Where's the honour?

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Last week Senator John McCain took the politically desperate measure of nominating little-known Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in this year's US presidential election, a move seen by most analysts and right-minded people as a last throw of the dice in a bid to win over the female vote.The move's blatant cynicism and Palin's unsuitability for the job notwithstanding, it was proof, if any was needed, of just how strong women's voices have become in the world's most powerful country.On the same day, it emerged that tribesmen in a remote region of Pakistan have been charged with shooting and burying alive five women for the heinous crime of wanting to make their own choice in marriage. Proof, if any was needed, of just how desperate the plight of women remains in so many 'developing' countries.Of course, we've been here so many times before.The Human Rights Watch web site says abuses against women are "widely tolerated, if not explicitly condoned". And therein lies the problem. Governments of states where these crimes against helpless women persist are notoriously reluctant to offer any sympathy, and even less help.With every horrific case of honour killing or torture, officials meekly shrug their shoulders and attribute them to quirks of culture or religion.It's tribal traditions, they say. There's nothing that can be done.In fact, there is something you can do: Why not sentence abusers and rapists to life in prison, and killers to death. I guarantee that these cowards would think twice before playing god with their victims.

And even if they don't, it surely is still better than not taking any action at all, in doing so reinforcing theA - incorrect - notion that the Middle East and Asia are inhabited by savages.At the heart of the issue is debilitating lack of self-awareness, self-analysis, and, most damagingly, accountability. You cannot defend the indefensible, and yet honour crime perpetrators are consistently protected by their tribal societies. How ironic that it is many of these same societies that blame all their ills on evil foreign interference that does not value their existence.If you have no respect for other people's lives, then you give up the right for others to respect yours.

Of course, honour killings and abuse are not exclusive to the Middle East and Asia; you only have to visit the excellent www.stophonourkillings.com to realise that. However, not even the most blinkered of apologists can claim that the extent of the problem in this region is not infinitely more serious than in other parts of the world.In Southeast Asia,A horrific acid attacks on women are still commonplace, if these poor victims are deemed to have brought shame on their family, or that of a potential suitor. Concentrated hydrochloric acid is readily - and cheaply - available, despite the protests of women who continue to suffer for simply standing up to themselves.But at least there is a glimmer of hope. In 2003, three incredibly courageous Indian women - Sushma Verma, Sanjana and Mallige - set up CSAAW (Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women) to raise awareness of the crimes in their state of Karnataka and to force the government to help the victims. They even released 'Burnt, but not defeated', a critically acclaimed documentary that highlights the horrors of acid attacks.But still the attacks continue.In Iraq, 19-year-old Shawbo Ali Rauf was shot seven times in April this year by her in-laws because they found an unknown number stored on her mobile phone. Another, Du'a Khalil Aswad, 17 and Kurdish, was stoned to death for a relationship with a teenage Sunni man. Honour crimes in the war-ravaged country are on the rise.In Yemen, child brides are commonly married off by their families, leaving them open to all sorts of abuses by their 'husbands'. Earlier this year, eight-year-old Nojoud Mohammed Ali, escaped from her husband by taking a taxi to a judge's office to protest the fact that she was made to live with him, despite the "understanding" that she would remain with her family until she turned 18. Thankfully she was granted an annulment.And who knows how many other gruesome crimes hide behind the shield that 'honour crimes' provide ; We haven't even begun to scratch the surface here. Seven million words, never mind 700, would not be enough to catalogue the sheer volume of injustice and misery that women all over the world have to endure.I leave you with this scarcely credible story. A man in Jordan killed his own sister, claiming he was "cleansing" his family's honour. It turns out that he had killed her because she tried escaping the family's prostitution ring, which he was part of. These words bear repeating: Man kills own sister because she DID NOT want to be a prostitute. Honourable, indeed.And his punishment ; Two years in jail. Proof, if any was needed, that the lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum.

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