I read yesterday that a Swedish mother suspects that her daughter was the victim of an honor killing. In 2002, a young Swedish woman, Fadime Shahindal, was killed by her father and brother for the crime of falling in love with a white Swede. To call these murders honor killings is to accept the language of the murderer–I killed her for the honor of the family. They should instead be called shame killings, because the victim is killed by her relative because he thinks she has brought shame on the family. To me, this would also attach shame to the actual act of the murder, instead of perhaps tacitly implying that “honor” was some kind of mitigating circumstance, which might be possible if you’d never heard the term before and don’t know what it means.
Love is blind. Love is color-blind, love is gender-blind, love is religion-blind.
Happy Valentine’s Day – make peace with someone you know. 
