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Baroness Rendell of Babergh: My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Russell-Johnston, on instigating this timely and highly relevant debate, not as a dry-as-dust discussion, but as a polemic dear to the heart of all who commit themselves with passion to human rights and are in opposition to unjustifiable cruelty. I am in the unfortunate position of following five noble Lords who have all made excellent speeches on this compelling subject. I will try not to repeat what they have said, except where emphasis is needed on so important a matter.
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian Blair, has said that there is no honour in killing. Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killings has, as its slogan, "No honour in murder"—a sentiment echoed this week in the comment of a judge after the murder of a young woman. Sentencing a man of Bangladeshi origin and his two sons to life imprisonment for killing the man she was in love with, he said:
"There is no honour in murder. You have permanently dishonoured your family with the stain of murder".
Another case, just a year ago, was of a father hiring a hitman to kill his daughter and her Jewish boyfriend, offering to pay him £10,000 for each murder; but the hitman turned out to be an undercover police officer, and the father and his accomplice were arrested.
Muslim community leaders in the United Kingdom are far from condoning honour killings, although most of them would understand the motive for such actions. They know well the distress and anger caused when a daughter is seen to be growing up, not with the parents' value system, but with a western viewpoint which they will find profoundly shocking. Muslims suffer great distress about their children failing to uphold the old values.
However, we must face the fact that large numbers of people in south Asia and, unfortunately, those from these communities who have immigrated to this country, take a very different view. Men grow up believing that they should kill a female family member who fails to tow the line, and that this is no crime.
Female support for honour-related violence is also deemed a sign of virtue in these societies, women being brought up to believe the welfare of the community more important than the individual. Usually, they are the victims, but a man may be—as in the case just mentioned where the young man was murdered and the girl forced to have an abortion. Gay men may also be targets.
The police are currently reviewing 117 suspect cases; 22 have been analysed, of which nine are known to have been honour-based. They now fear that there may be as many as two cases a week. A conference of the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office, cited by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, to examine this issue was organised earlier this year. The need to understand
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was emphasised, and to have some comprehension of parental distress and incredulity at rebellious conduct is important. Officers were warned not to make assumptions about culture and to be aware that other things could be going on such as forced marriages. Sir Ian Blair has said that there is no honour in killing, and that those who commit these crimes are plain murderers:
"We are treading in areas where it is not normal for a western police service to go, but all our communities need protection from us".
As the noble Lord, Lord Russell-Johnston, has been good enough to mention, many parallels exist between the subject under discussion and my own major concern, female genital mutilation. Both practices are deeply enshrined in history and culture. Both are matters about which both males and females are adjured to keep silent. Both are areas where potential victims may be sent home to the country of origin for what we in the west see as a crime but, to them, is the establishment and maintenance of family honour. Like FGM, and many outrages perpetrated against women, the world's major religions play no part in these killings, although many perpetrators have attempted to justify their actions on religious grounds. Such practices, like FGM, facial disfigurement, in the not so distant past foot-binding in China and sati in the Asian sub-continent, owe their continuance to culture and tradition. In this country its maintenance is owed to what prevails in the countries from which they or their forbears came.
Hina Jilani, a lawyer and human rights activist, said:
"The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions".
Hundreds die every year in Pakistan as a result of honour killings. Almost all offences go unpunished, though—and this is the chilling and disquieting factor—such murders are crimes under Pakistani law. Police almost invariably take the man's side in domestic violence cases or honour killings, and even if convicted perpetrators receive light sentences.
An allegation of misbehaviour is sufficient to provoke killing. Women are never given an opportunity to explain their conduct, as there is no point in doing so. An allegation is sufficient in itself to damage a man's honour. Punishments exist for bringing a man's food late, answering back, undertaking forbidden visits or wanting a divorce.
