We Indians love our euphemisms – “healthy” for overweight, pair bhaari hain for pregnancy, eve-teasing for sexual harassment, encounters for extrajudicial killings and of course “honour killings” for the murder of innocent women by their own families.
The reasons for honour killings range from punishing a woman for the audacity of falling in love with someone of her own choice (and if he belongs to a different religion, ‘she was totally asking for it’) to being the victim of rape – because, come on, what “decent” woman gives a man the opportunity to defile her?
Doesn’t she realise that her personal trauma is actually a public shaming of all the men in her family?? Ugh. Women!
Sometimes, even the man involved is punished so that everyone knows that a woman must remain pure and pious. Beti aur bahu hi to ghar ki izzat hoti hain.
Our khap panchayats are the ONLY ones who get it. From banning mobile phones for women, to enforcing dress codes, they’ve got the answers for this problem.
India sees around 1,000 honour killings a year. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, 3,37,922 cases of crime against women were reported in 2014 as compared to 3,09,546 in 2013.
It’s past time we started calling a spade, a spade and an honour killing – a murder.
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