17,000 attacks on women every year

February 10, 2008
17,000 attacks on women every year
New estimates say that as many as 17,000 women could be the victims of so-called 'honour' crimes - 35 times the previous official figures. Now minister say they will step up the battle against forced marriages. What are your views and experiences of this?
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Posted at 01:36 AM in This Britain Permalink

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HM Government should refuse entry to the UK (and seek to persuade Brussels to extend the refusal to all EU countries) of any foreign born spouse whose marriage occurred abroad. I am sure entry into the UK is a strong motivation for many forced marriages, often with the spouse paying the parents in law. HMG should also resume checking all people leaving the UK, not (as of now) just the arrivals.
Posted by: Laurence Hallewell February 10, 2008 at 06:02 AM
Honour. Beating a woman, murdering your own child, forcing your own flesh and blood into such despair that they "opt" for suicide. This is Honour as ultimately defined by religion in 2008. The barbarism and savagery of it would leave even Geoffrey Chaucer gob-smacked! That such a sizable proportion of society sees this base-inhumanity as truly honourable beggars belief. The solution, if there is one, must include a change of mindset, but in the meantime there must be dedicated policing and heavy sentencing for the criminals who perpetrate these acts.
Posted by: Lorcán Bermingham February 10, 2008 at 06:10 AM
RE: Britain's hidden scandal
Why do some of the names listed on the list of victims seem to be of the Sikh faith, is the Independent trying to mislead its readers?
Posted by: Anonymous February 10, 2008 at 07:05 AM
The government has aided and abetted this state through its refusal to stop arranged marriages in the UK and also the practice of importing foreign spouses. It has allowed a creeping rise of muslim demands to lead to the conclusion that parts of sharia law are unavoidable in Britain. Why, because it already exists. It places men firmly in control and confirms the legitimacy to some degree honour violence and crime.It is laughable that the socialists will only now step up the battle precisely when they are again found out. Why now why not in 1997? We all know the answer to that one.
Posted by: Richard, Nottingham February 10, 2008 at 07:24 AM
The level of ignorance and cruelty amongst followers of the Islamic faith is just beyond belief. The Archbishop of Canterbury is a fool.
Posted by: Frederick February 10, 2008 at 08:30 AM
Arranged marriages are different from forced marraiges and forced marraiges are happening in Hindu, Muslim and Sikh families. No one should be forced into marraige like that and as far as i know no religion asks for people to be forced into marraige.This is not honour and this is not religion. This is men and sometimes women going on a power trip and wanting to control things.
Posted by: Mary February 10, 2008 at 10:43 AM
On matters of this kind, Brits look to their spiritual leaders.
And Archbishop Rowan Of La-La-Land is on hand to tell us that violence against women is perfectly acceptable. At last Milord Bishop has found common cause with another faith rooted in mysogyny, medieval bigotry and buggaboo.
Posted by: Neil McGowan February 10, 2008 at 01:16 PM
A video has been produced in the US by the David Horowitz Freedom Centre.
This is NOT for children or the faint-hearted. It IS shocking but this is the road that we in Britain seem to be going down. Elements of everything you see in this video already happen over here. Today, most of it is illegal... but THEIR todays are OUR tomorrows.
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/videos/108/the-violent-oppression-of-women-in-islam/
Posted by: Caroline February 10, 2008 at 04:23 PM
The video posted above by Caroline is the tip of a very nasty iceberg, and illustrates what the BNP have been telling us for years while the government and its confederates have been telling us its all lies.Previously a Tory, I have become totally disillusioned with the main parties, and along, I suspect, with a great many others, find I have no other choice but to support the BNP as the only chance we have left of recovering our country and returning to civilisation.
Posted by: Arthur February 10, 2008 at 04:58 PM
This is trash journalism from the Independent. Using an image of woman with niqab is just appealing to prejudice.
Just more rubbish to justify white racism. Just read the comments.
Posted by: Justice February 10, 2008 at 05:29 PM
Once Britain starts to deport any family involved in these "honour" killings or attacks, removing any British residency or citizenship rights as well, these horrific practices may stop. If these unpleasant creatures believe that murder is acceptable to save the family's reputation, they must be sent back to their country of origin where others of their ilk reside.
Posted by: Sheona Hutcheson February 10, 2008 at 05:47 PM
