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An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is a traditional form of murder in which a person is killed by or at the behest of members of their family, due to culturally sanctioned beliefs that such homicides are necessary as retribution for the perceived dishonoring of the family by the victim. Honor killings are often connected to religion, caste, other forms of hierarchical social stratification, or sexuality. Most often, it involves the murder of a woman or girl by male family members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought dishonor or shame upon the family name, reputation or prestige. Honor killings are believed to have originated from tribal customs. Although condemned by international conventions and human rights organizations, various communities often justify and encourage honor killings. In cases where the victim is an outsider, not murdering this individual would, in some regions, cause family members to be accused of cowardice, a moral defect, and subsequently be morally stigmatized in their community. In cases when the victim is a family member, the murder evolves from the perpetrators' perception that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the entire family, which could lead to social ostracization, by violating the moral norms of a community. Typical reasons include being in a relationship or having associations with social groups outside the family that may lead to the social exclusion of a family (stigma-by-association). Examples are having premarital, extramarital or postmarital sex (in case of divorce or widowship), refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, seeking a divorce or separation, engaging in interfaith relations or relations with persons from a different caste, being the victim of a sexual crime, dressing in clothing, jewelry, and accessories that are associated with sexual deviance, engaging in a relationship in spite of moral marriage impediments or bans, and homosexuality. Though both men and women commit and are victims of honor killings, in many communities conformity to moral standards implies different behavior for men and women, including stricter standards for chastity for women. In many families, the honor motive is used by men as a pretext to restrict the rights of women. Honor killings are performed in communities with the intent to punish violations of social, sexual, religious or family norms or hierarchies. In many cases, the honor killings are committed by family members against a female relative considered to have disgraced her family. Honor killings are primarily associated with the Greater Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, but they are also rooted in other cultures, such as the Philippines, Northern Caucasus and historically in Mediterranean Europe. They are also prevalent in immigrant communities in countries which do not otherwise have societal norms that encourage honor killings. Honor killings are often associated with rural and tribal areas, but they occur in urban areas as well. Definitions Human Rights Watch defines "honor killings" as follows: Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons including, refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has acted in a manner to bring "dishonor" to the family is sufficient to trigger an attack. Men can also be the victims of honor killings, either committed by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship; or by the members of their own families, the latter often connected to homosexuality. General characteristics Many honor killings are planned by multiple members of a family, sometimes through a formal "family council". The threat of murder is used as a means to control behavior, especially concerning sexuality and marriage, which may be seen as a duty for some or all family members to uphold. Family members may feel compelled to act to preserve the reputation of the family in the community and avoid stigma or shunning, particularly in tight-knit communities. Perpetrators often do not face negative stigma within their communities, because their behavior is seen as justified. Extent Reliable figures of honor killings are hard to obtain, in large part because "honor" is either improperly defined or is defined in ways other than in Article 12 of the UDHR (block-quoted above) without a clear follow-up explanation. As a result, criteria are hardly ever given for objectively determining whether a given case is an instance of honor killing. Because of the lack of both a clear definition of "honor" and coherent criteria, it is often presupposed that more women than men are victims of honor killings, and victim counts often contain women exclusively. Honor killings occur in many parts of the world, but are most widely reported in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. Historically, honor killings were also common in Southern Europe, and "there have been acts of 'honour' killings within living memory within Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece," and "Honor in the Mediterranean world is a code of conduct, a way of life and an ideal of the social order, which defines the lives, the customs and the values of many of the peoples in the Mediterranean moral". In Corsica, there was a strong custom of vendetta, which required Corsicans to murder anyone who wronged their family honor. Between 1821 and 1852 approximately 4,300 vendetta killings were perpetrated in Corsica. Generational family feuds resulting in murders continue to take place in Sardinia in the 21st century. Honor killings have been prevalent in the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe until relatively recently, in places such as the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy and Greece. In French culture, stories about such homicides were romanticized and featured prominently in the French literature of the 19th century, and "In literature as in life, unconventional women needed to be severely punished lest their defiant attitudes inspire further acts of rebellion". France also had a strong culture of dueling meant to uphold honor, and France was called by the National Geographic "the dueling capital of Europe". Honor is a common theme in classical Spanish literature, being an integral part of the traditional Spanish culture; one of the most well known Spanish literary works dealing with the concept of honor is El médico de su honra by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The short story The Point of Honour by English writer W. Somerset Maugham makes reference to El médico de su honra and discusses the role of honor in Spanish socie.... Discover the Katie Khan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Katie Khan books.