A volunteer rescue operation in Germany has sheltered more than 100 Muslim women who fear they will be killed if they do not go through with marriages that their families have arranged for them.

I was unlocking my bicycle outside a shopping mall one afternoon when a group of teenage boys asked me in German if I knew how to break-dance.

I thought I was hearing things, so I said, “Excuse me?”

They repeated their question in typical slang, complete with Berlin dialect, saying they would be glad to show off their hip-hop moves, if I shared some steps of my own.

I laughed and replied that, while I do love dancing, my knees are not quite up to the acrobatic task of break-dance.

Once we got talking, though, I was in for a mental head-spin that would defy any choreography.

All but one of the boys – of Turkish, Kurdish and Palestinian origin – were born in Germany.

They wore jeans and T-shirts and their hair glistened with styling gel. One sported a gold earring.

With their playful jostling, they seemed like teenagers in any Western backdrop, except for one thing: they swore they would kill their own sisters if any of them had sex before marriage.

The boys were convinced that that would destroy their families’ honour.

By coincidence, I had just attended a summit on the thorny subject of integration, where a female politician of Turkish descent had appealed for state support for a local organisation that rescues young women fleeing forced marriage, or the threat of an honour killing.

‘Honour matters more’

When the teenagers agreed to let me record them, I asked if they really meant what they had said about killing their sisters.

They were adamant: “If a girl has sex with a boy without being married, we must kill both of them,” said Ali, the teenager with the gold earring.

The contrast was baffling. These teens looked entirely at ease outside a 21st Century shopping mall but their views came straight out of the Middle Ages.

“You say you’re Muslims,” I reminded them, “and killing is forbidden in the Koran, right? If you love your sister, couldn’t you just forgive her?”

“No,” one of the boys replied, “because honour matters even more than religion.”

The Kurdish teenager explained: “We have no money. We have nothing except our honour. If we lose that, it’s the worst thing that can happen to us.”

By now they were all talking at once. We might as well have been trying to converse in different languages.

One of the boys softened a bit: “Killing isn’t really the answer,” he said, “but what else can you do?”

“Lots of things,” I ventured, “like talking about what honour really means. Besides, murder is against the law in Germany, remember?”

That is when Ali snapped, “to hell with laws” (only he used much stronger language).

‘Mistake’

One Berlin bureaucrat interprets this brand of Muslim machismo as mere provocation.

She sees the need for immigrant youth in Germany to let off steam and assert their identity, however confused it might be.

But after 20 years in the field, she admits a serious mistake.

Her staff focused so much attention on the empowerment of immigrant women and girls that no one bothered to reach out to their brothers, fathers and uncles.

“We forgot the men,” she said quietly.

Help group

But no-one has forgotten Hatun Surucu, a single mother who was training to become an electrician after quitting her forced marriage to a cousin in Turkey.

Her lifestyle was deemed dishonourable by her family, and three years ago Hatun’s brothers lured her to a bus stop near her Berlin flat and shot her in the head. Distraught, a German friend of hers formed an organisation to help other women avoid the same fate.

Funded by donations and staffed by volunteers, the group – named after Hatun and her son – has a telephone hotline, a website and drivers ready to rescue anyone fleeing a forced marriage, or worse.

The group works swiftly to sidestep Germany’s baffling bureaucracy. Some women seeking help from city authorities are asked to provide written proof that their lives are in danger.

Escape route

That was not something 20-year-old Sibel was prepared to do.

Beaten by her father and brothers most of her life, she needed an escape route when they started talking about a “family vacation” in Turkey.

Knowing that meant she would be married off to some older cousin – just like Hatun Surucu was – Sibel fled her home in southern Germany.

The rescue organisation helped her start a new life in Berlin, where she wants to pursue a career in business, something her family would never allow.

She says she got out just in time and added that if she were not a virgin and her family found out, it would be her death sentence.

