210727233215/https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/leyes/19580-2017/82| url-status = live}} article 36 of the Penal Code provided for the exoneration for murder of a spouse due to "the passion provoked by adultery".{{cite web| url = https://www.infobae.com/2013/11/26/1526432-uruguay-no-condena-el-homicidio-adulterio/| title = Uruguay no condena el homicidio por adulterio - Infobae| access-date = 23 September 2021| archive-date = 23 September 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170923225617/http://www.infobae.com/2013/11/26/1526432-uruguay-no-condena-el-homicidio-adulterio/| url-status = live}} The case of violence against women in Uruguay has been debated in the context that it is otherwise a liberal country;{{cite web| url = https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/uruguays-shadow-pandemic-of-violence-against-women-is-out-of-control/| title = Uruguay's 'shadow pandemic' of violence against women is out of control {{!}} openDemocracy| access-date = 23 September 2021| archive-date = 23 September 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210923212145/https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/uruguays-shadow-pandemic-of-violence-against-women-is-out-of-control/| url-status = live}} nevertheless, domestic violence is a very serious problem; according to a 2018 United Nations study, Uruguay has the second-highest rate of killings of women by current or former partners in Latin America, after the Dominican Republic.{{cite web| url = https://oig.cepal.org/es/indicadores/muerte-mujeres-ocasionada-su-pareja-o-ex-pareja-intima| title = Muerte de mujeres ocasionada por su pareja o ex-pareja íntima {{!}} Observatorio de Igualdad de Género| date = 11 January 2016| access-date = 23 September 2021| archive-date = 23 September 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210923172142/https://oig.cepal.org/es/indicadores/muerte-mujeres-ocasionada-su-pareja-o-ex-pareja-intima| url-status = live}} Despite having a reputation of being a progressive country, Uruguay has lagged behind with regard to its approach to domestic violence;{{Cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/uruguays-shadow-pandemic-of-violence-against-women-is-out-of-control/|title=Uruguay's 'shadow pandemic' of violence against women is out of control|website=openDemocracy}} for example, in Chile, considered one of the most socially conservative countries of the region, similar legislation permitting such honor killings was repealed in 1953.{{cite web|author=Ratiboo |url=https://www.poderjudicialtv.cl/programas/origen-del-delito/noticiero-judicial-el-origen-del-delito-femicidio/ |title=Noticiero Judicial: El origen del delito – Femicidio | Poder Judicial |publisher=Poderjudicialtv.cl |date=2022-05-20 |accessdate=2022-06-25}} Uruguay's honor culture has been prominent well into the 20th century, as exemplified by the culture of duels, which survived in Uruguay until the 1970s,{{cite web | url=https://www.lr21.com.uy/comunidad/481143-los-ultimos-duelos | title=Los Últimos Duelos | date=28 November 2011 }} long after it had been abandoned in other parts of the Western world. Duels in Uruguay were widespread in the early 20th century, were legalized in 1920, in an unusual political move; and remained legal until 1992.{{cite web | url=https://relam.org/events/gentlemanly-jurisprudence-and-the-rule-of-law-why-dueling-was-legal-in-uruguay-from-1920-to-1992-a-talk-with-david-s-parker | title="Gentlemanly Jurisprudence and the Rule of Law: Why Dueling was Legal in Uruguay from 1920 to 1992" a talk with David S. Parker | date=10 March 2023 }}
• Philippines: murdering one's spouse upon being caught in the act of adultery or one's daughter upon being caught in the act of premarital sex is punished by destierro (Art. 247{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/PHL_revised_penal_code.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=12 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212203328/https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/PHL_revised_penal_code.pdf |url-status=live }}) (destierro is banishment from a geographical area for a period of time). The penalty for a woman killing her own child less than three days old also carries a reduced penalty if the killing is done in order to conceal her dishonor under Article 255 of the Revised Penal Code.{{Cite web |date=1930-12-08 |title=Act No. 3815, s. 1930 {{!}} GOVPH |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1930/12/08/act-no-3815-s-1930/ |access-date=2023-06-06 |website=Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines |language=en-US |archive-date=8 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608093131/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1930/12/08/act-no-3815-s-1930/ |url-status=dead }} Normally, the act of killing one's spouse or child is punishable by reclusion perpetua or imprisonment from 20 years and 1 day to 40 years under Article 246 of the Revised Penal Code for the crime of parricide, although any homicide may benefit from the general mitigating circumstances provided for crimes (see Article 13 {{Cite web |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1930/12/08/act-no-3815-s-1930/ |title=Act No. 3815, s. 1930 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines |access-date=6 June 2023 |archive-date=8 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608093131/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1930/12/08/act-no-3815-s-1930/ |url-status=dead }}) Philippine maintains several other traditionalist laws: it is the only country in the world (except Vatican City) that bans divorce; it is one of 20 countries that still has a marry-your-rapist law (that is, a law that exonerates a rapist from punishment if he marries the victim after the attack);{{cite web |url=https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/16/marry-your-rapist-practice-laws-exist-in-phl-20-other-nations-unfa-report/ |title='Marry-your-rapist' practice, laws exist in PHL, 20 other nations – UNFA report |last=Ordinario |first=Cai |website=BusinessMirror |date=16 April 2021 |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123021724/https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/16/marry-your-rapist-practice-laws-exist-in-phl-20-other-nations-unfa-report/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/14/marry-your-rapist-laws-in-20-countries-still-allow-perpetrators-to-escape-justice |title='Marry your rapist' laws in 20 countries still allow perpetrators to escape justice |website=TheGuardian.com |date=14 April 2021 |access-date=23 January 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123021639/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/14/marry-your-rapist-laws-in-20-countries-still-allow-perpetrators-to-escape-justice |url-status=live }} and the Philippines is also one of the few non-Muslim majority countries to have a criminal law against adultery (Philippine's adultery law also differentiates by gender defining and punishing adultery more severely if committed by women – see articles 333 and 334) These laws are based on old Spanish laws that were repealed in Spain in 1963 (the honor killing law){{cite web | url=https://www.elplural.com/sociedad/leyes-franco-ampararon-derecho-marido-asesinar-su-mujer-por-infidelidad_278182102 | title=Las leyes de Franco ampararon el derecho del marido a asesinar a su mujer por infidelidad | date=7 November 2021 }} and in 1978 (the adultery law).{{Cite web|url=https://confilegal.com/20160514-adulterio-fue-delito-espana-1978-castigado-con-hasta-6-anos-de-carcel/|title=El adulterio fue delito en España hasta 1978, castigado con hasta 6 años de cárcel - Confilegal|date=14 May 2016 }} The origin of Philippine's "marry-your-rapist law" can be traced to the Napoleonic French Code (the "marry-your-rapist law" was in force in France until 1994{{cite web | url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/19/lebanon-reform-rape-laws | title=Lebanon: Reform Rape Laws | Human Rights Watch | date=19 December 2016 }}), a code which has influenced directly or indirectly many legal codes of the world, because at the time of its enactment it was associated with modernization. In addition to honor killings, Philippine has also received international criticism for extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines, which have been openly encouraged by the government.{{Cite news |date=2020-06-04 |title=Philippines drugs war: UN report criticises 'permission to kill' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52917560 |access-date=2023-11-13}}

