Parents murder their daughters, brothers kill their sisters, uncles slay their nieces, cousins slit the throat of their female cousins and brothers behead their sisters in the name of defending or reinstating the lost family honour. Just as young women and girls risk losing their lives, potential eyewitnesses or individuals who stand by the victims and help them may do so at a great personal cost. For many in the West, it is difficult to understand the notion of honour killing.
Honour killings are deeply rooted in cultural traditions and practices among many non-Western societies, collectivist cultures that perceive women as bearers of family honour. In order to better understand any society, it is important to explore the cultural context in which they live. Most immigrants come to Canada seeking better opportunities for themselves and their children, but there are those who are unable to leave behind cultural practices and traditions that are harmful to women who are denied human rights. While it is difficult to estimate the number of forced marriages, in the past two decades, there have been 20 honour killings in Canada.
Daljit Singh Dulay, 49, is serving a life sentence for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Urged on by his family, Dulay hired a private investigator to find his sister, then bought a gun, killed his sister and her husband. He also killed their friend, Mukesh Sharma, who had given the victims shelter and employment. In the written decision to reject Dulay’s appeal, the parole board stated that “Dulay’s beliefs on honour killings were instilled at a young age while in India.”
Three members of Shafia family, father, mother and brother were imprisoned for murdering four female relatives in cold-blood because they were perceived to have brought shame on the family. The judge sentencing the perpetrators called these murders a “twisted notion of honour.”
Sugirthanraj Kailayapillai was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 14 years for the 2006 killing of his wife and hanging her body in the garage and sending his four-year old daughter and his mother-in-law to the garage to discover the body. He suspected that his wife was romantically involved with another man and, as a result of this dishonourable behaviour, his children will be labeled and ostracized by their community.
Rajinder Atwal, 46, was charged with second-degree murder in his daughter’s death. Amandeep fell in love with McIsaac and moved in with him. The father was furious because his daughter had brought on public dishonour. While many in the Sikh community were horrified by the father’s action, there were 66 men who sent letters of support to the court vouching that the murderer was a very well respected member of the community and deserving of leniency.
Peer Khairi, a father of six, decapitated his wife. The Crown attorney attributed the murder of the victim to her ‘newfound desire for equal rights and her support for their children’s increasingly Westernized behaviour including western dress and late night events and dating’.
Hired killers were contracted in India to kill Jaswinder Sidhu by her mother Malkiat Kaur Sidhu and the mother’s brother Surjit Singh Badesha because she refused to marry the older man the family had selected for her. During a vacation to India, Jaswinder met and fell in love with a poor, uneducated man and married him, which was seen as a great dishonour to the powerful family living in Vancouver.
Today there is ample research which suggests that understanding the risk factors associated with domestic violence can assist in framing questions, determining effective measures, recognizing key intervention points and selecting appropriate responses. Identifying risk factors does not mean that a person will definitely become a victim of a perpetrator, but knowing what to look for can save lives.
Each one of us is a product of our cultural environment. Cultural environment consists of the influences of family, education, religion, social systems, values, beliefs and morals among other things. When working with victims of domestic violence and or honour based violence, it is important to understand a person’s values, beliefs and morals which govern their behaviour and their attitude towards life, life’s responsibilities and commitment. Understanding the cultural context of families at risk and being aware of their values system and its implications is imperative for assessing the risk and intervention strategy. In the following blogs I attempt to explore the complexities associated with honour based violence in the immigrant communities.