Honour Killings: Nothing ‘Honourable’ About It

The headlines of news channels, news magazines, news portals, all have been screaming about the recent spate of honour killings. So what does ‘honour’ mean? According to the dictionary, honour means: the respect that a person, his family receives from others that makes them proud; personal integrity; allegiance to moral principles. So why are we calling these barbaric murders ‘honour’ killings! It is a completely misguided sense of honour that is making these people kill young men and women of their families just because they have dared to choose their own partners. All reporters – print news, broadcasting news and internet news - by calling them honour killings, are somehow invoking and spreading this false sense of honour instead of curbing and curtailing it. Media needs to coin a new term that evokes sense of disgust at the killings rather than a sense of pride in the hearts and minds of the readers and viewers. The word honour is a huge mistake and there is an urgent need for news broadcasters, magazines and portals to find another term. Unfortunately, the term has been widely used and has gained widespread acceptance in the media and the population and it will be a difficult task to erase it from everyone’s minds…but erased it must be because these are certainly not ‘honour’ killings as we understand the meaning of honour, rather they are horror killings.