Actions of Pakistani police officers and judges (particularly at the lower level of the judiciary[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/018/1999/en/ "Honor Killings in Pakistan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913163626/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA33/018/1999/en/ |date=13 September 2016 }} . Amnesty International. Retrieved 10/19/11.) have, in the past, seemed to support the act of honor killings in the name of family honor. Police enforcement, in situations of admitted murder, does not always take action against the perpetrator. Also, judges in Pakistan (particularly at the lower level of the judiciary), rather than ruling cases with gender equality in mind, also seem to reinforce inequality and in some cases sanction the murder of women considered dishonorable. Often, a suspected honor killing never even reaches court, but in cases where they do, the alleged killer is often not charged or is given a reduced sentence of three to four years in jail. In a case study of 150 honor killings, the proceeding judges rejected only eight claims that the women were murdered for the honor. The rest were sentenced lightly.{{cite news|title=A Question of Honor|first=Suzanne|last=Goldberg|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/27/gender.uk1|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=9 December 2011|location=London|date=27 May 1999|archive-date=24 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824001550/http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/27/gender.uk1|url-status=live}} In many cases in Pakistan, one of the reasons honor killing cases never make it to the courts, is because, according to some lawyers and women's right activists, Pakistani law enforcement do not get involved. Under the encouragement of the killer, police often declare the killing as a domestic case that warrants no involvement. In other cases, the women and victims are too afraid to speak up or press charges. Police officials, however, claim that these cases are never brought to them, or are not major enough to be pursued on a large scale.{{cite news|title=In Pakistan, Women Pay the Price of Honor |url=http://chora.virtualave.net/pakistan-women.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Pamela |last=Constable |author-link=Pamela Constable |access-date=8 December 2011 |archive-date=26 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426051757/http://chora.virtualave.net/pakistan-women.htm |url-status=live}} The general indifference to the issue of honor killing within Pakistan is due to a deep-rooted gender bias in law, the police force, and the judiciary. In its report, "Pakistan: Honor Killings of Girls and Women",{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/018/1999/en/|title=Honor Killings in Pakistan Amnesty.org Retrieved 06/03/12|access-date=1 October 2012|archive-date=13 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913163626/http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA33/018/1999/en/|url-status=dead}} published in September 1999, Amnesty International criticized governmental indifference and called for state responsibility in protecting human rights of female victims. To elaborate, Amnesty strongly requested the Government of Pakistan to take 1) legal, 2) preventive, and 3) protective measures. First of all, legal measures refer to a modification of the government's criminal laws to guarantee equal legal protection of females. On top of that, Amnesty insisted the government assure legal access for the victims of crime in the name of honor. When it comes to preventive measures, Amnesty underlined the critical need to promote public awareness through the means of media, education, and public announcements. Finally, protective measures include ensuring a safe environment for activists, lawyers, and women's groups to facilitate the eradication of honor killings. Also, Amnesty argued for the expansion of victim support services such as shelters.