One Muslim community leader told me that if he could talk to those boys, I met at the shopping mall, he would explain to them in no uncertain terms that killing one’s own sister – or anyone for that matter – has nothing to do with being a good Muslim.

Meanwhile, the rescue organisation hotline is answering more and more calls for help.

 BBC

After posting an article about stoning to death in Iran, the renowned Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Mehrangiz Kar received a letter from an anonymous person who stated that his mother was stoned to death before his eyes when he was 14.

Originally written in Farsi, the letter was translated by Kar’s daughter, Azadeh Pourzand.

---

Hello.I read your recent article about stoning to death.

Reading your article reminded me of the bleeding bruises in my heart once again.

You wrote about murdering by stoning?

Have you ever held a bloody tool in your hands with which they have murdered your mother?

Have you ever touched the bloody skin and hair of your mother who has just been killed in a deep hole?

Have you ever followed the line of your mother’s blood in order to find her corpse thrown at the back of a truck?

Have you ever seen the fresh grave of that dearest being with a small piece of paper on which they have written her name wrapped around a small branch of tree?

Has anyone ever said a word about the children of the people who have been stoned to death?

I was fourteen and now I am forty.

To quote psychologists, I am one of the most fortunate people on this planet. I am fortunate, because despite this contempt in my life I have been able to continue my higher education and find myself a wife, children and a credible job without letting a single black spot remain in my life.

Do you even understand what it means to be the child of a person who has been shamefully stoned to death?

If Islamic clerics tell you that you could not win over the Islamic laws, they have, indeed told you the truth.

My mother used to tell me that she had become a sex-worker in order to feed us and to support us. She used to command us in being real men. She used to tell us to stand on our own feet and to never lose our hope in Ali (the first imam in shiasm).

Seriously who would want to sell her body, to sell her sex to anonymous men except for those women who have no other way of feeding their children?

If the husband knows how to make money, the wife and the mother of the family does not have to go and seek customers.

The economic situation needs to improve and single mothers or those mothers whose husbands do not have the ability or the willpower to work, should be able to seek help from the government.

You must establish an organization for supporting these women. It does not have to be a very rich organization in the beginning. No one has the right to condemn you for seeking financial support from different sources for these types of support organizations. Women like my mother who was eventually stoned to death need your help. They need the world’s help and support. Their forgotten families, too, need the world’s help. Help them!

Executing people for having not immoral actions is not going to have an effective result.

Tell me how many people have been executed and stoned to death since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in Iran…What is the result of all of this violence other than the fact that the evil is now truly dominating our society?

I never forget the last words of my mother’s Islamic judge:

“I issued a verdict for stoning this woman to death so that other individuals learn a lesson from her doomed fate and to avoid sins of such nature. To execute by shooting would not have made her suffer enough!”

Alas. Twenty six years ago my mother was stoned to death before my eyes. Has these women’s tragic fate helped our society improve? Statistics show that the rates of prostitution and corruption have increased exponentially.

God bless you!

CAIRO, 19 February 2008 (IRIN) – Egypt was scandalised last summer when an 11-year-old girl named Hend Farghali was allegedly raped by a 21-year-old man. Petrified, the girl did not tell anyone until she was five months pregnant.

Such extreme cases involving children may be beginning to change attitudes to rape in general which, though illegal, has traditionally been seen as more of a family misfortune rather than a crime.

Stories like Hend’s help in opening up the issue for discussion, Lilli Dinesen, clinical director of Cairo’s Maadi Psychology Centre, said.

“We can feel what we want about her being put out there for everyone to see,” she said, “but maybe we need everyone to see and make everyone shocked. I think it has always existed but it is beginning to have more focus and [there is] more focus on women’s rights over their bodies.”

“We want to change traditions, but it is not easy,” Rania Hamid, manager of the family counselling unit at the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA), said. “These traditions are not 20 years old, they’re ancient. You have to change them bit by bit.”

