Honour killing is the murder of a woman accused of bringing shame upon her family.

Killing in the name of honour is often considered to be a private matter for the affected family. In recent years, more and more cases have reached the UK courts but many crimes still remain unresolved or even undetected.

So-called honour killing is usually committed by male family members against a female relative. In some communities mothers and sisters may also play a part. Some of the most common reasons for murdering a family member include: refusal to enter an arranged marriage, seeking a divorce - even from an abusive husband - or committing adultery.

In some cases, women who have been sexually assaulted or raped are then murdered for the 'dishonour' of having been a victim of an attack.

Honour killing is an ancient tribal custom and an allegation against a woman can be enough to defile a family's honour and justify her murder.

Men who kill their wives, sisters or daughters argue that a life without honour is not worth living.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the annual worldwide total of killings might be as high as 5,000 women.

Honour killings in the UK

In the UK, murders have sometimes taken place after a family has reacted violently to their son or daughter taking on the trappings of western culture. Killings are often disguised as suicide, fire or an accident.

Police believe there may be as many as 12 honour killings in the UK every year. They will typically occur within Asian and Middle Eastern families when a person is believed to have 'dishonoured' their loved ones.

In 2003 the Metropolitan Police set up a strategic task force to tackle the issue. A specialist unit was given the task of researching honour crimes and 100 murder files spanning the last decade were re-opened in an effort to find common links.

The move followed the killing of a teenage girl in a Kurdish family in London. In 2002, Heshu Yones, 16, was stabbed to death by her father, Abdullah, because he disapproved of her Western dress and Christian boyfriend.

Mr Yones then cut his own throat and attempted suicide by jumping from a third floor balcony. At his murder trial in 2003 he begged the judge to sentence him to death. Yones, a political refugee, who had fled Saddam Hussein's regime 10 years previously, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his daughter.

Other examples

Mustaq Ahmed, 40, a Muslim businessman murdered his daughter's boyfriend because he disapproved of their relationship. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22-year-old Albanian Rexhap Hasani in 2003.

Rukhsana Naz, 19, wanted to divorce her husband to marry her boyfriend by whom she was pregnant. She refused to have an abortion and was strangled by her brother with a piece of plastic flex while her mother, Shakeela, held her down. The family put Rukhsana's body in the car and drove 100 miles to dump it. Shakeela Naz and her son Shazad Ali were sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing in 1999.

Nuziat Khan, a mother of three, was seeking a divorce from her abusive husband. He strangled her to death in front of their three-year-old daughter in 2001. He remains on Scotland Yard's most wanted list and is believed to have fled to Pakistan.

Protecting the vulnerable

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in March 2004 Mr Gidoomal called for key changes to be put in place to help those at risk.

His appeal followed the death of Anita Gindha, a young Sikh mother, who had run away from home to get married. She was strangled at eight and a half months pregnant.

In his letter, Mr Gidoomal urged the authorities to introduce three new measures to raise public awareness of honour-related crime.

These included:

A code of conduct, signed by Asian community leaders, with an agreed and well-publicised form of whistle-blowing to protect women under threat within their own communities.
Extending telephone helplines to include services targeted at Asians particularly young people who may be at risk.
The setting up of a Young Asians at Risk Register (YAAR - the Hindi word for friend) to help the police, social services and other organisations to maintain an accurate national database.
Mr Gidoomal explained: "Protecting our citizens is an important duty of our nation. One life lost is too many. When a young girl or boy suddenly disappears from school to go abroad, at what point is it the right of the state to become involved in finding them?"

He says it is particularly important to target communities where honour crimes are most likely to occur. "It really does need multiple sectors working together. There needs to be training for teachers, police and others so they are aware of the early warning signs and able to identify those who would be most at risk."

A global problem

Outside the UK, honour killings have been reported in countries throughout the world including: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.

The practice is common in Pakistan where police believe that up to 4,000 people, mostly women, have died in brutal honour killings in the four years between 2000 and 2004. Hundreds of women are raped or killed there each year in so-called honour attacks for behaviour including extramarital affairs or marriage without a family's consent.

In a recent case (June 2005), Jali Ahmed set fire to his sleeping wife and daughter and burned them to death in an honour killing. The 20-year-old girl was killed for having had an affair and her mother for not doing enough to discourage her daughter.

In another harrowing case, a Pakistani widow and her two daughters were beaten and forced to parade naked through a market after her son allegedly had an affair with another man's wife.

And in June 2002, a 30-year-old woman claimed she was gang raped on the orders of a tribal council to atone for her brother's alleged affair with a member of a powerful rival clan. Mukhtar Mai's family said the charge against her 12-year-old brother, Shakoor, was fabricated.

