> > More than 450 women killed in Pakistan 'honour killings' in 2002
> Are the 469 rapes described in this article "honor rapes," so to speak?
The news report says,"There were 469 registered rape cases, including the community-ordered gang rape in June of Mukhtiar Mai which triggered national and international outrage." The report not is clear whether 468 cases were "honour rape cases" or rapes of all types.
> I'm familiar with honor killings, where a husband or brother kills a woman
> who has engaged in sex they didn't authorize. But the more I read the
> South Asian papers, the more I hear mention of these "community ordered
> rapes," where village elders order the rape of a woman (very often a yong
> girl) in order to shame the family she belongs to, even though she has
> done nothing. And by extension, it seems gang rape becomes considered a
> legitimate substitute for honor killing. It's all pretty new to me and
> seems almost too bad to be true. And yet it seems that to the editors and
> readers of these newspapers, it's such a familiar feature of the social
> landscape that's barely even newsworthy; the average article is short and
> goes into no detail.
Please see the article "Honour killings:Whose honour is it in any case?" posted by me on lbo-talk on January 5, 2003. Honour killings largely take place in Pakistan. Dowry deaths (or bride burning) are more common in India.
> Do you know where I can read something comprehensive
> about this phenomenon?
It may be difficult to find something comprehensive, but you could try archives of
Economic and Political Weekly http://www.epw.org.in/showIndex.php ,
Frontline Magazine http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/archives.htm
Manushi, a wellknown feminist Indian journal. http://free.freespeech.org/manushi/
Sabrang Communications Online, particularly the section, India: Index on Human Rights http://www.sabrang.com/
Ulhas