The statistics

Hend is one of 20,000 women or girls raped every year, according to Egypt’s Interior Ministry, a figure which implies that an average of about 55 women are raped every day. However, owing to the fear of social disgrace, victims are reluctant to report cases, and experts say the number may be much higher.

“If the Ministry of the Interior gets 20,000 then you should multiply it by 10,” said Engy Ghozlan of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) anti-harassment campaign.

“It’s hard to tell [exactly how many women are raped] because there aren’t a lot of statistics. Most people won’t come out and say it happened because culturally it is not accepted.”

Rape statistics are notoriously problematic, partly because there is no precise, universally agreed definition of the crime of rape. In Egypt, for example, spousal rape is not illegal. “The law prohibits non-spousal rape and punishment ranges from three years to life imprisonment; however, spousal rape is not illegal,“ says a US State Department country report for Egypt dated March 2006.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also warns against comparing rape statistics from different countries: “In the case of some categories of violent crime – such as rape or assault – country to country comparisons may simply be unreliable and misleading.”

Keeping quiet about rape

“No one comes to me and says ‘I have been raped.’ It does not happen,” Rania said. “Girls consider it to be quite enough that a few people know about the rape.”

Rape is also a problem within many families. This is especially so in more traditional parts of Egypt, Rania said, where “honour killings” may take place to redeem the family of the rape victim. In some areas of southern Egypt, the perpetrator is often a family member, perhaps an uncle, and blame is often shifted to the victim, she said.

“There are problems of honour. Sometimes a brother or cousin may kill her, saying ‘you wanted this, you encouraged this, you’re not honourable, and what is that you are wearing’?… Of course it’s not her fault, but who are you going to tell that to? The girl or society?”

“Honour crimes” are not technically illegal in Egypt, according to the US country report for Egypt mentioned above.

Shunning help

Fearful of being ostracised or hurt, rape victims shun help, and go through post-rape trauma alone.

“I have never had an Egyptian case, and it’s rather strange. I would think they are too embarrassed to come and seek help. Being raped has somehow come back to the woman as her fault,” said Dinesen. “They will feel shock, disbelief, there is a lot of fear, rage, panic attacks; there is some kind of worthless feeling.”

Rape victims fear for their standing within their families, among friends, at universities and schools, and even when trying to get married, she said.

“You don’t want to widen the circle (of people who know),” Rania said. “The girl won’t want to tell anyone that someone raped her.”

The number of rape cases does not seem to be decreasing, Engy said, adding that many young men lack employment and incomes – so much so that marriages are being delayed, making men sexually frustrated and giving them lots of free time to sexually harass women or consider rape.

Six years ago, Hataw fled to a women’s shelter to escape her brother’s rage when she refused to marry the man he chose for her.

Just a few weeks later, her brother ambushed her and her mother near the shelter, opening fire with an automatic weapon.

Hataw, not her real name, was shot seven times; her mother twice. Miraculously, they survived, but their physical and psychological wounds may never heal.

Hataw, now 26, whose brother escaped prosecution, lost one of her kidneys and her mother has scars on one of her arms.

Although Hataw – still living in a women’s refuge – refused to speak to IWPR, she gave permission for the head of the shelter to speak on her behalf.

“She doesn’t sleep all night long,” said the head. “She gets up and screams at the slightest noise, fearing her brother will break in and kill her.”

Hataw is one of a growing number of women in Iraqi Kurdistan falling victim to domestic violence, with honor killings, in particular, the focus of concern among human rights groups.

The recent increase in cases has outraged activists who blame the Kurdish government for not doing enough to protect women.

The region’s human rights ministry says that honor killings in Iraqi Kurdistan rose from 106 in 2005 to 266 the following year. Figures for 2007 are not available, but official sources say in Sulaimaniyah alone 30 women were killed in the first six months of the year.

“Every day, more and more women are killed in Kurdistan while the authorities watch and do nothing,” said Roonak Faraj, head of the Women’s Media and Cultural Centre in Sulaimaniyah.

