A recent case of honor killing has been highlighted today in the British Daily Mail . The article entitled “Murdered For Loving Our Values” relates to a Samaira Nazir who was killed by her family for staining their “family honor”. The BBC also carried the story at the time of the trail of Samaira’s brother.

Here are some of the gruesome details of her murder as related by the Daily Mail:

(i) Samaira refused marriage to suitors that her family had arranged for her, rather preferring to marry an Afghan man from a different “caste”. For this reason her family became enraged precipitating her murder.

Although being Kashmiri and someone who comes from the Indian sub-continent I find it very difficult to understand the concept of caste. I think it works like this and please correct me if I am wrong: you are born into a family, that family belongs to a particular caste (social group) all your socializing and familial relations can only conducted in the scope of that caste. Thus when a person whether male or female decides to break one of the rules of the caste such as marrying outside, thenthe honor of the family is stained within the cast.

(ii) “During a bloody struggle, her father, brother and cousin used four knives to cut the young woman’s throat and stab her 18 times. At one point, she tried to get out of the house, but was dragged back by her hair. Her father explained to anxious neighbor’s that his daughter was ‘having a fit’.”

(iii) “Samaira’s nieces, aged two and four, were forced to witness the killing as a warning of what they could expect if they similarly dared to break with tradition. The little girls were found screaming and splattered with blood.”

Cases such as these highlight the fact that there are some very sick and misguided people in this world. To place your standing amongst your family and peers over the consideration of love for your child is a crime in itself and then to murder that child for the same reason cannot be explained but as the most callous barbarity.

There will be many who consider this as a justification that Islam promotes the murder of females and forced marriages. As far as the latter is concerned this is the assertion of the author in the Daily Mail. She claims that the British government is tip-toeing around the sensibilities of the Muslim community in regard to forced marriages and legislation.

Let me say that as a Muslim I abhor forced marriages. I have a number of friends that have had their lives ruined by this most despicable of customs.

The custom of forced marriages is not something that is special to those who claim to be Muslims. There have been cases of forced marriage and even murder in the Hindu and Sikh communities both in the West and in India. For those that which to make this into a “religious crusade” against Islam then let me remind them of a couple of things:

(i) Forced marriages are carried out by people of different faiths it depends more on culture and customs rather than religion.

(ii) Forced marriages have been taking place for thousands of years before Islam. This is not to try to lessen barbarity of this practice but rather to show that Islam did not give birth to it.

(iii) Islam does not condone forced marriages rather it prohibits them.

There are certain sections of the Asian community in the United Kingdom, they maybe Muslim or Hindu or Sikh that condone the practice of forced marriages for a variety of reasons however the media portrayal is one of a particularly Muslim problem.

The assertion that Samaira Nazir died because she loved western values is incorrect. The value to decided who to marry and who not to marry is a universal value enshrined in both Western and Islamic values.

The reason Samaira was killed was not because of Islam but adherence to a culture and custom that views any divergence from its norms as a dishonor punishable by death.

In the words of her brother who helped kill her:

“She does not wish to have an arranged marriage. We only allow marriage within the family.”

The question that needs to be asked by all of us is, was Samaira killed by Muslims because of Islam or was she killed by her family who happened to be Muslim for reasons of culture and customs?

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