Honor killing perpetrators welcomed by society, study reveals

8:03 pm on July 15, 2008 by Kal

Many who live in southeast Turkey have little or no qualms about mingling with honor killers.

A study being conducted by a team from Dicle University in the Southeast on honor killings has so far shown that little if any social stigma is attached to the act.

Anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and social workers are involved in the study, due to conclude in August. Associate Professor Mazhar Bağlı from Dicle University Department of Sociology is supervising the study.

The team visited 44 prisons in the region and interviewed 180 perpetrators of honor killings. Of these, 100 percent say they do not regret their actions, Professor Bağlı notes. In some cases, the victim’s relatives even praised the perpetrator, he adds.

Causes of honor killings vary. “It is not appropriate to associate honor killings with only one section of society. Some people think that it is related to a feudal structure, but this has proven to be false. There are also perpetrators who are well-educated university graduates. Of all those surveyed, 60 percent are either high school or university gradates or at the very least, literate. The victims of honor killing are not always women; males have also been targeted,” Bağlı says.

He also drew attention to a misperception in the society concerning the motive. “These murders are not motivated by rumors such as ‘she wore blue jeans,’ ‘she sent an SMS to her boyfriend’ or ‘she went to the park.’” Suggesting an illegitimate sexual relationship as the primary reason for the murders, Bağlı said cheating is an unforgivable act in the Southeast, even for a woman who “cheats” after divorcing her husband by remarrying.

Read the rest here.

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    1. Philip Saenz on 15 July 2008:

      Some “people” don’t see anything wrong with honor killings because their minds are diseased with hatred. To me, these so-called people are not better than dogs with rabis. Neither rabid dogs nor the honor murderers are aware of their actions. My advice is to stay away from honor murderers and dogs with rabis.

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