In April 2007, an angry mob stoned to death a 17-year-old Yezidi girl, Duaa Khalil Aswad, in Bashiqa, a small town east of the city of Mosul, while bystanders applauded and filmed the killing on their mobile phones.

Duaa’s crime was that she had fallen in love with a Muslim boy. The footage was seen by thousands on the internet, sparking massive condemnation by human rights groups around the world.

Faraj said the male-dominated local culture is one of the reasons why women are targeted in her region. “It is a patriarchal society,” she said, “Males control everything. For example, they decide whom a girl should marry.”

There is also insufficient legislation to punish violence against women. Article 111 of the Iraqi Penal Code – passed in 1969 and still valid in most of the country – tolerates honour killings if the defendant has “honorable motives.”

The maximum punishment is two years’ imprisonment, and, in most cases, the sentence is commuted if the defendant has no criminal background.

In 2002, the Kurdish parliament amended the 1969 law to allow honor killings to be treated in the same way as murder. However, critics say that the changes were too weak.

Following the killing of Duaa, the Kurdish government formed two agencies to deal with violence against women, one based in Sulaimaniyah and another in Erbil.

Zhilamo Abdul-Qadir, an official in the Sulaimaniyah agency, said that since July 2007 they have investigated 110 cases of serious threats against women, successfully intervening on 70 occasions.

“We have rescued many women from death in the last few months,” said Twana Ali, spokesman for the Sulaimaniyah agency. “We have arrested several suspects as well.”

Recently, more than 20 women’s advocacy groups came together to pressure the authorities to impose heavier punishments on perpetrators of violence against women and have made recommendations to parliament on the matter.

They’ve also called on the regional assembly to pass other legislation tackling discrimination against women, such as a ban on polygamy and forced marriage, and to ensure equality between men and women in relation to inheritance law.

Pakhshan Zangana, head of the Women’s Caucus in the Kurdistan parliament in Erbil, said, “The law is outdated and needs amendments that go along with the current situation.”The government has pledged reforms, but for Faraj actions speak louder than words.

“When bird flu broke out, the government launched a huge campaign to make people aware of the risks of the disease,” he said. “You wonder why they can’t launch a similar campaign to put an end to the killing women.”

LAHORE: A mother of six was shot dead by her brother in Shahdara Town police precinct on Sunday.

The Shahdara Town police duty officer said Yasmeen (33), a resident of Rasul Park was married to Imtiaz.

The police said Yasmeen’s brother Amanat, suspected that she had developed “illicit relations” with some men. He said Amanat had threatened her with dire consequences. Late on Saturday night, Amanat saw Yasmeen along with a stranger in front of her house and they exchanged harsh words. Amanat pulled out his gun and fired at Yasmeen, killing her on the spot. Amanat fled from the scene. No report has been filed till the filing of this report

Daily Times 

The case file of a father who murdered his daughter in an act of “honor killing” with the assistance of another man by stoning her to death, is now under review in Zahedan’s general court.  According to our reporter, a few days ago, a distraught woman, who was crying uncontrollably, contacted the authorities in city of Zahedan, and reported the murder of her daughter.  The woman stated:  “My husband, whose name is Sharif, is a suspicious and cruel man who abused me and my daughter.  He was particularly harsh on Samieh, my 14 year old daughter, until he finally found an excuse to take her out of the house and to am undisclosed locations.  After that, she did not return home, and I did not hear from Samieh.”  The woman went on to explain: “Sharif was suspicious of my daughter and thought that she is having relations with a man.  On several occasions, he threatened to kill her, and, on the day of the [Samieh's disappearance], he was extremely angry and I think that he has somehow harmed my child.”

