Qandeel Baloch’s Murder Sheds Light On Global Honor Killings: NPR

Good overview article:

An estimated 5,000 honor killings are committed every year, mostly in Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities, according to a 2000 report from the UNFPA — the most recent compilation of data. But the number could in fact be far higher. Barr says the killings are frequently not reported to authorities by the victims’ families.

While there may be more honor killings in the Middle East and Southeast Asia than in other parts of the world, there is no single ethnic, cultural or religious indicator of honor-based violence, reports the Honor Based Violence Awareness Network, a digital resource center that studies honor killings.

“It goes across cultural norms,” says Christa Stewart, sexual violence program manager at Equality Now, a women’s and girls’ rights organization. “It’s aimed at any woman who transgresses in a societal framework — who asserts her own desire to marry on her own volition, not have a marriage imposed upon her or chooses education.” In the case of Baloch, she says, her “transgression” was clear: posting social media posts that defied cultural norms.

Such acts of violence take place in the Western world, too. According to research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2015, an estimated 23 to 27 honor killings occur in the U.S. per year, 13 in the Netherlands and 10 to 12 in the U.K.

….And some researchers believe the label for these acts is part of the problem. “We shouldn’t use the term ‘honor killings’ at all,” she says. “It’s just an excuse for murder.”

Source: Qandeel Baloch’s Murder Sheds Light On Global Honor Killings : Goats and Soda : NPR