Seems to be the season for "honor "killings

What I think I meant was that we are often called on to "respect" other cultures.This allows sequestered women to be abused.But you are right men murder women.Strange how that little fact is rarely mentioned.Not mentioning it condones it in a way. You know poor little dears cant manage their testosterone and not kill.It is tradition. I was also touching on something reaally difficult.We know that people who have suffered lack of food in utero or in infancy may be damaged.We also know that horrible experiences can make people bonkers,not necessarily nice..Asylum seekers are very different from immigrants(although sometimes even ordinary immigrants find our comfortableness and laziness disgusting)I don't know but the girl murdered in London was Kurdish.However it came about her murderers state of mind was horribly sadistic.We should just know perhaps that rescueing people may look noble but may not always be wise.

You (or not you personally) are dignifying it by saying it is"because of their choice of partner" There is no because. If the murderers site such a reason it needs to be reframed in our more rational terms.The "honour killing" way of thinking is actually mad, evil and in fact medieval. In one recent case, one of the rape murderers was the girls uncle.So in that case perhaps one could say the reason was incestuous.In the Uk I remember a case where a man murdered his wife because there was no salt on the table.Should we call it a lack of salt murder? There is something about the phrase that tries to distance us from it all.As if it is OK because it only happens in certain groups ,certain cultures and places.It only happens to certain groups of women.Well women accross the board get killed by family members.The only difference perhaps is that "honour killings" seem to involve a great deal of torture and sadism.sort of what used to happen to witches before we evolved as far as we have.Also there is something particularly horrible about a conspiracy.A group of torturers is worse than the mad despair of one man.

I'm reading Boris Johnson's book "Have I got views for you".In it he says that the emancipation of women is the biggest social change since the invention of print .He also says it is something we should be culturally imperialistic about.This is something we are right about and they are wrong, We think that women are human beings and should have equal rights to health care education etc. I'm actually agreeing with you about the need to challenge attitudes.How do we even in this country educate and protect women and children who are kept separate? I don't know, but I do think it will mean insisting on our values being paramount here even if it offends . You can't challenge medieval thinking because it is lousy with superstition and irrationality.It would have its own internal logic such as women who don't obey should be killed.The "logic" of a drowned woman being innocent of witchcraft ,a floating one being guilty.You can't argue with the inquisition.They just want to keep control and chuck someone on the pyre.