After the women’s statement, the authorities immediately went to work and began a search for Sharif as well as an investigation into the whereabouts of the teenage girl.  Within 24 hours, the authorities were able to locate and arrest Samieh’s father.  The suspect, who in the initial stages of investigation had opted to remain silent and refused to provide any information about the whereabouts of his daughter, finally confessed, and provided a disturbing account of Samieh’s murder.  Sharif stated:  “A while ago, I noticed that my 14 year old daughter is acting suspiciously.  Initially, I tried to approach the issue gently, and to find out why Samieh is acting this way.  She would leave the house without any reason, and when she returned, she could not provide a convincing explanation.  Finally, I could not take it any more and I got in a fight with her, but that didn’t do any good because my daughter accused me of being suspicious and maintained that she has not done anything wrong.  After a while, I became fully convinced that Samieh is having relations with a man.  I perceived my honor to have been damaged, and tolerating such a condition and remaining silent was like death to me.  So I decided to kill Samieh and rid myself of this shame.  In this context, I had to make a decision about how I should kill Samieh and save myself from such disgrace.  I had to choose a method for killing my daughter that would fit her wrong-doing.  Finally, I became convinced that I should stone her to death, but because I could not personally carry out the execution by myself, I sought the assistance of my friend, Ghafoor.   When he learned about my problem, he accepted to help me kill Samieh to wash the stain of disgrace from my family.  Ghafoor contacted a few other people and established the time and place to carry out the act.  On the day of the incident, I forcefully took my daughter out of the house and dragged her to the outskirts of Holoor.  She was terrified during the whole trip, and while she realized that she is about to face a horrifying fate, she was not sure of the punishment that I had planned for her.  When we reached the planned destination, I threw my daughter on the ground and we began to stone her.  Samieh kept screaming and pleaded and begged for her life.  But, in order to restore my honor and return myself to a respectable life, I had no choice but to kill her.  Then I fled.”

After the shocking confession of the murder suspect, the authorities continued their investigation, and found the body of the 14 year old Samieh.  They also arrested Ghafoor for his role in the murder of the teenage girl.  With the confession provided by the second suspect, Ghafoor, the case has been sent to undergo official trial proceedings.  Currently, Ghafoor and Sharif remain in prison until the trial has been conducted.

Save Delara

Chandigarh, Feb 17 (IANS): Jasbir Singh, Jaswinder Kaur, Mohan Singh… they are among an increasing list of Indians living abroad murdered by contract killers while on a visit to Punjab. Contract killings involving non-resident Indians have increased in Punjab in recent years. In most cases, fallen out marriages, illicit affairs and property disputes are the main reason why NRIs get people killed. The killings are carried out in Punjab and not in the adopted countries of these NRIs because of the lax laws here.

The money involved in each contract killing, according to police officials, is anything between Rs.1 million to Rs.5 million.

Interestingly, this trend is picking up even as the Punjab government last month announced the setting up of six police stations in the state exclusively for NRIs to deal with their problems in Punjab.

The killing of Jasbir Singh, a 25-year-old NRI from Brampton in Canada, took place on Thursday, a day before his wedding. The Punjab police have booked an NRI brother-sister duo, Gursewak Singh Gill and Amanpal Kaur Gill, for the murder.

Jasbir was waylaid near his native village of Saidoke in Moga district, 200 km from here, and sprayed with bullets by men who came in a Honda City car. His cousin, Harpreet Singh, too was killed.

Jasbir, who drove a truck-trailer in Canada, reportedly had had an affair with Amanpal in Canada but was getting married to another girl from Punjab. This had infuriated the brother-sister duo.

The police are also investigating the immigration angle to the crime after it came to light that Gursewak had married his own sister Amanpal on paper under the adopted name and passport of Inderjit Singh to help her migrate to Canada.

“No one by the name of Gursewak Singh Gill travelled to India in recent months. He must have been using a passport under another name,” Moga superintendent of police Ashok Bath said.

Canada-based NRI woman Jaswinder Kaur alias Jassi was murdered in a gruesome manner near Malerkotla town in June 2000. Her death was an ‘honour killing’ carried out by contract killers at the behest of her family members who were upset that she married a taxi driver.

