"HONOUR CRIME" FEAR!

Banaz Mahmod

A report has found that women are being betrayed by community figures who believe those who break traditional taboos deserve to be punished.

Researchers say taxi drivers, police and government workers of Asian origin are returning women to the domestic abuse they want to escape.

The report by the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank voices the concerns of activists who say they are seeing more women fleeing "honour-based" violence.

The Crown Prosecution Service says about a dozen women a year in the UK are victims of honour killings but researchers fear the real figure is much higher.

The study found that honour crimes are being carried out by third and fourth generation immigrants and also says there is evidence that Asian policemen and councillors try to block the activities of women's groups!

"The Government is still not taking honour crime seriously," said James Brandon, one of the report's authors, "until this happens, the ideas of honour which perpetuate this violence will continue to be passed from generation to generation."

The report says women have been attacked for forming "inappropriate" relationships, wanting to go to university or listening to Western music.

It found that "political correctness" was preventing bodies from tackling crimes which exist in the country's Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities.

The authors said families withdraw teenage daughters from school because they fear men will be unwilling to marry them if they are educated.

But lack of funding means shelters have been forced to turn victims away.

Many men brought up here want "freshies" - women "uncontaminated" by ideas of independence.

Rahni Binjie of the Roshni Asian Women's Aid, a refuge in Nottingham, said: "We've had women who have disappeared from the education system. We don't know if they've been taken abroad or killed or anything."

Activists say there are particular problems with taxi firms who return women fleeing from abuse.

Jasvinder Sanghera, of the Karma Nirvana refuge in Derby, said: "We just can't trust them. This can be a matter of life and death for these girls."

Honour cases include that of Surjit Kaur Athwal, a Sikh lured to India and killed on the orders of her husband and mother-in-law. (Honour killings) *******************************************************************************************8

Some Asians in the police and in Government jobs have been accused of blocking the crackdown against so-called honour killings.

It is alleged they are not only failing to help desperate women trying to flee abuse and arranged marriages but are actively encouraging punishment for those they believe are breaking traditional taboos.

Terrified victims who seek official help are even being tracked down by a network of Asian men working in Government departments and social services, according to a study written by the think-tank Social Cohesion.

One woman was found by her family after she signed on at a Jobcentre where a member of the Asian community was working.

The report also claims some Asian police officers actually return women to their abusive families or refuse to act against men enforcing 'traditional' roles.

Meanwhile, non-Asian officials and police officers are scared of acting against families who abuse their relatives for fear of being branded as racist, the report says.

The study follows the horrific case of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod, from Mitcham, South London, whose body was found in a suitcase after she was raped and strangled with a bootlace by hitmen hired by her family.

She was killed for falling in love with a man the family disapproved of – despite unsuccessfully asking police for help five times.

In one plea she recorded a video message that helped convict her father and uncle of her murder.

Controversially, the report accuses one of the Government's closest advisers on Muslim matters, the Muslim Council of Britain, of hampering attempts to criminalise forced marriage.

It said: "The MCB has sought to block legislation aimed at ending honour-based violence. Almost all women's groups interviewed for this report say that the MCB has done little or nothing to end honour-based violence...

"In many northern towns...South Asian women are often afraid to seek help because they know that Asians working in local government believe that women who break traditional taboos deserve to be punished."

Report contributor Nazir Afzal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, added: "Domestic violence is not an issue the Muslim Council of Britain wants to know about."

David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth who is on the Home Affairs Select committee investigating forced marriages and domestic violence, said: "Thousands of girls are being taken to Pakistan every year for marriage, although it is best described as abduction and rape."

James Brandon, one of the report's authors, said: "It is estimated that ten women a year in Britain die through honour killings and honour violence. The Government must change the way it approaches this problem."

The MCB said: "Our position has always been clear: so-called honour killings are murder. They are severe criminal offences which we condemn." Freerepublic

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