In war we always seem to accept killing but deaths from "friendly fire" are always considered more deplorable. They will make headline news and the inevitable enquiry will follow. But how much more "friendly fire" can you get than being killed by your own family?
According to the United Nations Population Fund there are an estimated 5,000 women killed each year in what distorted minds call "honour" killings. Figures from The United Nations Development Fund for Women state that 22 women a day are killed in India because of dowry related affairs. While in South Africa one woman is murdered every six hours by a family member or partner. United Nations special adviser, Asma Jahangir, in a report to the the Commission on Human Rights said, "The perpetrators of these crimes are mostly male family members of the murdered women who go unpunished or receive reduced sentences on the justification of having murdered to defend their misconceived notions of family honour."
No country seems to be immune to these male murders of females, a recent survey of cases that received media coverage between 1998 and 2007 concluded that in the UK there were an average of 12 cases investigated a year.
What state has our civilization reached when we still have male family members killing their own female family members on some personal and transitory notion of honour?
Of course it will continue as long as we have two classes of citizens, one the so called dominant and the other, the expected to be, submissive. It will only change when each human being respects and accepts as equall all other human beings, giving to each the rights that they claim for themselves.
Of course you and I know that the present system doesn't lend itself to all being equall, we are graded according to our consumer ability, our macho attitude, our success at exploiting others, possessions mean power, power gives you extra rights.
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