Jordan’s criminal prosecutor has charged a 25-year-old man with premeditated murder for allegedly stabbing his sister to death last week.Prosecutor Tareq Shqeirat said Thursday the man allegedly stabbed his 19-year-old sister 30 times with a dagger on Saturday. Shqeirat says the man surrendered to police and told them he was cleansing his family’s honor.

The names of the man and his sister were not released. The prosecutor says the man told authorities he decided to kill his newly married sister after allegedly seeing images of her engaging in sexual acts with her lover on a cell phone.

An average of 20 Jordanian women are murdered annually in so-called honor killings.

International Herald Tribune

A 22-year-old girl was, on Wednesday, shot by her brother in what appeared to be a case of ‘honour killing’.

The murder took place in Hapur’s Asora village, where the girl Priyanka was on a visit to relatives for the last two days. Priyanka’s brother, Sonu, and another man arrived at the village and, stopping only to fire three shots into Priyanka, they rode away.

According to Hapur police sources, Sonu, resident of Hapur, had been, for sometime, seething about Priyanka going to Dehradun to live with a man without actually being married to him.

“Sonu had also earlier warned Priyanka against living-in like this, but, she paid no heed. Then, two days earlier, she came to visit her maternal uncle Pradeep in Hapur. Sonu heard about this and allegedly murdered Priyanka, arriving and leaving with an unidentified man on a motorcycle.”

Rushed to a hospital by her uncle, Priyanka was declared dead.

Sonu and the other man are absconding. Police are carrying out investigations.

Times of India

A divisional bench of Sindh High Court comprising of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khawaja Naveed Ahmed on Wednesday issued notice to two tribal chiefs involved in a Karo Kari case to appear before the court on 18th of November.

The bench conducted the hearing on the petition filed by a couple, Saira Jatoi and Ismail Somroo, requesting for shelter.

The petitioners appealed that protection should be provided to them as they had been declared as Kari in the jirga led by Sardar Abid Hussain Jatoi and others.

Saira Jatoi had married against the will of her parents and other relatives.

The petitioners submitted that their relatives wanted to murder them therefore they had no other option but to escape for their lives.

They added that tribal chief Abid Hussain Jatoi along with other jirga members had also issued directives to kill them.

They told the court that they were not being provided proper food and shelter. The court order the concerned authorities to provide them proper food and other basic facilities.

The Nation

A woman in Somalia has been stoned to death after an Islamic Sharia law court found her guilty of adultery.

The woman was buried up to her neck and then pelted to death with stones in front of a large crowd in Kismayo.

It was the first such execution in the southern port city since Islamist insurgents captured it from government-allied forces in August.

A local Islamist leader said the woman, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, had pleaded guilty to committing adultery.

“She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply,” said Sheikh Hayakallah.

A group of men performed the execution in one of the city’s main squares in front of thousands of people, AFP news agency said.

BBC

Federal Minister for Women Development Ms. Sherry Rehman has condemned the honour killing of a 17-year-old girl in Khairpur Mir District in Sindh. The killing took place early this year, but it was reported by the media today. “This is an inhuman crime and our government is determined to bring the culprits to justice, said Ms Rehman responding to media queries on the report of the honour killing in interior Sindh.

Briefing the media on the case, Ms. Rehman said that according to the initial details available to the government, 17-year-old Tasleem Solangi was reportedly killed by her uncle when her father Gul Sher refused to hand over his property to his brother.

“The girl was thrown in front of wild dogs that mauled her before her uncle shot her dead. This is the cruellest form of crime against a human being. The perpetrators would be given exemplary punishment to ensure that such crimes are never repeated.”

Ms. Rehman said that the government would be dealing with the case on priority basis. “We have informed the relevant officials to take urgent action. We will ensure that arrests are made and a case is registered as soon as possible.”

The state has an obligation to stand by the victim in such cases, and the government would be intervening to ensure justice in done. It is a Human Rights issue first and foremost, and the government would be pursuing it from a rights perspective.”

The Women Development Minister stressed the need for broader range of measures to address honour killing crimes. “Surely, the rise in number of cases over the years is an indication that we need a combination of efforts to counter the crime.

These will come from the government’s side but will need partnership as well as from the media, the civil society and the general public.

Apart from stronger legislation, we need to develop pressure groups and step up or lobbying and advocacy efforts since jirgas and compromises on the crime are linked to the social set up of our system.

APP

There is more to the bone-chilling account of the 17-year-old Taslim Solangi of Khairpur who was thrown to dogs — she was 8-month pregnant and was forced to give birth to her baby prematurely.

The baby was immediately thrown into the nearby Ubhal Wah canal after her killer father-in-law passed a judgement that the child was illegitimate and did not deserve to be allowed to live.