On a slightly different yet related note, in regards the story of inbreeding in the UK Pakistani community. One recalls that in the 17th Century, the Great Moghul Emperor Akbar admonished against the marrying of cousins: in his opinion, it was not condusive to ardour and passion within a marriage.
Posted by: Rami Samara February 10, 2008 at 07:43 PM
Sloppy journalism from the IOS today. The 17000 figure in the headline is pure conjecture which fails to stand up to any real examination. Seemingly, if a white man hits his wife its domestic abuse, if it's a brown man - it's now an honour crime?
Posted by: dissapointed February 10, 2008 at 07:51 PM
This article exudes sheer prejudice and discrimation feeding on the latest flavour of the day: Islamophobia. This seems to be on ongoing theme in the (sic) Independent. Carry on then, you are just confirming that times have not changed and raciscm is alive and growing in Britain.
Posted by: Malcolm X February 10, 2008 at 08:09 PM
I just wrote the following letter to the editors:
---------------------
Dear Independent on Sunday editors,
The cover of today’s paper was, frankly, shocking. It featured a picture of a veiled Muslim woman, and the headline “17,000 attacks on women every year”.
Upon reading the article, it transpires that the figure of 17,000 was a casual extrapolation - based on 500 reported attacks, and the assumption that it takes about 35 attacks for a woman to report domestic violence - and is certainly not based on any kind of substantial survey. Why put it in the headline?
More worryingly still, no mention was made of the domestic violence - including killings - that is *not* linked to ethnic minorties and their religious laws. According to the Home Office website[1], two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner, and one in four women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetimes. An incident is reported to the police around once a minute; multiplying that figure by 35 would give a very alarming headline.
The IoS’ front cover strongly hints at an association between Islam or Muslims and domestic violence, and the article does nothing to dispell this idea. This is dangerous and offensive for two reasons. It trivialises the crimes committed against women outside of the restrictive “honour” category, and it contributes to the normalisation of Islamophobic racism in Britain today. These are both phenomena that, in my view, the IoS would do better to challenge than to reinforce.
Please consider both your front covers and your coverage of domestic violence more carefully in future.
Sincerely,
Dave Sewell
[1: http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/dv/dv01.htm]
Posted by: Dave Sewell February 10, 2008 at 08:47 PM
In this thread both the BNP and Horowitz's imbecilic rantings are supported, is this the audience the IoS is looking to cultivate? Does the Daily Express know you're after its readers? Violence against women is society wide sadly (how *hilarious* that Stella Artois is known as 'wife beater') and honour killings are not confined to Muslims or representative yet in the presentation that is what is implied. A bad misstep.
Posted by: RickB February 10, 2008 at 08:55 PM
mp and media are carp they be going away this.
Posted by: kevin February 10, 2008 at 09:28 PM
This new announcement from the police that 17,000 Asians are subjected to honor violence begs a very simple question - Just what the hell have the police been doing whilst these crimes have been committed against the vulnerable. All of these examples are crimes of varying severity and I can see no reason for not acting except for Labour PC Multiculturalism that brushes these issues under the carpet. Nulab consistently announce new studies into possible new laws to tackle many types of crime when all thats needed is a rigorous enforcement of existing law. Yobs on the street, wife beaters, underage sex and marriage, polygamy, the list is endless but all can be dealt with under existing law no matter who commits the crime. Some of these crimes however are purely the preserve of the Muslim community and should be added to other crimes like the race hate material found in many mosques. Go into any church in any country in the EU and you will NOT find a single piece of race hate propaganda but far too many so called Islamic places of worship in Britain are overflowing with videos & books inciting violence against their host country. Its time for moderate Muslims (assuming there are some) to stand up against the extremists in their midst and expel them otherwise the majority in Britain will tar you all with the same brush. The balls in your court, its time for you all to act now.
Posted by: Mike February 10, 2008 at 09:39 PM
well done the independent and daily mail best news page so far.
Posted by: kevin February 10, 2008 at 10:19 PM
First the brainless wifi scare stories and now this sloppy racist hate piece. It is really sad to see the independent going down the sensationalist trash route :(
Posted by: ex-ios February 11, 2008 at 01:34 PM

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