Kremlin-appointed Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov said that honor killings were perpetrated on those who deserved to die. He said that those who are killed have "loose morals" and are rightfully shot by relatives in honor killings. He did not vilify women alone but added that "If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed."{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g3CnrQFlvyjHiDVHC-jXxegnNz7wD96KOKB00 |title=Chechen leader imposes strict brand of Islam |access-date=11 November 2016 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304190227/https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g3CnrQFlvyjHiDVHC-jXxegnNz7wD96KOKB00 |archive-date=4 March 2009}}. Associated Press.{{cite news|url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/europe/president-kadyrov-defends-honour-killings-14208919.html|url-status=dead|title=President Kadyrov defends honour killings|date=1 March 2009|newspaper=The Belfast Telegraph|access-date=1 March 2009|archive-date=7 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090307060332/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/europe/president-kadyrov-defends-honour-killings-14208919.html}}

In 2007, Tor Erling Staff, a lawyer that works for the Supreme Court of Norway, stated that he wanted the punishment for the killing reduced from 17 years in prison to 15 years in the case of honor killings happening in Norway. He explained that the Norwegian public did not understand other cultures who practiced honor killings, or understand their thinking, and that Norwegian culture "is self-righteous".{{cite news |title=Staff vil gi strafferabatt for æresdrap |newspaper=Aftenposten |date=29 November 2007 |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article2126407.ece |access-date=23 November 2011 |language=no |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629162945/http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article2126407.ece |archive-date=29 June 2011}}

