The Global Fight Against Honor Killings

Makayla Bangoura 

Overview 

In June of 2025, a 35-year-old Pakistani woman named Bano Bibi was shot and killed. It is suspected that Bibi, a wife and mother to five children, was murdered in relation to allegations of infidelity. Authorities and international media have deemed Bibi’s murder an “honor killing,” a murder motivated by the dishonor she was alleged to have brought upon her family. After opening an investigation, police found video evidence of Bibi’s mother stating that the murder was “necessary to cleanse [our] family’s honor.” Bibi’s murder is yet another tragic addition to a growing list of honor crimes in Pakistan. Honor killings are not limited to Pakistan, however, and have only become more salient in the broader conversation regarding gender-based violence in recent years. 

Background 

The Tahirih Justice Center defines honor crimes as “acts of violence including murder, predominantly committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor on their families.” Honor killings stem from societal and cultural mistreatment of women. Perpetrators are often motivated to reclaim their family’s “honor” that they perceive the victim has compromised through her actions. The United Nations reports that annually, 5,000 women worldwide die in honor killings perpetrated by family members. Most instances occur in the Middle East and South Asia, but honor killings are also reported in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy.  

Violence against women in the form of honor killings has been perpetrated for centuries; for example, male heads of household in the Roman empire would kill their daughters for engaging in pre-marital sex, or their wives for having an extra-marital affair.  The Roman empire’s societal norms placed the burden of upholding “honor” on women, providing a mechanism for the male heads of household to control women’s actions. Maintaining honor within the family also served to safeguard patrilineality. Scholars note that perpetrators of honor killings under Ottoman rule would parade the blood of their victims through the streets to bring respect to their family. A particularly notorious honor killing occurred during King Henry VIII’s reign of England, when his second wife, Anne Boleyn, was executed on allegations of adultery. The historical tradition of honor killing deprives women of their autonomy and entrenches that continued denial into cultural norms. Honor killing is not unique to a certain culture, religion, or area of the world, but instead a global phenomenon perpetrated for centuries. 

Data collection for honor killings in the U.S. remains fairly minimal. Nonetheless, at least 26 honor killings have occurred in the U.S. between 1990 and 2021. Yaser Said was convicted in 2022 for the 2008 murders of his two teenage daughters in Texas. In November of 2024, Ishan and Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali were caught on video tape beating their daughter outside of her school in Washington state, allegedly because she ran away after discovering her parent’s plan to marry her off to an older man in Iraq. 

Policy and Global Initiatives 

Recent years have seen an increase in campaigns and protests to bring awareness to honor killings and reform state laws surrounding honor killings. Prominent protests have taken place in Jordan and in Sudan. In Iran, pressure mounted from local protests demanding legal reforms following the honor killing of 13-year-old Romina Ashrafi in 2020. In 2005, Pakistan adopted a law to recognize honor killing as a crime and increase penalties for perpetrators. Twenty years later, this law has been deemed ineffective at combatting honor killings, with Pakistani women continuing to be victimized. In 2006, Turkey altered their penal codes to remove lenient prison sentences for perpetrators of honor crimes; like Pakistan, honor crimes still occur in Turkey despite these laws. 

The UN and its Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) classify honor killings as gender-related killings. Discrepancies and inaccuracies in state reporting make it difficult to analyze and address honor crimes; the classification by the OHCHR allows for an approach to these crimes that recognizes the roots in gender discrimination. Extreme acts of violence of women, including honor killings, are considered violations of human rights.  

The UN has passed resolutions urging member states to strengthen educational and social programs, as well as legislate to prevent honor killings. In 2010, the UN released a statement urging states to end practices of impunity for perpetrators of honor killings and ensure proportional punishment; in 2016, the UN made a public statement condemning honor-killings in Pakistan and urging the state’s leaders to take the necessary measures to end honor-killings. In recent years, the UN has broadened its focus, undertaking global initiatives to end all femicide. One such initiative is the Spotlight Initiative, which focuses on prevention of violence against women by empowering the women in these communities economically to gain more autonomy. It is estimated that by the end of 2025, Spotlight Initiative efforts would have prevented 21 million women and girls from experiencing gender-based violence.  

Conclusion 

Honor killings remain one of the most persistent forms of gender-based violence in the world. Despite the efforts of the international community and governments to address honor killings, women continue to be victimized at ever-increasing rates. The women in these environments often have limited political power and are systemically mistreated, therefore legislators do not feel the need to create effective policies that prohibit honor killings.  To counteract these risks, the global community and individual states must come together to create enforceable and effective laws against honor killings. It is important to continue to implement policy and create global initiatives that empower women in their communities and aim at ending gender discrimination to exterminate the occurrences of honor killings and gender-based violence.