What’s wrong with Western Media’s portrayals of ‘honor killing’?

As it generally goes with these tragedies, - rape, murder (honor-based violence) - the conversation that follows mainly focuses on pinning this sort of violence on a type of hatred for women that seems to be essential to the crude nature of a culture. It is never - or very rarely - about the actual factors; the weakness - not displayed but clearly shown to society - of police institutions, the control of the government, and the prevailing failure of the law. These allow the most ‘at risk’ of society - generally poor women - to be abused and to be treated as nothing more than a source of amusement and/or an object. Instead of explaining all of this and getting to the root of such problems, society chooses to make these situations about the factors that make it easier - for them anyway - to interpret the rubrics/headlines.

There have been countless incidents of rape and murder that have to lead to the Indian subcontinent and its “culture” being under worldwide and media scrutiny. In December of 2012, when the gruesome gang-rape and murder of an anonymous 23-year-old woman who is simply known - out of respect - as ‘Damini’, India was immediately put in the spotlight of criticism. Numerous protests across many urban centers in India were engendered by this worldwide/international tumult. This leads to sociological - considering the development and/or the structure and/or the functioning of a community - online probes into the habits and usual nature of Indian men and the sex culture of the subcontinent. As publicly debated, India had - perhaps still does - a “woman problem”.

Besides, India isn’t the only one on the receiving end of this criticism. Pakistan has also received a lot of attention for so-called “honor killings”. These, however, are simply weak terms to obscure brutality against women and the factors which provoke violence-related actions. Even though the principal culprits are called in as the “backwardness” of culture and the postulated acceptability of abuse, the reality is that the only “culture” to blame is the society of indemnity towards violence against women, which exists in the West as well.

And the value and meaning of this issue increase as we lean towards how violence against women is portrayed in the media. The inclination to inform and have a significant/relevant conversation is - most of the time - subdued by the proclivity to sensationalize the incident.

Elliot Rodgers. This name would most likely be remembered. After the 22-year-old’s murderous rampage just outside UC Santa Barabara’s campus, local authorities and even media coverage near-exculpate Rodger's sexism fanaticism, labeling his rampage as an act of “mental illness.”

The first step towards ending violence against women should be to coming to terms with our involvement in the making of a culture of acceptability - a culture that accepts people through no violence. Recent murders and/or rapes in South Asia - the ones that are made public - are detestable and the result of a culture exemption for the safety of women, specifically targeted at poor women.

What we should mainly be focused on - and scared of - is that that very same culture is slowly worming its way into our minds and those of people all around the world.

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