In 2008, Israr Ullah Zehri, a Pakistani politician in Balochistan, defended the honor killings of five women belonging to the Umrani tribe by a relative of a local Umrani politician.{{cite web |url=http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2969 |title=PAKISTAN: Five women buried alive, allegedly by the brother of a minister |access-date=31 March 2011 |work=Asian Human Rights Commission |archive-date=2 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302212841/http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2969/ |url-status=live }} Zehri defended the murdering in Parliament and asked his fellow legislators not to make a fuss about the incident. He said, "These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them. Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4678530.ece |title=Three teenagers buried alive in 'honour killings' |access-date=31 March 2011 |work=The Times |location=London |first=Zahid |last=Hussain |date=5 September 2008 |archive-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430103927/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4678530.ece |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/2660881/Pakistani-women-buried-alive-for-choosing-husbands.html |url-access=registration |title=Pakistani women buried alive 'for choosing husbands' |access-date=31 March 2011 |work=The Telegraph |location=London |date=1 September 2008 |archive-date=18 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318231615/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/2660881/Pakistani-women-buried-alive-for-choosing-husbands.html}}

Nilofar Bakhtiar, who was Minister for Tourism and Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister on Women's Affairs, campaigned against honor killings in Pakistan while in office.{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2007/04/10/bakhtiar-pakistan-fatwa-face-cx_rd_0410autofacescan01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525062250/http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2007/04/10/bakhtiar-pakistan-fatwa-face-cx_rd_0410autofacescan01.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 May 2007 |date=10 April 2007 |work=Forbes |title=Hug Sparks Fatwa Against Pakistani Minister |access-date=6 July 2011 |first=Ruth |last=David}}

This is an incomplete list of notable victims of Honor killing. See also Victims of honor killing