Dr Tahira Shahid, a women's resource centre worker, said:
The owner of a property has the right to decide its fate. The concept of ownership has turned women into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold. Small wonder then that men arriving here from such a culture regard the killing of a woman or her lover who have, in their eyes, transgressed, as just retribution and can usually be completely justified.
The British police are working closely with the Community Liaison Unit at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which intervenes to prevent British citizens, mainly young women, from being
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taken abroad for forced marriages. They deal with 200 cases a year, though it is estimated that here alone there are 1,000 cases each year.
But women's lives have been, and still are, in many countries conditional on wearing the right clothes, not speaking too loudly, not being seen with the wrong person or not being the subject of rumour—for rumour is enough to stain the family honour. It is all rather like the situation in this country prior to the 20th century, as my noble friend Lord Giddens has told us, when a woman's reputation could be sullied by a breath of scandal or a compromising word—but it seldom, if ever, led to murder. If we are to solve this problem, I think we should ask ourselves, why not?
Honour killings are being closely and, I hope, sensitively monitored by the police in the United Kingdom, but they will only be put a stop to when domination over women is no longer seen as central to a man's self-esteem and the subjugation of women essential to keeping the community together. The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women urges:
"not to invoke custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations to eliminate the discriminatory treatment of women".
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
When a debate of this kind is instigated in your Lordships' House its purpose is not only to raise awareness of a matter pertinent to society but also, surely, to do something about it. The noble Lord, Lord Russell-Johnston, has told us what the police are doing about it. We should, of course, wish to give them our support and help, wherever possible. But, unfortunately, it seems clear, as it does in parallel atrocities, and again I think of FGM, that very little if anything can be done about eliminating such practices carried out outside the United Kingdom. Here I differ from my noble friend Lord Giddens. They are for the laws of the individual countries to combat and for these laws to be changed where necessary. We have to concentrate on what happens here on our own soil. It may be that the best we can hope for is that British citizens, converted from a harsh and, some would say, medieval viewpoint, may return home on visits and instruct their friends and family on what pertains in their adopted country.
There have been many cases of Somalis who have become British citizens, who go on holiday to their country of origin and tell members of their family who are living there, that female genital mutilation is intolerable in the United Kingdom and that taking girls to Somalia for that purpose is a crime punishable with 14 years' imprisonment. Often, that spreading of the word meets with success and people begin to see that such an ancient custom is unacceptable in the wider world. We can also infer from other areas of life that the children and grandchildren of immigrants born here will absorb much of our culture. Is it too optimistic to hope that they may retain the best from each?
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We must profoundly hope that knowledge of the relatively small number of men, sometimes with female support, carrying out these crimes does not exacerbate racist views or encourage those who are already biased against our citizens from Turkey and the Asian subcontinent to condemn them and bracket them all together as killers in the name of honour.
The noble Lord, Lord Roberts, mentioned the film, "Bend it like Beckham". I suggest that the excellent film, "East is East" should be required viewing for all who admire an ancient lifestyle, its strict morality, family values and deep familial affection and all who are biased against it to the extent of provoking racial discrimination. The film is not about honour killings or even forced marriage, but it portrays the authority that the father of the family has, or believes he should have, over his wife and children. It also shows the violence that he thinks that he is justified in meting out to his wife. She, a white Englishwoman, is vigorously resistant to his assault, but her resistance is mainly of no avail. Nevertheless, we come away from the film with a strong feeling that that lifestyle is on the wane—alas, its good aspects as well as its bad.
As in all areas of public life, we do best when we teach ourselves to understand the circumstances that surround hideous practices and oppression. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Russell-Johnston, said, murder is murder and can in no reasonable person's view be demoted to manslaughter. We must look towards a time when our immigrants realise that male violence, rape as a punishment and murder in the name of honour belong to ancient history, along with other atrocities long abandoned.
Does my noble friend believe that the Government are doing enough to combat violence against women, my concern about FGM and the murder of girls in the name of what a woman poet long ago called, "Your false god, your honour"?
4.12 pm
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