It seems that the notorious killings in the name of family honor are next to impossible to root out from the social milieu of Muslim countries, worse yet is that they get legal justification.
Who on earth gives anyone the right to kill in the name of honor?
The most astounding fact in the whole system is that murders are treated with sympathy by local communities who see them as victims of the shameful actions of their female relatives. It’s as if by calling them ‘honor crimes’ we are letting the murderers get away with their goal of keeping their fake facade of honor.
Does it imply that spilling women’s blood is socially acceptable in the nation?
Officials from Jordan’s National Institute for Forensic Medicine said they had encountered several incidents where young girls had been killed ostensibly for having sexual relations with a man but autopsies had revealed something different... they were virgins.
But whether a murdered girl was a virgin or not holds little weight in the eyes of her family or indeed the court.
1. Nearly 15 to 20 women were slaughtered, last year in the name of so-called family honor by the family members. At times, even elderly women become party in committing the evil deeds.
2. In the beginning of this year, four women have been killed by their own family members.
3. Jordanian family drops all charges in son’s ‘honor killing’ of sister.
4. A man was given reduced sentence in ‘honor killing’.
5. A Jordanian man shot dead his 17-year-old daughter and surrendered to police, saying he had done it for family honour.
6. One-third of the reported homicides in Jordan are honor killings.
7. According to the UN, nearly 5000 killings are done annually.
Is it a tradition?
The ‘tradition’ is difficult to remove because it has been nourished by the cultural and political ethos making it all the more difficult for the activists to work towards the emancipation of women folk.
Reem Abu Hassan, a leading women’s rights activist goes on the extent of personifying it as a ‘tribal mentality’ that ‘makes this phenomenon spin out of control’.
But what has given rise to this ‘tribal mentality’, which can go to the extent of committing this gruesome deed. Well, it has a rhetoric answer too, that is, male chauvinism.
Men have dominated in the past in nearly all the countries. In some places, women have themselves come forward and exploded the stereotypical myth regarding their timidity. However, they were not able to do so in Muslim countries and we can actually see this happening across these countries.
Is a woman vessel of family reputation?
Most honor killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a vessel of the family reputation predominates.
These barbaric killings continue to be an issue and therefore needs to be addressed more closely.
We must never become immune to news like this because it is such a despicable act of bigotry to allow these men to continue murdering their wives, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, friends, lovers with totally immunity.
These same conservative can probably talk for hours about the esteemed position of women in society and in Islam. I’m waiting for them to demonstrate respect and honor by demanding tough penalties, including death, for those who murder female relatives for ‘honor’.
Please stop this genocide, it’ll solve no body’s purpose, would just catalyze more hatred and bloodshed.