• Tursunoy Saidazimova, an Uzbek actress in the Uzbek SSR and one of the first to sing onstage without a face-veil. She was murdered by her husband just shortly after her career took off.
• Nurkhon Yuldashkhojayeva, one of the first Uzbek actresses and one of the first Uzbek women to dance onstage without a paranja. She was stabbed to death by her brother.
• Tina Isa, a 16-year-old American teenager stabbed and murdered by her parents for having an affair with an African American man.
• Rukhsana Naz, a 19-year-old British Pakistani woman and mother-of-two from Normanton, Derby, who was murdered by family members.
• Surjit Athwal, a 27-year-old British-Indian woman murdered in India. Her murder was instigated by her mother-in-law and in collusion with Surjit's husband.
• Tulay Goren, a 15-year-old Kurdish schoolgirl from Woodford Green, East London who went missing in January 1999. In December 2009, her father Mehmet Goren was convicted of her murder. Mehmet killed Tulay because of she was in a relationship with an older man, from a different branch of the Islamic faith.
• Samia Sarwar, a Pakistani woman who was shot dead in her lawyers' office in Lahore by an assassin hired by her own parents.
• Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, an Indo-Canadian beautician who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in India on orders of her mother and uncle as punishment for her secret marriage.
• Nitish Katara, a 23-year-old Indian business executive in Delhi who was murdered by Vikas Yadav because the latter's family did not approve of the former's relationship with Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas Yadav.
• Fadime Şahindal, a Kurdish immigrant moved to Sweden who was murdered by her father in front of her mother and two sisters.
• Heshu Yones, a 16-year-old Iraqi Kurd teenager from Acton, London who was murdered by her father for becoming too "westernised" and for engaging in a relationship against his orders. Heshu's case was the first in the United Kingdom to be legally recognised and prosecuted as an honour killing.
• Shafilea Ahmed, a 17-year-old British Pakistani girl who was murdered by her parents due to her refusal to accept an arranged marriage.
• Hatun Sürücü, a Kurdish-Turkish woman living in Germany was murdered by her youngest brother. Sürücü had divorced the cousin she was forced to marry at the age of 16, and was reportedly dating a German man.
• Samaira Nazir, a 25-year-old British Pakistani woman who was murdered by her brother and cousin for refusing to enter into an arranged marriage and for rejecting her parents' choices of suitors from Pakistan.
• Ghazala Khan, a Danish woman of Pakistani descent, who was shot and killed in Denmark by her brother after she had married against the will of her family.
• Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurdish woman who lived in Mitcham, South London murdered on the orders of her family because she ended a violent and abusive forced marriage and started a relationship with someone of her own choosing. Her story was chronicled in the 2012 documentary film Banaz: A Love Story.
• Hina Saleem, a Pakistani woman resident in Italy who was killed by her father due to her Western boyfriend and her father instead wanted her in an arranged marriage.
• Manoj and Babli, two Indian newlyweds kidnapped and murdered. The accused in the murder included relatives of Babli, like her grandfather, brother, two cousins, maternal and paternal uncles.
• Sadia Sheikh, a 20-year-old Belgian woman of Pakistani heritage was fatally shot by her brother in Lodelinsart, Charleroi after her parents pressured her to marry a cousin who she had never met. The case has been called Belgium's first honour killing trial.
• Aqsa Parvez, a high school student strangled and murdered by her brother and father in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
• Morsal Obeidi, a German-Afghan girl who was killed by her brother in Hamburg, Germany.
• Rand Abdel-Qader, a student at Basra University killed by her father because she had formed a friendship with a British soldier stationed in the city.
• Sandeela Kanwal, a Pakistani woman living in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Clayton County, Georgia, who was murdered by her father.
• Aasiya Zubair, a Muslim Pakistani American MBA student was stabbed and decapitated by her ex-husband Muzzammil Hassan in Bridges TV station in Orchard Park, New York.
• Coty Beavers, a 28-year-old man killed by his wife's father.
• Qandeel Baloch, a 26-year-old Pakistani model who was strangled to death while she slept in her parents' house in Multan. Her brother confessed to the murder saying she was "bringing disrepute" to the "family's honour".
• Rahaf Mohammed, a 24-year-old Saudi Canadian survivor whose family tried to kill her for leaving Islam.
• Noor Almaleki
• Afzal Kohistani, a Pakistani Honour Killing activist who was murdered by three other men in his family village.

Honor killings, along with dowry killings (most of which are committed in South Asia), gang-related murderings of women as revenge (killings of female members of rival gang members' families—most of which are committed in Latin America) and witchcraft accusation killings (most of which are committed in Africa and Oceania) are some of the most recognized forms of femicide.

Human rights advocates have compared "honor killings" to "crimes of passion" in Latin America (which are sometimes treated extremely leniently) and the murdering of women for lack of dowry in India.

Some commentators have stressed the point that the focus on honor killings should not lead people to ignore other forms of gender-based murdering of women, in particular, those which occur in Latin America (femicides such as "crimes of passion" and gang-related killings); the murder rate of women in this region is extremely high, with El Salvador being reported as the country with the highest rate of murders of women in the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/4/femicide-in-latin-america|title=Femicide in Latin America|work=headQuarters|date=4 April 2013 |access-date=20 April 2015|archive-date=7 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207042250/http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/4/femicide-in-latin-america|url-status=live}} In 2002, Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, stated that "crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are murdered by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable".

{{div col}}

• Blood atonement
• Child abuse
• Child murder
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Corrective rape
• Crime of passion
• Crimes against humanity
• Domestic violence
• Extramarital sex
• Face (sociological concept)
• Femicide
• Child neglect
• Filicide
• Fornication
• Gender apartheid
• Gendercide
• Guilt–shame–fear spectrum of cultures
• Hate crime
• Honor suicide
• Human rights
• Human sacrifice
• Infanticide
• Izzat (honour)
• Ka-Mer
• Kiri-sute gomen
• Krvna osveta
• LGBT rights by country or territory
• Lynching
• Memini
• Namus
• Premarital sex
• Religious violence
• Sati (practice)
• Slut-shaming
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Violence against LGBT people
• Violence against women
• Women's rights
• Youth rights
• Homophobia
• Ableism
• Racism

