Victims of Honor Killings

MEMINI means remembrance….

An honor killing is the killing of a person by other members of her/his family or community, due to the belief by the perpetrators that the victim (or an act the victim is perceived to have committed) has brought dishonor upon the family or community. Honor killings are seen across religious communities and are not limited to one group.

Honor killings are directed primarily against women and girls and are most often premeditated murders intended to restore the family’s social position and ‘honor’ through ‘cleansing the shame’ which the woman or girl is said to have brought, by erasing her very existence.

The UN conservatively estimates that 5,000 women and girls are killed each year globally by members of their own family, often by fathers, brothers, uncles and male cousins – and also mothers and other female relatives. The primary purpose of ‘honour crimes’ is to maintain men’s power in families and communities by denying women basic fundamental rights to make their own decisions about their own lives.

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