A Pakistani human-rights organzation says that at least 565 women were murdered in the country “in so-called honour killings.”

However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.

Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honour if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent.

Some view attacking or killing the women or their partners as a way to restore family honour.

In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last year’s honour killings followed accusations of “illicit relations”.

Sixty of the dead were minors.

Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said.

I wrote about the dynamics of an honor-shame culture and how it severely oppresses women last October.

Herschel Smith has posted a lengthy and technical analysis of the Surge, now under way in Iraq. Is it too little, too late, and for too short a time? Herschel says we’d need to Surge for 18-24 months to be effective but acknowledges that politically we juist don’t have that long. I agree, having written late last month that “US political and domestic opinion will ‘wait and see’ no more than six months whether Gen. Petraeus can turn things around.”

Herschel’s essay is called, “The Petraeus Thinkers: Five Challenges,” and worth your time.