{{div col end}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{refbegin|2}}

• {{cite book|url=https://sk.sagepub.com/cqpress/issues-in-comparative-politics/n14.xml|chapter=Honor Killings|author=Keiner, Robert|title=Issues in Comparative Politics|year=2012|pages=397–424|publisher=CQ Press |location=2300 N Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington DC 20037 United States |doi=10.4135/9781483349275.n14|isbn=9781608718313|s2cid=267273836 }}
• NDTV. [http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/paras-bhasin-case-wife-tells-police-he-attempted-suicide-twice-before-263134 Honour killing in Delhi 4 Sep 2012.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603064859/http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/paras-bhasin-case-wife-tells-police-he-attempted-suicide-twice-before-263134 |date=3 June 2013 }}
• Burke, Jason. The Guardian. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/25/triple-murder-india-honour-killings Triple murder in India highlights increase in 'honour killings'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320214243/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/25/triple-murder-india-honour-killings |date=20 March 2016 }}. 25 June 2010.
• Emery, James. [http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2003/may/clpub.asp Reputation is Everything: Honor Killing among the Palestinians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011032622/http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2003/may/clpub.asp |date=11 October 2008 }}. 2003.
• "Jordan Parliament Supports Impunity for Honor Killing", Washington, D.C.: Human Rights Watch news release, January 2000.
• Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men. ({{ISBN|0-446-53346-7}}) Alleged first-person account of Souad, a victim of an attempted honor killing. The authenticity of this work has been questioned, as it is based on a repressed memory report.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}
• {{cite news|last=Knox|first=Malcolm|title=Historian challenges Palestinian bestseller|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/Books/Historian-challenges-Palestinian-bestseller/2005/04/12/1113251628102.html|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=13 April 2005 | date=13 April 2005}}
• Schulze, Kirsten, Martin Stokes and Colm Campbell (1996) (eds.), Nationalism, Minorities and Diasporas: Identities and Rights in the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris)
• Tintori, Karen, 2007. Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family. St. Martin's Press.
• Wikan, Unni, 2002. Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe. University of Chicago Press.
• Yavuz, Ercan. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100804165733/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-217795-100-honor-killings-a-misunderstood-concept-study-finds.html "Honor killings a misunderstood concept, study finds"]. Today's Zaman. 1 August 2010.
• Sanghera, Jasvinder, 2009. "Daughters of shame"
• Ermers Robert. 2018. "Honor Related Violence. A New Social Psychological Perspective", Routledge. [https://www.routledge.com/Honor-Related-Violence-A-New-Social-Psychological-Perspective/Ermers/p/book/9781138749191 Honor Related Violence: A New Social Psychological Perspective] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509101320/https://www.routledge.com/Honor-Related-Violence-A-New-Social-Psychological-Perspective/Ermers/p/book/9781138749191 |date=9 May 2021 }}
• Ercan, Selen A., 2014. 'Same Problem, Different Solutions: The Case of 'Honour Killing' in Germany and Britain', In: Gill, Aisha K., Carolyn Strange, and Karl Roberts, 'Honour' Killing and Violence. Theory, Policy and Practice, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 199–218.
• [https://archive.today/20141229010111/https://www.opendemocracy.net/selen-ercan/dangerous-silence-debating-honour-killings Ercan, Selen A., 2014. Dangerous silence: Debating ' honor killings'. Open Democracy, 1 July 2014]
• Robert Fisk [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html The crimewave that shames the world] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519053406/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html |date=19 May 2019 }} The Independent,

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{{Honor killings}}

{{Domestic violence}}

{{Violence against women/end}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Honour

Category:Homicide

Category:Domestic violence

Category:Gender-related violence

Category:Violence against women

Category:Violence against LGBTQ people

Category:Crimes against women

Category:Killings by type