The family claims Shakoor was sodomised by a group of men from the local Mastoi clan. After they threatened to report the incident to the police, Mai was gang raped allegedly by four men.

Moving forward

In Europe the phenomenon is also on the rise. European police met in The Hague in 2004 to discuss ways to tackle the problem and pledged to set up a pan-European unit to crack down on honour killings.

Police believe that some families may have hired contract killers or bounty hunters. Some killings have also involved sending the victim back to the family's "home nation" to be killed there.

They have also acknowledged that the culture surrounding honour crimes is complex and that recognising early warning signs will be the first step towards
saving lives.

Culture of honour

Shahien Taj, founding director of the All Wales Saheli Association, and a member of the Asian community, says: "Honour is supposed to be a positive word. Clearly, calling a killing an 'honour crime' is a contradiction of terms. A lot of talk and dialogue takes place after a crime has happened but this is too little too late. If you really want to deal with an issue you have to unpack it in its true context."

Ms Taj maintains that the majority of women within Asian communities face pressure over honour. She explains: "The whole concept of honour puts barriers up. It is repeatedly used in forced marriages."

She also cites cases of abduction and families giving permission for the use of domestic violence on newly married daughters. "Women are thought of as a collective and not an individual," she says. "I've met men and women who've been brought up on the concept of honour. It doesn't allow you to thrive."

Ram Gidoomal CBE of the South Asian Development, adds: "There's a deeper issue at stake with honour killings. Asian families who come to Britain are unprepared for the changed cultural environment. Young people have real problems trying to cope. Many of these youngsters live in two worlds.

"Attempted suicide rates are high among Asian boys and girls. Some will want to go down a particular career path but their families won't let them. The most serious issue is that of marriage. In extreme cases, the clash of cultures results in young people wanting to take their own life or people engaging in honour killing or murder of the worst kind."

Mr Gidoomal has been campaigning on the issue since the early nineties. He claims that the authorities need to look further than murder cases to get to the bottom of honour crimes. "Suicide, attempted murder and injuries can all fall into the category of honour killing," he says.

A matter of culture not religion

Honour killing, Mr Gidoomal continues, is not a religious issue.

None of the world's major religions condone honour-related crimes. But those who are guilty have sometimes tried to justify their actions on religious grounds.

"Honour crime happens across the board in the Asian community," insists Mr Gidoomal. "People try to blame Muslim, Hindus or Sikhs but it tends to happen in families where there are the strongest ties and expectations. It's a very strong cultural issue."

Leaders of the world's faiths have also strongly denied a connection between religion and honour killings.

In 2003, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) told the BBC: "Many Muslims are uncomfortable about how Islam has been dragged into this, because Islam categorically does not allow people to kill their own daughter."

EU forces changes

In Turkey, a country that is due to begin membership talks with the European Union (October 2005), there have also been a number of crimes linked to honour.

Until June 2005, local judges there had the power to hand down reduced sentences to the small number of honour killers who were caught.

Since the introduction of a new penal code, designed to conform to EU law, honour killings have been re-categorised as murder with a life sentence attached.

Eren Keskin, head of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, said: "There are some positive developments in these new laws. However, in Turkey the written law and its enforcement can be two very different things. Until the feudal make-up of society, until the very mentality behind these crimes changes, we cannot expect anything very different."

Keskin's comments followed revelations that a 13-year-old girl had been forced to marry a paedophile rapist. She was also raped by her father-in-law for refusing to become a prostitute and then had her nose cut off.

In the first few months of 2005 Palestine was also shaken by a series of brutal honour killings. Under laws inherited from the days of Jordanian rule women are perceived as "minors" under the authority of male relatives. The maximum sentence for killings in defence of 'family honour' is six months.

Two killings (May 2005) have prompted calls for a change in the law. One involved Faten Habash, 22, a Christian Palestinian, who was bludgeoned to death by her father for having fallen in love with a Muslim.

The other involved the ritual killing of three sisters by their brother after one of them was accused of having an affair. Maher Shakirat forced the three women to drink bleach before strangling Rudaina, who was eight months pregnant. The two other sisters tried to flee but Shakirat caught Amani, 20, and strangled her. The third sister, Leila, escaped but was badly injured. The killing was thought to have been ordered by parents of the three women.

According to the Palestinian women's affairs ministry, 20 girls and women were murdered in honour killings in 2004. A further 50 committed suicide - often under coercion - for "shaming" their families. Another 15 survived suicide attempts.

The ministry claims that dozens of other killings are covered up each year. One woman of 26 was certified as dying of old age.