IRAN has freed a woman convicted of adultery who faced being stoned to death like her male partner whose execution by stoning last year caused international outrage, her lawyer said today.

Mokarrameh Ebrahimi, who had spent a total of 11 years behind bars, was released from a prison in the city of Qazvin last night on the orders of Iranian judiciary’s amnesty commission, lawyer Shadi Sadr said.

She was freed along with the son she had conceived with her partner Jafar Kiani, whose stoning in July 2007 was carried out by the local authorities in apparent defiance of the central judiciary.

Under Iran’s Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning, which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to his waist.

But a 2002 directive by judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi imposed a moratorium on such executions.

Kiani’s stoning in a village in the northwestern Qazvin province was the first such stoning to be confirmed in years.

“It was a rare ruling,” Mr Sadr said of the surprise release.

“She still could not believe she was pardoned,” Mr Sadr said, adding that Ebrahimi had now returned with her son Ali to her family in northern Iran.

Dr. Eyad Hrafoush

Lately, while reading the latest post of Fantasia , a superb one named “Honor Killings: The Shame Behind the Oxymoron “, then, reading another by the everlasting Egypt Rose under the name “Honor Killing, Female buried alive again ” the inspiration had a booster dose on the inflamed subject of Iraqi women found killed, counted in Basra alone to be 40 women killed for “honor” related reasons during 2007. Then I decided to write on the subject, discussing its relation to Islam, under its stemming root, the accountability of male relatives on their female kinship deeds. During the article, I will try to resolve the oxymoron phenomenon Fantasia highlighted, when we call a murder an honorable one, this is why I chose “horror” to replace “honor”, the horror killing is always intended to horrify the females who dare to drift from the herd, so let’s call it “horror killing” to be more coherent morally.

Ancient Roots of Horror Killing

It is widely believed among Muslims that adult male, should be accountable to God about deeds and behavior of his female kinship. This does not mean his dependants only, it includes his sisters and even his mother in some occasions! This religious belief, I visualize as a major feeding root of what is called “Honor Crimes” or “Horror Killing” of females. However, we should understand the fact that these crimes had long existed before Islam, it might be wise to have a look on the roots before we explain how ancient patriarchal jurists applied their patriarchal culture, and linked the matter to Holy Scriptures that is entirely unrelated to it.

Horror Killing is the offspring of two major false perceptions. First, being the “Heritage Perception” of the woman in general, a perception that turns woman from a separate persona into a belonging to her man, and you shall find ancient Arabic poems talking this property language, afar in history before Islam, one of these poems is what “Emro Al-Qais” said,

For me, pregnant and nursing mothers

Forget their babies …. when I hammer

The man was proud to hold an affair with pregnant and nursing ladies! Bedouin mentality, wherein invading women body symbolized invading her tribe’s pastoral zones. Whoever orientalist defends the idea of women prosperity in Arabia before Islam, can read this poem and materialize how women as well as sex itself were savagely visualized. Second, being the “Vaginal Perception” of woman, whereby, woman is summarized and focalized around her genital organ. Therefore, all her behaviors and deeds are explained by her feminine intuition. You will find this understanding manifested in the Arabic poem,

Never rely on women and never trust them

Their satisfaction comes through vaginal stem

Then, was It Only Among Arabs? No, it was more like a pan-human syndrome. Yet, it has diminished earlier from areas in the world where logic dominated over traditions and heritage. Platonic Love, in away, was an indirect expression of favoring celibacy among the ancient Greeks. However, it was a just celibacy encouraged among males and females equally. But still shows a degrading view of sexuality, claiming sex to soil the purity of supreme emotions. The famous Roman “Chastity Built”, best expresses both the vaginal perception of honor, as well as the property perception of women. Whereby, the man locks-on his beloved female or wife as he travels away from home. Female Genital Mutilation, known among us as “circumcision”, was a standard African behavior, until the moment, it remained standard in Sudan and Sub-Saharan Africa as the map below shows us. Also Hindus, Christian and Judaic societies have all passed eras wherein female horror killing was an honorable practice. Among ancient faith followers, only Buddhism stands clean from this shame of horror murders among its followers.

