Indian Government Responds To Increase In Honor Killings

Beyond the Veil| While we celebrate the many advances for women in India, today’s NYTimes article In India, Castes, Honor and Killings Intertwine remind us that not only are the challenges to women far from over but in some cases, they are increasing.

Coincident with development and an expansion of rights at a national level, is a concurrent tendency among local populations intent on protecting traditions and customs, to contain women’s rights. The Nirupama Pathak story is one born of Hindu high-caste society, a family of Brahmins. 

Educating their daughter and allowing her to choose her career were not challenged by her family. Choosing her husband was an entirely different subject and especially when Ms Pathak fell in love with a young man from a lower cast.

The blooming Ms Pathak with a Brahmin-based future is dead now, formerly pregnant the autopsy reveals. Her mother is believed guilty of murder; she insists her daughter committed suicide. Meanwhile, the Indian government is in response mode, as honor killings across religions increase in the region. Read on at NYTimes.