"Honor" Crimes Against Women in UK Rose Almost 50% Last Year

Women in the United Kingdom are resisting forced marriage and other abuses of their human rights. Unfortunately, as a result of their resistance, the number of so-called “honor” crimes is increasing rapidly. In 2010, there were 2823 incidents of “honor” crimes recorded by police, which is an increase of 47% over the previous year.

According to the Guardian, “honor” crimes can include “threats, abduction, acid attacks, beatings, forced marriage, mutilation and murder.” Victim support organizations estimate that the real figures could be up to four times as high, since most incidents still go unreported and because one quarter of UK police forces didn’t provide data.

The UK is not the only Western nation to struggle under these types of crimes against women. In Canada, a Montreal resident Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba, and his son Hamed have been charged in the “honor” killing of his three daughters and his first wife. In February 2011, Faleh Hassan Almaleki was convicted of second degree murder in the death of his 20 year old daughter who he claimed had become “too Westernized.” The United Nations estimates that around 5,000 women and girls are murdered by their own families each year in countries around the world.

This disturbing trend in the UK has even become the subject of an award winning film. In Land Gold Women, an Indian immigrant murders his daughter in an “honor” killing after she rejects an arranged marriage and instead elopes with her English boyfriend. The film won the National Award for Best Film in English in 2010 and has received praise at numerous national and international film festivals.

How can the daughters of immigrants protect themselves while seeking independence when their fathers and brothers are willing to give up anything to prevent them from doing so?

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Photo credit: lilivanili on flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Ann F.

5:32AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

It is time that THE PEOPLE of every country make known their feelings instead of keeping quiet. We can not & should not stand by and see women/girls treated like this.

send a green star

Jax L.

1:56AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

All I can say is I'm utterly appalled. This is my 'civilised' country?

Irine L.

10:20AM PST on Jan 14, 2012

For all those who think this is agenda, you are ignorant sheep. Islam is a source of disturbance and destruction every land that it invades. European countries such as Britain and France and Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway have accepted these backward people who munch off the govt, have multiple kids and many dont work yet terrorize the other people in the neighborhoods they reside in. There have been numerous rapes committed against non Muslim women who are mind you natives of these countries, yet they cant feel safe in their own backyard? Many of these predominantly Muslim hoods you cant even step into bcs its like being transported to one of the Islam mongering lands these Islam trash came from. How is that fair or normal for them to dictate their backward ways in a liberal society that was kind and welcoming enough to accept them and give them aid to assimilate? The problem is that their goal is not assimilation. I wont give you millions of other examples of how Islam functions worldwide, which Im sure you are already familiar with, I will just ask you, did you hear about the recent incident in Nigeria? The ones who killed on Xmas and cause civil unrest throughout Nigeria bcs Nigeria shouldnt become too Western? Nuff said. And yes, Im not politically correct.

Ed O.

5:20PM PST on Jan 12, 2012

Elaine wrote: According to a post by Ameer T. 1:18am PST on Dec 26, 2011,

"Crime whether it be the kind that is honor killing or rape or murder or anything else, it is just that. a crime. the criminal cannot be a representative of a whole people or an established system. No one says since there is rape or murder or theft in a country that is sanctioned by the system in place there. it is a failure of the system at some point, not a creation of it. No system could go on for any space of time if human rights were meant to be violated as a part of that system. "

THIS IS A LIE! The SYSTEM of PATRIARCHY is where MEN treat women like domestic animals! This is the NORM and NOT an aberation! Also islam along with christianity, judaism and hinduism are ALL male supremacist religions in which MEN ARE GOD (since god doesnt exist)

Pego R.

11:09PM PST on Dec 27, 2011

In this I have to agree with both of you and disagree. When a country legalizes something, or at least systematically fails to enforce law out there to protect human life, or even creates laws that aflict the minoirities, those who lack power, etcetera, for things that do no real and physical harm like differences of opinion, of dress or religion or looks, whatever, these represent a society and a nation that has issues.

Unfortunatly, all countries have SOME kind of issues and our country has a really indecent share. When we target the country, instead of the issues we are just hypocrytes and we allow ourselves to be used to further those interests that are promoting war, which doesn't fix anything.

Why are we (in the US and the west) not removing our money from ALL the governments? We the citizens have allowed coprporate interests take our governments over, or at least a really critical amount of foreign policy.

