Many support honour killings

2005-10-19 13:15

Ankara - A majority of people in Turkey's largely feudal and mainly Kurdish southeast believe "impure" women should be killed to cleanse the family reputation, according to a survey published on Wednesday in Turkish newspapers.

The opinion poll was conducted by Dicle University in Diyarbakir, the region's biggest city, among 335 men and 95 women to determine how locals view the centuries-old custom of honour killings.

Under the infamous practice, relatives convene a so-called family council and task a clan member to murder a woman relative considered to have stained their honour, usually by engaging in an extra-marital affair.

The practice, confined mainly to southeastern Turkey, has seen women killed even for talking to strange men or requesting a song on the radio.

According to the survey, 37.4% of the interviewees said a woman who has an extra-marital affair should be killed, while only 16% said she should not be punished.

Twenty-five percent said the woman should be divorced, while 21.6% said she should be harshly punished by having her head shaved or her nose or ears cut off.

Dozens of honour killings occur each year in Turkey, which is under pressure from the European Union it is seeking to join to improve women's rights and take measures against the practice.

In a major overhaul of its penal code last year, Turkey toughened penalties for perpetrators of honour killings, which are now punishable by a life term.

Recently, an Istanbul court imposed life sentences on two brothers convicted of shooting their sister dead for having borne a child out of wedlock.

- AFP