The "Culture" of "Honour" Crimes

A new report concludes it's time to do something to try to prevent "honour" killings in Canada. From the Toronto Sun:

MISSISSAUGA — From immigration policies and government-funded information programs to special shelters and mandatory counselling, Canada has a long way to go in combatting "honour" crimes, according to a report released Monday.


Since 2002, 12 murders in Canada "were identified as honour killings," while three others classified as domestic violence "have the hallmarks of an honour killing," Aruna Papp writes in her report, "Culturally Driven Violence Against Women: A Growing Problem in Canada's Immigrant Communities."

Papp was at Punjabi Community Health Services in Mississauga, near the grocery store where Amandeep Dhillon was murdered by father-in-law Kamikar Singh Dhillon early last year, for the unveiling of her report by Rona Ambrose, federal minister for Status of Women.

"Not all South Asian men beat their wives. Not all South Asian families have domestic violence. We are only talking about those who are my clients and the people that I have worked with," said Papp, who has worked as a social worker with families dealing with domestic violence for 30 years. "It is within those families that their culture is used to perpetuate violence," he added. "And within those ... women are abused."...

Ah, yes, it's a "South Asian" "cultural" matter. And the fact that such murders also occur in such non-South Asian places as Iran, Iraq, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, that's all a question of "culture," too, I suppose. At least, that appears to be the reasoning behind the proposed remedies, which include:

•Training sessions for sponsored women in their native countries before they immigrate to Canada; •"Mandatory orientation" for male sponsors; training for civil servants "to ask pertinent questions; •Government-funded television and radio programs giving information to women in various languages; •And shelters for women abused by extended family members, as opposed to spouses.

[Along with a call for] leaders in the South Asian community to publicly condemn honour crimes.

Refusing to address the religious underpinnings of the crime while pinning it all on "culture"--yeah, that should work.