Getting the Figures Straight

Police estimate at least 12 are dying each year in the UK but others will be hidden – forced suicides and murders made to look like suicide are widely believed to take place undetected. Women aged 16-24 from Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds are three times more likely to kill themselves than the national average for that age and it is impossible to tell what pressures some must have been under. And for every woman who dies, it seems certain that there are many, many more living with honour-based abuse and hidden away in shuttered communities.

guardian.co.uk

It's sickening to the stomach, and even more so to realize that there are many more unreported incidents!

I read a clarification somewhere about the difference between an honor crime and a passion crime. One of the conditions of a crime to qualify as an honor crime includes the killing of the victim as a result of a family agreement. I can't understand how can a family get together to kill a person who is their own blood?

Parents protect their daughters till the last extent from the incident where she might lose her virginity because of either rape or consensual sex. And then (unfortunately) hand them over to husbands who rape their daughters day and night, and make them a target of their abuse. If the daughter stands up for her rights, or runs away, how can the father, or brother EVER think of it as a an act that has brought them shame? How can they ever think of killing someone whom they've so lovingly raised?