Media Release

Mangaluru, Aug 20: The post graduate department of Psychology of St Agnes college conducted a panel discussion on honour killing on Monday, August 19 that was led by Anirudh Ramesh.

The panelists for the discussion were Neha Tojn and Sahasra Sham Rao of 1st year MSc and Aishwarya and Rajeshwari of 2ndyear MSc The moderator for the discussion was Hail Mariya of 1st year MSc.

Hail started the discussion by giving an introduction on honour killing and introducing the panelists along with their topics. The first speaker for the discussion was Aishwarya and her topic of discussion revolved around the portrayal of honour killing by media. She emphasized on how media displayed honour killing specifying how the news channels depicted honour killing in a way that attracted the audience by manipulating the truth and not revealing it. She proved her point by presenting various examples of cases that happened in India which included The Arushi Talwar case, Jessica Lal case, Rahman case and many other cases that supported her point.

The next speaker was Rajeshwari from 2nd MSc, she spoke about the portrayal of honour killing in movies. She spoke about the movies Sairat and Gadhare- Ek Prem Kahani to prove her point. She mentioned that in most movies, they display cast difference more than the real life incidents of honour killing and that they also manipulate the real story in order to attract more viewers since they prefer a happy ending which leads to the reality being neglected and hidden.

Sahasra, the third speaker of the day began her discussion by presenting cases on honour killing revealing shocking incidents of how honour killing has evolved from the past to the present and how it still continues to be a serious threat. She proved her point by presenting statistical data. One case that she presented was the Manoj-Babli case which was the first case in which the persecutors were punished for the act of honour killing. Another case was that of a gay man who was killed for opening up about his sexuality, thus proving that honour killing can be a threat for people belonging to the LGBTQ community.

The final speaker for the panel discussion was Neha, who spoke on the psychological aspects of honour killing. She started the discussion by making the students aware of their role as psychologists and their role in helping people understand about humanity and their rights as a citizen. She also emphasized on psychological aspects such as status anxiety and male domination which can trigger honor killing.

The discussion was made interactive by encouraging the audience to speak up about their views and opinions about the topic. The discussion became more intense when the audience expressed their opinions and further discussed about it in a sportive manner. The head of the department Dr Premanad presented his valuable points and clarified the doubts that were present during the discussion. Finally, the discussion was concluded by Anirudh Ramesh suggesting points for improvement.