Islam and Female Accountability:

Claiming a man to be women’s mentor, based on the misunderstanding of “Qiwama” verse as we explained it in “Reliberating Women” series, played a major role in the general misperception, holding men as mentors, accountable for their female deeds. However, this is proven unsupported according to the understanding we offered in that series. Another verse which is “O’ you who believe, save yourselves and your families from a Hellfire whose fuel is men and stones” Banning: 6. is frequently stated as a proof of male accountability for his dependants’ deeds. Variantly, we understand the verse as a call for Muslims to save themselves from banishment abiding by good deeds, and to save their dependants through educating them doing similarly. It was about educating non-adult dependants and advising to adult dependants. No obligation or cross accountability shows-up here. Needless to mention that Quran stated in several verses in different surahs, that every individual is only accountable for his own deeds. Hereunder, we shall highlight some of these verses,

1. “Every soul will be held in pledge for its deeds” The Cloaked: 38.

2. “O you who believe! Guard your own souls: If you follow right guidance, no hurt can come to you from those who stray.” Table Spread:105.

3. “Then guard yourselves against a day when one soul shall not avail another nor shall intercession be accepted for her, nor shall compensation be taken from her, nor shall anyone be helped (from outside).” The Cow:48

4. “Then guard yourselves against a-Day when one soul shall not avail another, nor shall compensation be accepted from her nor shall intercession profit her nor shall anyone be helped (from outside).” The Cow: 123. We can notice the affirmation through hammering the same meaning twice in the same Surah.

5. “And fear the Day when ye shall be brought back to God. Then shall every soul be paid what it earned, and none shall be dealt with unjustly.” The Cow: 281

6. “But how (will they fare) when we gather them together against a day about which there is no doubt, and each soul will be paid out just what it has earned, without (favor or) injustice?” The Emrans:25. It is worthy saying the verses no. 30, 145, 161 and 185 had hammered the same meaning in different statements. All relating one’s destiny in afterlife to his own deeds. Not a word about the deeds of his family, dependants or female kinship.

7. “Say: Shall I seek for (my) Cherisher other than God, when He is the Cherisher of all things (that exist)? Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another” Cattle: 164.

8. “There will every soul prove the fruits of the deeds it sent before” Jonah: 30.

9. “That God may requite each soul according to its deserts; and verily God is swift in calling to account.” Abraham: 51.

10. “One Day every soul will come up struggling for itself, and every soul will be recompensed (fully) for all its actions, and none will be unjustly dealt with” Honeybees: 111.

Beside what we listed above, we have the holy verses in (Ta Ha: 15), (Ya Sen: 54), (Troops: 6, 56), (The Believer: 17), (Crouching: 22), (The Cleaving: 19).

Was it only about these couple of misinterpreted verses? Despite having 18 verses stating individual accountability in afterlife?

We will find some defenders claim it lawful to kill a sinner female relative, as she committed adultery that qualifies for stoning to death in Islam, and to them we have the following objections on their thrust,

1- Not every woman killed in honor killing is a fornicator

2- Death penalty is believed to be only for married fornicators.

3- Death penalty as well as all other penal code are a temporal matter, assigned to temporal government to consolidate and implement

4- Fornication qualifying to death is conditionned by 4 adult witnesses, which is impossible unless sex is practices in public park without even a blanket! It was a matter of preserving the public from non-sense.

5-Fornication verse that “was” in Quran one day is an aborgated verse, majority of jurists agreed it was valid when apostle died, however this does not alter the fact, it does not exist in the Quran as we have it today.

Beside this, we have only another hadieth with the same meaning of the 2nd verse, stating everyone among us is a caregiver, and we should bear the responsibility of our dependants, which again we understand as a call for bearing responsibility and giving more care to educate and develop our children, not to be accountable to God on their behalf. Also very lately, one of the “satellite Imams” came to us with an additional explanation of why this wrong concept prevails. In a late speech in media, “Khaled El-Jindy” explained an apostolic teaching, cursing alcoholics, ungrateful siblings and pimps, and stated the “Pimp” to be a man who allows his female kinship to go out unveiled or uncovered according to Islamic dress code! The very same “Jindy” turned the society upside down few weeks ago, stating the female slavery to be lawful until now if the man managed to get a female slave!!! So he is entitled to force her for sex and it is her duty to subordinate to his desires!

