Honor Killing in Turkey

What I really wanted my blog to focus on this week is the topic of honor killing in Turkey. Honor killing is a topic that I was not aware about until recently. Any woman in the Turkish family that has brought dishonor to the family is to be exiled by the males of the family. I was amazed by some of the stories that I read on this topic. Many of them made me feel sick to my stomach. The brutality of the men towards these women is shocking. Honor is so important to the Turkish family that they are willing to commit such awful crimes in order to keep their honor.

One gruesome story that I read was about a young thirteen year old girl, who was rumored to talk to boys on the street and run away from home. The father decided one time that when she tried to run away that he was going to do something about it. He beat the girl with a kitchen knife and axe until she was dead. He then demanded his other daughter to clean up the mess and when his sons got home he instructed to them to remove the corpse and dispose of it.

Another even more shocking article that I read was about a young girl who had been kidnapped and raped. When she returned to the family the father did not want her to be his daughter anymore because of something that she could not even control. The father proceeded to strangled her with a wire explaining that the girl being raped and kidnapped brought dishonor to the family.

Statistics say that over 200 women and young girls are killed every year in turkey due to dishonor. Although the men who commit these crimes are usually punished by law, the law is not nearly strict enough as it should be. For the brutal killings these men give they should be serving the death penalty. Unfortunately many of them are getting off with the minimum sentence.