On Friday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the life imprisonment for four relatives of Jaswinder Kaur.

Well-established Leicester-based textile factory owner Mohan Singh was murdered outside a dhaba, roadside eatery, near Phillaur town, 15 km from Ludhiana, in August 2006. He was killed by a contract killer, Jasbir Singh, at the behest of his own brother Sukhjivan Singh. A woman was behind the killing, police investigations revealed.

“NRIs sitting abroad think that they can get away by getting the crime committed in Punjab through contract killers. They are wrong,” Jalandhar range deputy inspector general Narinder Pal Singh said.

According to Singh, there have been around two dozen contract killings in Punjab from 2005 till the end of 2007. In most cases, it is difficult to get the NRI as they are safely ensconced in their adopted land.

The trend of contract killing is particularly prevalent in Punjab’s Doaba belt – the land between the Sutlej and Beas rivers comprising the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr – from where the maximum number of NRIs hail.

Kuldeep Singh of Mukerian was killed in October 2005 following a land dispute with Gurdev Singh, an Indian living in the US. The NRI is said to have paid Rs.1.2 million for the contract killing.

If the existence of honour killings in Pakistan is considered a basis for awarding a lesser sentence to a man that committed an honour killing in the UK, does it not in a certain sense give the practice precisely the sort of cultural recognition that the many opponents of honour killing in Pakistan are trying to fight

In recent years, Muslim women living in immigrant communities in Western Europe and North America have become the flashpoints of the debate between Islam and the West. Whether it is the right of Muslim women to wear niqab while teaching in elementary school in England, or the right to wear modified uniforms for athletic competitions in the United States, the issue has garnered much public attention and debate.

Beneath these debates lies the tension between theoretical commitments to “multiculturalism” in Western liberal states, and the pragmatic issues of exactly how much accommodation a minority group, Muslim or otherwise, is entitled to, based on its cultural or religious beliefs. This crucial question, of who is entitled to accommodation as well as how much accommodation must be given, is one that is both vexing and problematic.

Consider the case analysed by Sarah Song in her latest book Justice, Gender and the Politics of Multiculturalism (Cambridge, 2007). In the People vs. Moua, a Vietnamese man of Hmong descent kidnapped and raped a woman in Fresno, California. The woman filed kidnapping and rape charges but the man argued that his actions were permitted as an accepted form of marriage among Vietnamese Hmong known as “marriage by capture”. The trial was conducted in Fresno, California and the man was given reduced charges owing to his “cultural defence”.

In her book, Song questions whether this application of “cultural defence” was correctly applied in the case and if the man should not have received the full sentence under the law.

As the “clash of civilisations” rhetoric heats up, battles over how much cultural accommodation minority groups deserve have become extremely divisive. Those having the most intolerant views of immigrants are often at the forefront of bringing attention to the most controversial practices within immigrant cultures.

Along the spectrum of views, one extreme argues for no accommodation at all, especially for “voluntary immigrants” who have supposedly migrated at will and have willingly decided to live in another culture.

The other left extreme sees culture as an important social good that creates enriching choices for members of societies and which must be preserved at all costs.

In her book, Sarah Song suggests a middle path that sees neither extreme as a viable option and tries to integrate both the theoretical and pragmatic facets of the multiculturalism debate.

As she investigates the case of the Vietnamese man, she explains, for example, that “marriage by capture” is hardly the only form of marriage in the Hmong community in Vietnam or in the Vietnamese-American diaspora.

The same case can be used to analyse an example closer to Pakistani diaspora, and the issue of honour killings. At the outset, it must be made clear that honour killings are a cultural and not a religious issue. Despite this, Song’s exposition of the multicultural dilemma faced by Western liberal states begs the question of whether a man who kills a woman of his family because he believed that he was protecting his family’s honour and was “required” to do so by cultural mores, be given a lesser sentence simply because of this belief?

