Honor Killings Quotes

“Cultural and religious traditions that forbid cross-cultural unions prevent peace on earth. Instead of rejoicing that our sons and daughters are heart-driven and love other humans outside of their familiar religious, social or cultural domains, we punish and insult them. This is wrong. Honor killings are not honorable by God. They are driven by ignorance and ego and nothing more. The Creator favors the man who loves over the man who hates. If you think God will punish you or your child for allowing them to marry outside of your tribe or faith, then you do not know God. Love is his religion and the light of love sees no walls. Anybody who unconditionally loves another human being for the goodness of their heart and nothing more is already on the right side of God.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Tragically, these witch hunts go unpunished because the law books in these countries do not view them as crimes. Basically, the law allows people to act as judge, jury and executioner and is prepared to cast a blind eye no matter how harsh their punishment might be.”
― Aysha Taryam, The Opposite of Indifference: A Collection of Commentaries

“This is not about religion. This dilemma arises from the concept of shame. Sociology defines it as a family of emotions that arise from viewing the self negatively through the eyes of others. Therefore, it is this fear of judgement that pushes men to murder.”
― Aysha Taryam, The Opposite of Indifference: A Collection of Commentaries

“This sense of shame is rooted in tribal cultures. Honour killings are one of the many tribal understandings that pre-date Islam and Christianity together. It is as ancient a concept as the crimes of female infanticides. While the former is now extinct, the latter has somehow managed surviving to this day.”
― Aysha Taryam, The Opposite of Indifference: A Collection of Commentaries

“This gendercide must be tackled by a revision of all laws. Killing is killing and placing the word ‘honour’ in front of it should never be justification enough for allowing its escalation.”
― Aysha Taryam, The Opposite of Indifference: A Collection of Commentaries

“Honor and ego, no one seems to have noticed, are iterations of the same forces of patriarchal dominance. Honor makes sense to those in a collectivist society. Ego, to those who live in an individualist one.”
― Rafia Zakaria, Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption

“Ghazaale was eighteen years old, pretty, and full of life. The men in her family accused her of desecrating the family honor. Their words killed her even before a single shot was fired. These cases are burried in the dark and that's where they stay: no questions asked and no information offered. It's done. The family "cleaned its name," burying the rumors together with the body.”
― Amal Elsana Alh'jooj, Hope Is a Woman's Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel

“Our daughters, sisters, nieces, aunts, and mothers shut up in a prison called home and murdered by men heralded as champions for defending the family name.”
― Amal Elsana Alh'jooj, Hope Is a Woman's Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel