Missing girl 'brought shame' upon family

Shafilea - Another victim of Honour?

Just getting ready to leave the machine and go lie down with a book and escape for awhile when I am pointed to the a story that has once again brought the shamefully named "Honour Killings" to the British Public's attention. Thank you Anon:(

That link, along with a search engine report pointing to an article by Lily Gupta over on Comment is Free made me make this last post of the day and provide the links to what is a related single story.

The first part of the story deals with the tragic death of Shafilea Ahmed who had supposedly run away from home fearing an arranged marriage. Her decomposed body was found on a riverbank five months after she disappeared. Her father at the inquest stated the shy young girl had brought shame upon the family. Well you can read the details of the last few months of the young girls life here. And yes Ms Harper. With hindsight you should have asked her mother to leave the room.

The second part of the story is the previously mentioned article by Lily Gupta, in which she starts her article also with the details of the death of Shafilea.

She then goes on in depth to write about forced marriages of women and children and the suffering endured by those people coerced into these relationships.

At a conference on forced marriage in London last year, the Forced Marriage Unit highlighted some of the horrors, which include kidnapping, violence, rape and even murder, experienced by the victims and survivors of forced marriages. It is true that men as well as women are forced into marriage, but undoubtedly, it is women who are most often the victims. It is also generally women that are victims of so-called honour killings.

The increase in the numbers of forced marriages and "honour killings" is mirrored in the growing numbers of young British men from various ethnic minorities that are involved in forcing a woman to marry against her will, or are involved in the crime of "honour" killing (forcing someone to marry is not a criminal act!). A BBC survey carried out in 2006 found that 1 in 10 young Asians said that they could justify the murder of someone who supposedly dishonoured their family.

There it is. Did you see the reason for the need for me to make one more post? Yep. You guys and gals do not miss much. One in ten young Asians said they could justify the murder of someone who supposedly dishonoured their family.

I will leave you to do the maths but that means there are a lot of potential murderers living amoungst us. Good night.