To this Imam, and many others like him, who acted on full purpose as murder mediators in female “horror killings”, to them all we say: “Dayouth” in Arabic, and “Pimp” in English has always had one meaning; a man who mediates prostitution, whether employing his own female kinship or others. That “Khaled” thing, was not the 1st to claim such a meaning, many of ancient jurists did before. However, vitalizing such an explanations in media usually creates an unnecessary hassle about old interpretations that is already outdated by modern culture. How many cheese-head men were agitated hearing such a word? How many out of them tried to force their spouse on what the man called Islamic dress code? How many men slept on outrage and how many ladies slept with a wounded soul? Is this the way Islam should be preached? Claiming unveiled woman to be a whore? and her spouse to be a pimp? If humiliating honorable people is that easy for you “Khaled”, considering your fatwa, enabling your Gulf masters, to abuse their female maids (the closest form we have today to slavery), and claiming it lawful in Islam. Let me tell you I find whoever facilitates extra-marital affairs in this way, to be much closer to pimping! Also encouraging USA invasion to Iraq, defending it during your licture in Kuwait, specifically Kuwait, gives an idea about who is practising “Pimping of Thoughts” where thoughts and ideologies are employes to amuse your Kuwaiti Masters. You better watch the woods in your eyes boy, before you talk about the ashes in others eyes!

Apart from this side talk, we find all the claimed proofs of cross-accountability in Islam to be shaking, based on what we have from Quran and righteous Sunnah. It is a social matter, and shall always be treated with social measures. Most importantly, degrading the act in our casual talks and educating people how shameful it is what we call “Honor”. This was my last words before I fly to the states for 5 days in a business trip. Appologies in advance for the late replies on your comments. See you soon dear friends.

A woman sustained light wounds after unidentified men opened fire at her on Sunday in the Jawarish neighborhood of Ramle, in what police suspect to be another attempted “honor killing” within the Abu-Ghanem family.

Ha’aretz

If the police and social workers had only listened to 12-year-old Ruksana when she told them her father had threatened to send her to Pakistan to be married against her will, then she says life might have been very different.

But they did not take her seriously, she says. She ended up in a foreign country and married to a violent partner who raped her and made her pregnant, aged 15.

Although she managed to escape, Ruksana (not her real name) now lives alone with her young child in a refuge somewhere in England.

Ruksana believes that by taking her away from school so early her parents robbed her of her education. And she says having a child at such a young age has hindered her career.

Let down

“When I was at school. I enjoyed it and worked hard,” she says. “I was in the top sets for English, maths and science. I wanted to go to college and university – but I didn’t even get to take my GCSEs.”

All this may have been prevented, she believes, if she had not been let down by the authorities that she trusted.

With her classmates at school, Ruksana had heard a talk about domestic violence – and some of what she heard chimed with the 12-year-old schoolgirl.

Says Ruksana: “The speaker listed the symptoms and said – if this is happening to you, then it is domestic violence. So I kept his card, and when my parents threatened me with marriage, that’s when I called the police.”

“I told the police: my father wants to send me to Pakistan to get married against my will. I told them that he had my passport.

“The police reassured me that this wouldn’t happen.

Became pregnant

“But then the police came to our house, and talked to me in front of my family – so everyone knew that I had complained. Soon after that the father moved me away to a relative’s house.

“There I was visited by a social worker that the police had arranged. She came to visit me twice – but she also didn’t speak to me alone, so my relatives knew what was going on as well.”

Things moved quickly after that, says Ruksana. “After about six to eight months my father came back from Pakistan. He said: ‘We’re going to Pakistan for a holiday. It’s only for a short time – a month or two’.

“Then when we got on the plane he told me that I wouldn’t be coming back, and that I couldn’t do anything about it.

“After I arrived in Pakistan I stayed there for two years. I got married aged 15 and then got pregnant.