Not to mention the fact that it is just durned embarassing to see my fellow Americans scream about Iran today for doing something that Pat Roberson did yesterday. Geeze people, don't you "get" that Iran is just the next tool to get money out of our pockets and distract the public from REALLY critical issues at home?

6:38AM PST on Dec 26, 2011

And that's true of so many other kinds of crime. Here in the Southern U.S., we once had a system of living that violated the rights of black Americans in many ways. And part of that involved the fact that in some cases a white person could murder a black person with impunity and not need to fear being held accountable by the law, even to the point of public lynchings. And those crimes were part of the fabric of our society. It wasn't just the actual murderers who were guilty - it was all the other white people who condoned the murders, who ignored them, who looked the other way, who failed to speak out - as well as the legal system that refused to protect all of our citizens equally.

6:34AM PST on Dec 26, 2011

Ameer, you state, "Crime whether it be the kind that is honor killing or rape or murder or anything else, it is just that. a crime. the criminal cannot be a representative of a whole people or an established system."

Actually that kind of crime can indeed be "representative of a whole people or an established system." If a society allows particular actions to take place, if it approves of those actions, if it passes laws allowing those actions, if it fails to enforce laws selectively so that the rights of some are violated, if that society's members refuse to speak out against the particular injustice, then it is indeed part of an "established system" and representative of that society.

That's the difference between a simple murder and an honor killing. If a society sees, say, murder for profit as wrong but allows/condones a man's murder of, say, his daughter because she had sex with her boyfriend, or punishes the ordinary of murder harshly but only punishes the honor killing very lightly, then the society is complicit in the honor killing.

Ameer T.

1:18AM PST on Dec 26, 2011

Crime whether it be the kind that is honor killing or rape or murder or anything else, it is just that. a crime. the criminal cannot be a representative of a whole people or an established system. No one says since there is rape or murder or theft in a country that is sanctioned by the system in place there. it is a failure of the system at some point, not a creation of it. No system could go on for any space of time if human rights were meant to be violated as a part of that system.

THis too is a falasy that Muslims ESCAPE their countries to find refuge in western countries. i am sure there may be a very small percentage of such people there but most people are there for reasons that are simpler and more common sense. Work, Job, college or university, vacation and so on. They are there for the same reasons that most Westerners are in Shall we say Saudi Arabia. they are working there.

1:07AM PST on Dec 26, 2011

If America wanted to indulge in some fantasy to milk the tax payers into supporting its Nuclear armament increases etc. it would have been localized. But when based on this agenda you decalre war on other nations without proof or results, it becomes the greatest violation of human rights ever.

I sometimes laugh and sometimes feel sorry when i read some comments here. A few people on care2 have tried (and are trying) to somehow link Islam with Hitler. Some state that Hitler loved Islam, some state that muslims love Hitler. others still make a case of it by saying that his book Mein Kampf is a bestseller in muslim countries. I dont even want to debate that this is all so false it doesn't have legs to stand on.

But it makes me laugh because to me it seems that these people want to capitlaize on the propaganda that has already been done against Hitler (and not without reason). Its like enough people hate Hitler so if Islam could somehow by linked to this Hitler, the hate would trasfer over to Islam in a short-cut kind of way. We wouldn't have to convince others with long debates or arguments about why hate ISlam. If you hate Hitler, you would have to also hate Islam.

12:55AM PST on Dec 26, 2011

Pego is right spot on. Its more about the propaganda than anything else. Since the government wants your tax dollars to get behind the war agenda it has to generate a boogyman. that way you dont complain because you tighten your belt and gird up your loins, undergo difficult times as well because your are on some noble mission which becomes more important than your personal comfort.

And this isn't new or novel either. Somehow i feel that Americans have always been more gulliable for this kind of boogyman model. they seem to want to always have some enemy. this is the same kind of propaganda that was carried out against the russians in the cold war era. You remember that they were portrayed in movies and music as the someone who would attack America or that America was under threat by Soviet attack. MOvies such as Red Dawn etc spoke about this image. Now after Russia since the Muslims are the new Enemy and again there is a threat to the values of America and in the movies the Russians are no longer the enemy but Muslims terrorists blowing everything up. BUt in the times of the cold war there was no internet. this powerful tool came later and reaches out to more people and it is in your face whether you want it or not.

The same was applied with Vietnamese, Koreans, Japanese, Cubans, etc. At all times there was always a supposed danger to America, a country that can't be attacked easily if you look at the world map.