FREQUENCY OF FEMALE HONOUR KILLING, A CLINICAL AUDIT OF AUTOPSIES
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Abstract
Objectives: To assess the frequency of female honour killing, type of injury and weapon used to kill female brought
for autopsies.
Material and Methods: This was a descriptive clinical audit of autopsy record from January 2009 to December 2012
conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan. The total sample
size was 520 of the female who died of violent unnatural acts above the age of the adolescence. Those female whose
death occurred due to mob-massacre, bomb blasts, natural disasters, road traffic accidents and putrefied female dead
bodies were excluded from study population.
Results: Out of these 520 cases, 75.70% (352) females were killed at home, while 24.3% (113) outside the home,
all of them on suspicion of adultery and the elder females killed outside, were either unclaimed or the relatives were
least concerned. According to the history obtained from relatives, among the deaths at home,70.3% were homicidal in
nature, 21.1% suicidal, 6.5% accidental and 2.2% natural but a detailed autopsy revealed that 99.4% were homicidal
in nature and only 0.6% were proved suicidal. Majority of the victims were between 13-40 years.73.8% victims were
married and 63.4% victims belong to the rural areas of Peshawar, 82.4% of victims were killed with firearm weapons.
Conclusion: Frequency of honour killing in this study was more than 90%. Married and very young women were the
victims of honour killing. Firearm was the most frequently used weapon to kill women.
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