“When I was there I did still secretly think that the British police would come looking for me – because I had already complained to them.

‘Horrific’ experience

“I thought the school in Britain might search for me – I obviously wasn’t coming to school any more. But nobody looked for me. I had to go through all that alone. It was horrific.

“Then I came back to the UK – I did not want to stay married and I told everyone this.

“But they said they had given their word, and if I said no it would bring shame to the family. So I had to go through with it.”

Ruksana gave birth in a British hospital. Then, when her Pakistani husband eventually joined Ruksana in the UK, the marriage was unhappy.

“He was very violent towards me. I have been through rape,” she says.

Eventually Ruksana took her child and ran away. She is now in hiding from relatives who believe she has brought shame on the family name.

“I am always looking over my shoulder,” she says.

She blames the authorities for not believing the word of a 12-year-old Asian girl.

“If they had responded properly then my life wouldn’t be the way it is now,” she says.

“I think maybe the police and social workers aren’t aware of forced marriage Or they think it is an Asian thing and it doesn’t happen with white people.

‘In our tradition’

“White kids can call Childline and they get listened to – but for Asian children it’s thought of as wrong to complain.”

Ruksana is not bitter towards her parents: “I think they know that in our religion – Islam – forced marriage is wrong. But it is also in our tradition.

“From their point of view they were doing the right thing, because that is what happened when they were young.”

And despite her bad experiences, Ruksana would still advise girls in her position to tell the authorities “My message is that they should contact the police and tell them everything.

“Because of the publicity about forced marriages I think they would take you a bit more seriously now.”

BBC

The Haifa District Court on Wednesday sentenced two brothers to life in prison for murdering their sister in what was termed an “honor killing.”

The two brothers, 40-year-old Anwar Salameh and Hassan Salameh, 37, were convicted of conspiring to commit a crime, kidnapping with intent to murder, and premeditated murder.

The murder occurred in December 2005, when the victim was 21. The two defendants, residents of the village of Mrar, conspired to kill their sister after they discovered she had a secret romantic relationship, defying them. They viewed their sister’s behavior as harming the family’s honor and consequently planned to convince her to join them on a trip somewhere and then kill her.

The two arrived at their parent’s home in a car belonging to the older brother and convinced their sister to join them to “go to her lover to work out their relationship.” The sister was convinced and joined her brothers on the trip. However, during the ride, the defendants veered from the route into the woods near Mrar.

The two brothers locked the doors of the vehicle and closed the windows to prevent their sister’s escape. Then they proceeded to strangle her with their hands. The later removed the victim’s body from the car, confirmed that she was in fact dead, taped her nose and mouth with duct tape and placed the body in a ditch nearby. They then covered her upper body with dirt.

Anwar Salameh said to the judges that “the penalty is a little severe for us; we received a very serious punishment. I ask you to take into consideration our situation ? my family is bereaved.”

Both defendants expressed remorse and asked via their defense attorney to prevent the publication of the story in the media.

The judges ruled that they could see no reason to deviate from the norm and permitted the publication of the trial’s details. However, the judges prohibited the publication of details pertaining to the sister and her lover. 

Ha’aretz 

Pattan (Srinagar): Twenty-four-year-old Hilal Ahmad has not been able to come to terms with the tragedy that has hit him.

Ahmad’s dream of marrying his childhood sweetheart, Safia, will remain a dream now after she died under mysterious circumstances last week.

Ahmad alleges foul play. “The way she was buried in the dead of the night suggests she was murdered. I am sure she was killed by her brothers. They accused her of bringing bad name to the family. Had she committed suicide, they would have informed relatives,” says he.

Ahmad’s family members say Safia’s family was against marrying their daughter off to Ahmad.

Meanwhile the police in Pattan, Baramullah district have registered a case of suicide, but are willing to probe any possibility of foul play.

SDPO Pattan, Mohammad Yousuf says, “A case has been registered. According to reports, Safia wanted to marry Ahmad. We are investigating the matter and if need be, we will seek permission from the deputy commissioner to exhume the body.”