Searching for an answer to this perplexing question takes us precisely to the misguided definition of culture operative in such discussions. A “cultural defence” that allows the mere existence of a practice within a culture to be considered a basis for awarding a lesser sentence fails to see the complexity and dynamism of cultural practices.

Take again, the issue of honour killings, the fact that honour killings take place in Pakistan and are even condoned by certain tribal and rural communities does not suggest that there aren’t scores of Pakistanis who are strongly and vehemently opposed to the practice.

If the existence of honour killings in Pakistan is considered a basis for awarding a lesser sentence to a man that committed an honour killing in the UK, does it not in a certain sense give the practice precisely the sort of cultural recognition that the many opponents of honour killing in Pakistan are trying to fight?

In other words, when diaspora communities continue to perpetuate misogynistic practices in the name of culture, and those practices are “accommodated” as in the case of the Hmong man, it assumes a monolithic and unchanging view of culture that denies its dynamics and evolutionary qualities. In other words, it takes a contested practice within a culture and fails to acknowledge the opposition of those who wish to eradicate it.

Recognising the complexity and dynamism of a culture need not mean that all efforts at cultural accommodation be abandoned.

As Song astutely states, many aspects of state practice, especially in Western countries where the separation of church and state is not constitutionally guaranteed, privilege the dominant culture over minority cultures. It is necessary, therefore, to retain some aspects of cultural accommodation that allow for all members of cultural minorities to practice their culture and to not be forced to subsume into a majority culture.

In a globalised world it is also necessary to reconsider the definition of “voluntary” migrants: whose free will in undertaking cross-border moves is thrown heavily in doubt when one considers the imperatives posed by global inequality and the inability of many post-colonial nations to provide sustainable environments for growing populations.

In the debate over multiculturalism, thus, the challenge must be restated from “preserving” cultures, which in their inherently ever-changing quality can never be preserved without seriously disadvantaging them, to allowing cultures the room to grow and change.

As the debate over honour killings illustrates, this allows non-western cultures better chances to contest orientalist stereotypes that particularly highlight the most despicable and barbaric of cultural practices and also rescues the necessary aspects of cultural accommodation from blind morally relativist reifications of any practice that can be passed as “cultural”.

Every year thousands of women are killed for notions of family honour worldwide, mainly in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, but also in Muslim communities in the West.

A hillside near the Jordanian town of Jerash, the 17-year-old girl died in a squalid Palestinian refugee camp strangled by her brother.

The woman, who had been married for eight months, was the second killed in Jordan this month in a so-called “honour” crime — the murder of a woman accused of shaming her family.

Jordan’s penal code still offers leniency to a man who commits such a crime in a “fit of rage”. High-profile campaigns to change the law, which had royal family support, have failed to sway tribal-dominated parliaments.
But the debate has dragged the issue into the open and, unusually in the Arab world, Jordan has begun tackling other once-taboo areas such as domestic violence and child abuse.

“Talking about it is a first step to finding a solution,” said Eva Abu Halaweh, a 34-year-old human rights lawyer and director of Mizan, a private group working with women at risk.

But in the impoverished backstreets of the Jerash refugee camp, relatives of the murdered girl — no names in the case have been made public — greet strangers with a wall of silence.

“What’s already happened is enough,” a woman snapped before shooing children inside and closing the door of the family’s cinderblock home in an alley with an open drain running down it.

The victim’s husband, a young man in a baseball cap, stood chatting with friends on a corner, but bolted into his house rather than talk about his wife’s death.

A Jordanian prosecutor has charged a 20-year-old man with premeditated murder. Local newspapers said he had stuffed a scarf in his sister’s mouth, choked her with an electric cable and smoked a pack of cigarettes before turning himself in.

Some versions of events say he had been angered by his sister’s absences from home.

“If she was guilty, then she deserved it,” said a college student in the refugee camp, who gave his name as Mohammed.

