Honor Killings

The discussion we had in class the other day made me really think about how one would justify an honor killing. Because I am an American I know that it may be impossible for me to accept honor killing as a solution to anything. However a large community of people believe that honor is the most important thing you can have. Honor keeps you safe, without honor you have no power in your village. Not going through with an honor killing would mean escalated violence against your whole family. In order to protect the others in you family, you have an obligation to go through with the honor killing in order to restore the family's honor. Now, I can understand the concept of protecting your family, sacrificing one for many etc. What I do not understand is why honor killing do not involve men as the victims. Men having the most power should be the one responsible for the actions of the women in his family. It is unfair to blame a female for her mistakes when she does not have the power to make decisions on her own accord. The honor killing punishment can be used for an assortment of reasons that are not justifiable causes to kill a person. Honor killings are likely to be a huge deterrent in Western society accepting the Middle East. Such a biased cultural defect would go against the American family and their values. Regardless of whether or not I am able to understand the reasoning behind honor killings, I cannot imagine committing such an act against my own family. There just has to be other options available that don't involve killing your family member. At the very least, those involved could relocate to another village or country, or do whatever it took to save the life of your family member.