Honour Killings Are Homicides By Any Other Name
Except in Canadian media, it seems. So I'd like to know why our media caters to the idea that there's any such thing as "honour killings" (as in, it's different if Muslim men do it). We don't use outdated terms to describe the murder of women in other cultures, so I'm not sure why it's acceptable to do it to Muslim women.
The media claims, through its Rightwing Pundits, that Muslims demand a special exemption from Canadian laws, but clearly it's the media that is on the slippery slope to excusing behaviour that is criminal by granting it a culturally sensitive name.
Indeed, as a woman, I have to ask - culturally sensitive to whom? Certainly not to murdered Muslim women who are referred to in their own country's media - the Canadian media - our media - as honour killings. Enough already.
Homicide is homicide. And it's not up the the media to imply the degree by giving the murder an assumed cultural motive in its newspapers and television newscasts. A pre-meditated murder of another person is not a crime of passion, even. It's murder in the first degree and I can't for the life of me understand why the media would imply it isn't by calling it an "honour killing". Can no one in the media recognize how wrong that is, how it demeans the victim and excuses the perpetrator?
I get the impression our local Islamophobes would like nothing more than that the Canadian lady in peril scenario would come true so that they can be seen riding to our rescue (or not - not being more likely since most of them probably can't squeeze out of their armchairs) and say "we told you so" - except that the only reason we'd be in peril is because of the mindless catering to the lowest level of misogyny in new cultures by our media...
