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Friday, 20 July 2018

There is no honour in ‘honour killings’, only male shame | Naz Shah

The global scale of gendered violence, FGM or forced marriage is staggering. The Honour Her campaign deserves your support

Saturday 14 July marked the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Honour Based Violence, a day established to commemorate the birthday of Bradford-born Shafilea Ahmed, murdered by her parents in a so-called honour killing in 2003. It took nine years to bring her killers to justice. And today marks the second anniversary of the brutal rape and murder of my constituent Samia Shahid. Another senseless death, another “honour killing” and another woman denied justice.

Looking at these and other recent cases, it’s hard to imagine that in this modern world women and girls still suffer such appalling violence based solely on the outdated notion of “honour”. Despite the global media coverage, education and campaigning around Shafilea’s murder, Samia was still killed. We must address what this tells us. If there’s one thing that more than 25 years of involvement in campaigns to end violence against women has taught me, it is this: the chain of violence can only be broken when survivors are empowered to break their silence, and communities accept their responsibility to address difficult truths and make changes to the dynamics within them.

Related: Metal spoon technique to alert authorities to 'honour'-based abuse

Related: Samia Shahid's father allegedly hoped to use blood money laws to get away with murder

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from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Lx4SZX

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