Society under stress

Women can easily fall under male suspicion in Jordan’s conservative society, where tribal and Islamic traditions coexist uneasily with the inroads of modernity and consumerism.

“Honour” crimes are nothing new — authorities in Jordan prosecuted 18 cases in 2006 and a similar number in 2007, although some rights activists say the real figures are higher.

The practice is commonest in tribal Muslim societies, even though many Islamic scholars say the Holy Quran does not sanction it and warn Muslims against taking the law into their own hands.

“There are very few real honour killings,” Abu Halaweh said at Mizan’s bustling Amman office. “Many murders are for other reasons like disputes over inheritance. Of course the killers and their lawyers will always look for ways to avoid penalties.”

Perpetrators of “honour” crimes may escape with six months to two years in jail. Few suffer social stigma.
Attitudes are slowly changing, rights campaigners say. Judges are less ready to accept the “fit of fury” defence, and efforts to deal with broader domestic violence are under way.

A year ago, the Ministry of Social Development set up Dar Al Wifaq (house of reconciliation), which has helped 290 women and girls referred by police because they had run away from home or had been battered, sexually abused or neglected.

Abu Halaweh’s group helps run shelters for vulnerable women who would otherwise be put in police protective custody — some have spent years in enforced refuge from their families.

“They need protection, then reintegration,” Abu Halaweh said, stressing the need to work with the families of victims.

She cited two women, who both survived after being shot by relatives, who had returned home after mediation and psychological support for both parties. “One was pregnant after being raped, but now the family has accepted her,” she said.

Child abuse

Jordan has recognised that children as well as women can suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse within the family.

“We were the first Arab country to admit there is abuse and to say we should deal with it,” said Nancy Naghour, manager of Dar Al Aman, a government-funded centre that has provided temporary shelter and therapy for abused children since 2000.

Dar Al Aman (House of Safety) also counsels the families, aiming to ensure the children can eventually return home safely.

In one room at the centre, a comfortable apartment block on the edge of Amman that can house 32 children, youngsters drawing at a table respond cheerily when greeted. In another, a newly arrived boy of 11 with tormented eyes still seems ill at ease.

A bill to protect children and women from violence at home has passed parliament’s lower house and awaits senate approval.

It sets up conciliation committees to give women a chance to halt abuse without pressing charges or seeking a divorce.

“Women hesitate to complain about their husbands, fathers or brothers. They don’t want them to be sent to prison or fined,” Abu Halaweh said. “At the same time, there is a new generation of women and many say they won’t accept violence.”

Jordan has made a start on tackling issues that many Arab countries barely acknowledge, but women’s rights advocates say the persistence of “honour” crimes shows it still has far to go.

“We’ve had it in the public domain quite some time, but there are no changes,” said Amal Sabbagh, a lecturer at Jordan University’s Centre for Women’s Studies. “People are happy with the status quo. We go through the motions of change.”

Weekly Blitz

The mother of the 16-year-old Malmö girl who died a week ago Sunday after falling from a balcony says her daughter was the victim of an honour killing.

In an interview on the news magazine programme Aktuellt, the girl’s mother explained that she long had concerns about her 19-year-old son, who has been in custody on suspicion of murder since last Wednesday, along with the girl’s 38-year-old stepfather.

“I had contacted both social services and the school several times about the problems with my son, the girl’s brother,” the mother said to Aktuellt.

“But they told me my son was my problem.”

The night of the incident, witnesses reported hearing a heated argument from the fourth floor apartment and seeing the girl standing on the balcony with her back toward the railing.

Suddenly, the girl went backwards over the balcony and fell to the ground, dying instantly.

“I couldn’t control my son’s anger. He demanded that she attend to him all the time. Despite my talks with the school about the problem, my son and my daughter were placed in the same school,” the mother said.

“There he watched over her constantly. She wasn’t allowed to leave the classroom with other students and she wasn’t allowed to laugh.”

Prosecutors expect to file official charges in the case on February 20th.