Phyllis Chesler on Honor Killings

In the Spring 2009 issue of The Middle East Quarterly, available online. Her main point is that honor killings are significantly different from Western-style domestic violence--in intent, ferocity, celebration, and victim selection--and should not be treated as such.

In both North America and Europe, family members conducted honor killings with excessive violence—repeatedly stabbing, raping, setting aflame, and bludgeoning—in more than half the cases. Only in serial-killing-type scenarios are Western women targeted with similar violence; in these cases, the perpetrators are seldom family members, and their victims are often strangers. Despite the obfuscation of Muslim advocacy groups, these case studies show that honor killings are quite distinct from domestic violence.

She is quite detailed and presents the data she used with her conclusions, which I will keep in mind the next time I rant at "feminists."

But I would still appreciate the organizations that purport to care about women noticing the existance of honor killings.