In Middle Eastern societies, honor killing is an immense part of their culture. These crimes can be dated back to as early as Babylonian times (Recknagel). Honor killing is a homicide committed against a female within a family or community to protect the honor of said group. The reason these crimes are usually committed against women is because they are seen as the root of a family's honor; once a woman's honor is broken, a family's is as well.
Honor killing is committed in order to keep a family’s reputation in good standing within a community. “Honor killing comes from a complex code of honor that is ingrained in many Middle Eastern societies. Family status depends upon honor, which depends on the respectability of the daughters and wife of the family” (Rabbani). This method is used to scare the other women in a family or community into following the code. There are many different ways a female can break a honor code. It can be as simple as flirting or failing to prepare a meal on time or it can be …show more content…
Most honor killings aren’t classified as such because most Middle Eastern countries consider it self defense against their honor (Chesler). Almost all perpetrators walk away free from the crimes they have committed. However organizations such as Surgir, whose group works on being a mediator to families, is one of many foundations trying to prevent honor based violence, but there are many things that still need to be done in order to completely get rid of the horrible acts. “In countries where they continue to have mitigating circumstances or offenses that allow for the offenders to be pardoned, there is no deterrent and it sends a message to society that it is OK to kill women of their families if they breach their honor” (Recknagel). In other words, until a government starts to treat honor killing as a real crime nothing is going to