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Asian honour crimes conference, London
By James Brockett
December 12, 2004
As many as six unexplained deaths in Brent and Harrow could be reinvestigated
under a Crown Prosecution Service crackdown on so-called "honour crimes" in
Asian communites announced this week.
The cases came to light as Nazir Afzal, head of the CPS in West London, called
a central London conference to discuss crimes of murder, domestic violence and
forced marriage in which family honour is a motivating factor. It followed the
revelation that suicide rates among Asian women aged 16-24 are three times the
national average.
Mr Afzal said: "The Met Police has said it has 120 unsolved murders in London
over the last decade, including half a dozen in the Harrow area, where women
are very likely to have been the victim of honour crimes. In many cases the
women have just disappeared, and it is unlikely we will ever find out what
happened to them. These are tragic cases that we need to learn from and stop in
the future."
Honour crimes were recently highlighted in the national media by the case of
19-year-old Rukhsana Naz from Derbyshire, who was strangled by by her mother
and brother after falling pregnant.
Jasvinder Sanghera, who runs a refuge for Asian women, was disowned by her own
family for refusing a marriage. She said that notions of honour were ingrained.
"If you think that when the older generation die this is going to disappear
then you are wrong. It is a sad fact that I have seen these practices
reproducing themselves across the generations."
But Dr Purna Sen, of the London School of Economics, warned that "honour
crimes" was simply a label that could give rise to Islamophobia. "Crimes of
honour sit in a broad network of violence against women. Some forms of violence
against women are universal, and this is just a culturally specific
manifestation of them."
The issue of forced marriage was also discussed. Heather Harvey of the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office said it was shameful that embassies abroad were often
approached by young British Asian women who had been taken away and forced to
marry. "Can you imagine the headlines we would have if a 14 or 15-year old
white girl were taken abroad to a remote village and forced to have repeated
sex with a man she has never met, who may not even speak her language? What is
the difference? There is no difference. We are talking about abuse of human
rights."
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Asian
suicides may be 'honour' killings
12-7-2004
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