http://www.jmk.su.se/global/global96/global97/mod3/ingrid/pages/protest.htm#children
Honor killings
no longer a family matter
# Children becomes murderers
# Punish the parents
- You people think it´s okay to kill women in our countries, but it´s not. Murderers are brought to trial. It´s not a djungle out there, says Tahire Koctürk, author of "A Matter of Honour: Turkish women at home and abroad".
The young Turkish man who nearly stabbed his sister to death outside a dance-hall in Stockholm in january 1997 would not be helped in a Turkish court by claiming he did it for honor, she says.
Children becomes murderers
But there is one way to get around long term sentences for murder: let an underaged family member do the job. This has come to be a more and more common practise since the Turkish law doesn´t let tradition rule anymore, explains Canan Arin, lawyer in Istanbul:
- Honor killings exist in Turkey, especially in the south west and east, and among those who are immigrated from parts where feudal rules are still effective.
- What happens is that when the male members of the family decide to punish a disobediant girl they ask an underaged member of the family to commit the crime. It is an international rule to punish an underaged child less than a grown up. When it comes to the Law Court the boy and the family deny cooperation and the boy confess that he himself decided to kill her and that no one helped him, and the case closes with the minimum charge on behalf of him!
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Punish the parents
This practise does not go on unnoticed, though. Turkish womens organisations are taking action:
- We, and especially I, have some proposals to change some of the international rules at such cases, but it can not be amended from today to tomorrow. I personally think that the murderer, even if he is underaged, should be punished fully so that these little boys can not be used any more, and that the male members of the family who decide on the murder should be cross-checked, says Canan Arin.
According to Tahire Koctürk it is discussed whether the parents should be forced to take the responsability and be brought to court for these crimes, and not the child.
©Ingrid Johansson
This page was updated in may 1997.
