Another Brutal "Honour" Killing Comes to Trial

The boyfriend of a married Muslim woman allegedly murdered by her father and uncle for having an affair with him choked back tears yesterday as he told how her mother knew of the plot to kill her.

Rahmat Suleimani, 28, told the court that his girlfriend Banaz Mahmod's mother warned him that her husband was arranging to kill them both in an 'honour killing'.

She warned him: "You should watch your back because there are people out there who want to kill you."

She then allegedly begged him not to reveal that she had told him of the plan, saying she would be "in deep trouble" if anyone found out.

Pretty Banaz Mahmod, 20, was garrotted with a bootlace in January 2006 and buried in a suitcase in her grandmother's backgarden, the Old Bailey heard..

full story: This Is London

A lot of people seem to have great difficulty getting their heads around the concept of an 'honour' killing, because surely there can be no 'honour' in doing such a thing? How can killing your daughter because she has an affair outside of an unhappy arranged marriage be a decent or virtuous thing to do?

But 'honour' does not, strictly speaking, mean 'decent' or virtuous'; it means 'having social standing and respect according to the mores of one's time and place.'

In a civilized society one achieves honour by behaving decently, and hence to us the two things have come to seem synonymous

but in a barbaric society one achieves honour not by being decent but by not showing weakness, or by not being in any way humiliated by a woman, or by not being shamed by the actions of a family or tribe member (because primitives believe in collective responsibility, lacking the concept of individual dignity/worth) etc.

Therefore, if a particular culture deems it necessary that a father kill his daughter in circumstances like those described above, in order to preserve his honour, then killing her actually does preserve his honour, i.e. his social standing within that (barbaric) culture.