The dead girl’s family’s version is that she committed suicide, but when CNN-IBN tried to get sin touch with them, they refused to speak to the reporter.

Meanwhile villagers of Pattan are shocked at what may be the first case of honour killing in the Valley.

IBN 

Lebanese women may be known as the Arab world’s most liberal but they are by no means the region’s most liberated considering antiquated laws that reduce them to second-class citizens.”The law in this country still considers a woman as being inferior,” complained sociologist Rafif Sidaoui.

From domestic violence to rape to adultery, the rights of women often fall by the wayside in this multi-confessional sectarian society, nonetheless deemed avant-garde in the mostly conservative Middle East.

“One of the absurd laws on the books allows a rapist to be exempt from prison if he marries his victim,” said Ezzat Mroue, vice-president of the Women’s Rights Committee (WRC).

“A few years ago, there was a major scandal when a young man, who was after his cousin, kidnapped her from her university,” she added.

“He raped her and then brought her before a sheikh who married them.

“The result was that he was not guilty in the eyes of the law,” Mroue said.

And although so-called “honour crimes” are not widespread in Lebanon, as in some other Arab countries, every year a number of women are killed by male relatives under the pretext of defending the family honour.

Under the law, the murderer can benefit from “mitigating circumstances”.

But “murder is murder and you cannot apply different penalties” depending on gender, insisted Mroue.

She said when it comes to adultery, the picture is not brighter.

A woman can be sentenced to two years in prison if a third party accuses her of cheating on her husband, whereas a man has to be caught red-handed before being hauled to court.

If a man admits to adultery but apologises, he is usually pardoned. The same does not apply to a woman.

As far as domestic violence, the law offers no protection to women.

“If a woman in Lebanon is beaten or humiliated at home, there is nothing she can legally do about it,” said Sidaoui.

“The husband has to break her neck, arm or leg, for her to be able to claim injury or damage, as you would for any car accident,” said the sociologist.

Many women who do turn to the police become the object of ridicule by officers who pat them on the cheek and suggest they deal with their problems “at home”.

Sidaoui said that one of the main problems in changing the status quo is the lack of legislation to protect women’s rights and the fact that religion permeates most aspects of life in Lebanon, including marriage and divorce.

For example, there is no civil marriage in Lebanon, although the government recognises such a union as long as it is celebrated outside the country.

A woman also cannot transfer citizenship to her husband if he is foreign or to children born of such a union.

And in the event of divorce, a Lebanese man automatically gets custody of the children.

“For the religious and political communities determined to hang on to their prerogatives, this issue is a red line not to be crossed,” Sidaoui said.

Labour laws are another issue that rights groups have been battling to change.

A married Lebanese man who works receives tax exemptions whereas a married woman does not.

A man with children is also given a family allowance by the state whereas a woman can only receive it if she is widowed or if her husband is handicapped.

“If these laws are not changed, they will perpetuate this mentality through generations and a woman will always be considered inferior to a man, whatever her social status,” Sidaoui said.

 AFP

As part of the routine March 8 International Women’s Day celebrations, the Turkish media remembered an otherwise often-ignored tragedy of women in rural parts of Turkey by highlighting the story of 17-year-old Lalihan from Batman. On the day women were singing and celebrating the International Women’s Day in squares of Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir with demands for wider rights and increased participation in politics for the Turkish women, a group of people were silently lowering the dead body of Lalihan to the bosom of mother earth with a simple religious ceremony in Batman.

She lived without becoming either an individual or indeed a citizen of the country she was born to as her parents never ever registered her… The only proof that a person named Lalihan ever lived in these lands was her dead body which was buried on March 8. As in “Yaşar, ne yaşar ne yaşamaz” (Yaşar, neither lives nor does not live) famous short story by Aziz Nesin, “she neither lived, nor did not live” but definitely was killed or made a victim of a rather primitive tradition.

Berdel, barter of brides!

Her family had agreed with another family in their neighborhood to exchange brides… A tradition called “Berdel…” The two families were indeed the families of two brothers. Marriages within the same families have been long discouraged by the state, but who cared what the state said? The girls and boys intended to be married had grown up together like brothers and sisters… They did not want to marry a brother or sister… The elders of the families of the two brothers simply did not bother. They wanted the daughters and sons of two brothers to marry and thus avoid dividing the family’s land allowing it to fall into the hands of outsiders.

It was a good arrangement… So thought the elders of the clan! After all, Lalihan’s elder brother was willing to marry his niece, and his cousin, Abdurrahman İlhan, was willing to marry Lalihan! Girls had no other option but to obey the wishes of the boys, and the clan… Otherwise, it would have been a grave insult to the “honor of the family” and the clan if the girls objected to their arrangement to be brides… A crime punishable by death!

Lalihan could not understand how she could become wife to Abdurrahman, whom she grew up playing and working with in the family fields as sister and brother. She objected. Trying to explain to her elder brother, she could not. Trying to explain to her mother, she could not. She could not even manage to discuss the issue with her father.

She decided to risk everything and say “No, I can’t agree marrying someone I consider a brother!” The family was upset… Berdel (the bride exchange tradition) had collapsed… This was not the first time such thing had happened in that part of Turkey and what ought to be done was clear in the minds of everyone, including Lalihan… She either would commit suicide and clean the honor of the family (in that case a junior sister would become the bride under the terms of “berdel” or Lalihan would be punished (killed) by either her brother, or the bridegroom-to-be whom she rejected, and thus the family would restore its dignity in the local population.

She did not have a younger sister that the family could offer as “sacrifice” and the bridegroom-to-be climbed the stairs to the roof of Lalihan’s house, took out his sharp knife, stabbed the body of the young girl who had refused to become his bride until she fell dead while an army of relatives watched the horrible scene from a distance! The honor of the family was restored!

Barbarism in demonstration:

The body of Lalihan could have been silently buried and the case would have been closed, her would-be bridegroom executioner and those who ordered her “execution” could have get away with the crime because there was no evidence, after all, that she ever lived anyhow… She was not registered, never had an ID… She was just one of those girls of eastern Anatolia who did not live at all, according to official Turkey.

Somehow, the murder was reported, however, and Lalihan managed to be registered in official Turkey after her murder, as an honor crime victim.

Was official Turkey required to register and protect Lalihan while she was alive, or simply to register her as a victim of honor crime? Lalihan is gone, like many others who were “sacrificed” by a primitive mentality… It is too late to save Lalihan, but there are many others in Anatolia who like Lalihan are not “alive” in official records but await this state’s attention to prevent a similar calamity! After all, what is a state for if it cannot protect Lalihans?

Turkish Daily News 

A 24-year-old resident of Kfar Naura shot his sister, seriously wounding her, in a suspected ‘honor killing’ late Monday night.

Afula police received a call around midnight reporting gunfire in the Israeli-Arab village. Magen David Adom paramedics who reached the house found the sister, 20, seriously wounded and took her to Haemek hospital in Afula.

A short while after, the brother turned himself in to police, admitting he was responsible for the shooting. He maintained that his divorced sister was befriending men, and so he therefore shot her, thinking he killed her.

Last week, Rashad Abu-Ganem was found guilty just of the involvement in the murder of his sister in the context of ‘honor killing,’ after he reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors. In the past six years, eight women from the Abu-Ganem family were murdered, all in the context of ‘honor killings.’ 

Ha’aretz 

POLICE said they had charged a Jordanian with premeditated murder after his 23-year-old sister and her boyfriend were shot dead in an apparent “honour killing”.

“The suspect shot his sister four times and her Syrian shepherd boyfriend six times when he caught them (together) red-handed early on Sunday” in the eastern Shumari natural reserve near the desert city of Azraq, a spokesman said.

“He turned himself in shortly after the crime, and forensic tests proved that his sister was still a virgin when she was murdered.”

The spokesman said two of the suspect’s cousins had been charged as accessories to the crime, the third such killing this year.

Jordanian authorities recorded a total of 17 so-called “honour” killings in 2007, slightly up on previous years.

The killers often receive light sentences if convicted, as parliament has twice refused to reform the penal code despite pressure from human rights groups to end the near impunity of the perpetrators.