EU forces changes
EU forces changes
In Turkey, a country that is due to begin membership talks with the European Union (October 2005), there have also been a number of crimes linked to honour.
Until June 2005, local judges there had the power to hand down reduced sentences to the small number of honour killers who were caught.
Since the introduction of a new penal code, designed to conform to EU law, honour killings have been re-categorised as murder with a life sentence attached.
Eren Keskin, head of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, said: "There are some positive developments in these new laws. However, in Turkey the written law and its enforcement can be two very different things. Until the feudal make-up of society, until the very mentality behind these crimes changes, we cannot expect anything very different."
Keskin's comments followed revelations that a 13-year-old girl had been forced to marry a paedophile rapist. She was also raped by her father-in-law for refusing to become a prostitute and then had her nose cut off.
In the first few months of 2005 Palestine was also shaken by a series of brutal honour killings. Under laws inherited from the days of Jordanian rule women are perceived as "minors" under the authority of male relatives. The maximum sentence for killings in defence of 'family honour' is six months.
Two killings (May 2005) have prompted calls for a change in the law. One involved Faten Habash, 22, a Christian Palestinian, who was bludgeoned to death by her father for having fallen in love with a Muslim.
The other involved the ritual killing of three sisters by their brother after one of them was accused of having an affair. Maher Shakirat forced the three women to drink bleach before strangling Rudaina, who was eight months pregnant. The two other sisters tried to flee but Shakirat caught Amani, 20, and strangled her. The third sister, Leila, escaped but was badly injured. The killing was thought to have been ordered by parents of the three women.
According to the Palestinian women's affairs ministry, 20 girls and women were murdered in honour killings in 2004. A further 50 committed suicide - often under coercion - for "shaming" their families. Another 15 survived suicide attempts.
The ministry claims that dozens of other killings are covered up each year. One woman of 26 was certified as dying of old age.