A Serious Oxymoron

Honor Killing.

Two small words with a very big meaning. Since I've been here in India, these words appear in the daily newspaper on a regular basis. When I first read it a couple times, I had a startled reaction. It was unfathomable to me that your own family members would go to the great length of killing you and being proud of it. Just to prove a point. This phenomenon happens in various parts of the Islamic world (no disrespect) due to several reasons but mostly pertaining to adultery, secret affairs and relationships, disagreements on family matters, etc. It was something that a lot of people turn away from because nothing can be done about it, and frankly most of us aren't around it enough to concern your every day emotions to it.
But moving to the biggest democracy in the world and seeing how often this event takes place has just dazzled me.
Most of the time, families will kill innocent couples on the basis of inter caste relationships. The word "caste" sounds so outdated to someone who lives or has lived in the Western world. However, in the lower income class in India, this very word leads to inhumane actions and murders of hundreds of lives every year.
The law upholds in such matters and the people who commit this horrendous crimes do get their share of brutal punishment, but that doesn't solve the true issue at hand. The issue that needs to be addressed is HOW to stop these events from actually happening. Torturing and brutally killing innocent people on the basis of culture is absolutely unacceptable.
I don't think that I have the solution to this problem, but I do have a big problem with the term itself. Why do the media and rest of the society call these ruthless murders honor killings? Does honor really reside in killing your very own family members just because they didn't agree to your simplistic view of the world? The term in itself provides solace to the people who commit them because they think they are doing it for honor. I thought honor is about respect and merit and credibility. Since when does killing someone and unjustly and cowardly taking a helpless' life become honorous?
People need to stop being accepting to such happenings, and giving these killings this oxymoronic term only adds to this acceptance. India is a free country and being free to love someone is a basic freedom endowed from something beyond society and culture. People who believe in such ridiculous ideas are nothing but selfish, hateful, vicious cowards who deserve the worst punishments law can offer.