PAYAL, 18, was stabbed to death on May 20 by her brother Paras at Ashok Nagar in Karnal, 130 km from here, police said. The family had earlier claimed that the girl had committed suicide. A 19-year-old youth was arrested on Monday for murdering his teenaged sister, whom he suspected of having an affair.

The weapon used by him in the crime, a knife, has also been recovered. Paras confessed to killing his sister Payal, a class 12 student, after she refused to stop meeting the man with whom she had an affair. She was found in a pool of blood, with stab wounds at her home in Ashok Nagar area on May 20. Falling in love with a co-worker's sister turned out to be a costly affair for a 24-year-old man who was brutally bludgeoned to death in Phulkan village of Sirsa district. All these are ghastly incidents of honour killing.

Very recently the Aarushi murder is suspected to be a case of honour killing by her own parents. The matter is still under the consideration of the court. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life. Men can also be the victims of honor killings by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship. The loose term "honor killing" applies to killing of both males and females in cultures that practice it.

Every episode of Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate is a closely guarded secret. He addressed female foeticide in the first episode, child sexual abuse in the second episode, dowry death in the third episode and medical malpractices in the fourth episode. Till Aamir Khan actually appears on television screens on Sunday mornings, we never know what he's going to talk about. That gives rise to even more speculation and this time around, the buzz is that the actor will take up the issue of honour killing.

Just a couple of days back it came as news that a village girl was burnt alive by her neighbours because she had a relationship with a boy from a different caste. In another case, a boy's hands and legs were chopped off by the residents for marrying a girl from their village. These are just two examples from a bagful of many more cases that occur every day.

The number of love marriages might have gone up in the metros in India but the reality remains different in the villages in many other states. Honour killing, where men or women are killed by their kin or other members of their caste, is still very rampant in many parts of India. Honour killing is a grave social evil and it takes immense guts to address it on a national platform. Honor killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage , being the victim of a sexual assault , seeking a divorce—even from abusive  husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery.

It has been noted how in ancient Babylonian, Egypt, Chinese, North American Native American tribes and Persian cultures, women convicted of adultery were subjected to extreme punishments. In Babylonian societies, women suspected of adultery were forced to throw themselves into a river to prove they were innocent. In Egyptian culture, imprisonment, flogging, or mutilation were common punishments for women who had been convicted of adultery. Chinese culture suggested that husbands cut off the hair of adulterous women and then lead them to their death by an elephant trained to kill. Some Native American tribes punished adulterous women by cutting off their limbs and mutilating their bodies. In Persia, adulterous women were left to die after being placed into a well. But this cannot justify honour killing in modern times when we cry so loudly for women honour and human rights.