Meanwhile, a new report said hit men have also been dispatched to Karachi to kill the absconding mother of Taslim who had fled the village. Top level inside sources have now confirmed to The News on good authority that at the time of her murder Taslim was to give birth to her first child in two-week time.

But, once the decision to eliminate her was taken by her father-in-law Zamir Solangi, she was taken to a local midwife Mrs Badshaan alias Baashi for forced delivery of the child. Soon after the delivery, the baby was thrown into the nearby canal and later the mother was put to death.

The News International

A Pakistani man says his 17-year-old daughter was mauled by dogs and shot to death in front of him over a land dispute disguised as a so-called “honor killing.”Female senators staged a walkout from the federal parliament Monday to press for action on better protections for women after a national newspaper published details of Tasleem Solangi’s death.

“How long will women be buried alive and made to face hungry dogs? Women are not given their rights,” opposition lawmaker Semi Siddiqui said.

Ibrahim Solangi, 28, has been in custody ever since Taslim’s death in March and is awaiting trial on murder charges, said Pir Mohammad Shah, the police chief of the Khairpur Mirs district in southern Pakistan. Taslim’s husband was also her first cousin.

Human rights groups say hundreds of women are killed by male relatives every year in Pakistan for alleged infidelity or other perceived slights to the family name, and activists say many more cases go unreported.

In August, a Pakistani lawmaker drew fierce criticism after describing a case in which five women were allegedly buried alive for trying to choose their husbands as the product of “centuries-old traditions” that he would defend.

As in that case, the allegations surrounding the death of Tasleem Solangi remain unproven.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi on Monday, Taslim’s father said he was locked up in his home and forced to watch from a window as dogs chased her and then mauled her when she fell down exhausted. She then was shot, he said.

Gulsher Solangi said the killing was the culmination of a land dispute. He said his nephew had beaten Taslim throughout the five months of their marriage to pressure him to hand over his small farm.

Faced with more threats, Gulsher Solangi said he had fled with his wife and another daughter and abandoned his home.

Zameer Hussain Solangi, the girl’s father-in-law, claimed Monday that his son confessed to the killing under police torture and that the allegation regarding the dogs was “baseless.”

He said a tribal council later declared the dead woman an adulterer and compensated the husband with her jewelry.

The girl’s father claimed that the tribal council, chaired by a local chieftain, declared his daughter an adulterer in May to mask the land-grab and the involvement of others.

Shah, the police chief, said he knew nothing of the alleged land-grab or the dogs and promised to investigate further.

Pakistan’s government, now led by the liberal party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has vowed to improve women’s rights in Pakistan. Former President Pervez Musharraf made similar moves, notably watering down rape laws that made it hard for victims to prove their case, despite opposition from hardline Islamic groups.

AP

Written by: Imran Mazher (Rays of Development Organization)

OKARA, PAKISTAN: Altaf killed his married sister for eloping with her lover at chak15/GD. Safia Bibi, wife of Allah Ditta, had allegedly developed illicit relations with Abid and escaped with him, leaving her four daughters behind. The village panchayat brought her back. Safia resided at the house of her brother Asif.

As per details, on Saturday night, her another brother Altaf came to the house and allegedly strangled her. Afterward, the killer cut the body into pieces with an axe. The Satghara police have registered a case and started investigations.

Source:

Ferhan Mazher,

Chairman (Rays of Development Organization, Sargodha, Pakistan)

An 11-year-old girl was set on fire by a relative in India’s northern city of Jaipur for wearing lipstick and being “inappropriately dressed”, media reports said on Saturday.

The girl suffered burns over 90 percent of her body. Her chances of survival were bleak, police officers told the NDTV network.

Police arrested her great uncle, who allegedly poured kerosene on the girl and set her ablaze on Friday.

Investigators told the PTI news agency that the 55-year-old man, a conservative Muslim, had told the police that he was enraged at the girl wearing lipstick and being “scantily dressed”.

Among conservative Muslim communities, women are required to observe hijab, which means wearing clothing that covers the head and the body.

But relatives told news channels that the man had tried to molest the girl and had set her on fire when she objected.

Neighbours came to her rescue, one of whom was also injured while trying to put out the flames, police said.

A case of attempted murder was registered against the accused.

Police are continuing investigations

IOL

Syrian leaders have recommended reforming laws under which criminals convicted of so-called “honour crimes” get lenient sentences.

The commission for family affairs – a government body – proposed the change last week at the end of a state-sponsored forum on honour crimes, the first of its kind in Syria. More than 100 civic, religious and government leaders as well as legal experts attended the conference in Damascus, which also drew support from the ministry of justice and the ministry of religious endowments.

Under Syrian law, men who catch a female family member engaging in adultery or other “illegitimate sexual acts”, or even in a “suspicious state”, are exempted from the standard punishments for murder and assault. Those convicted of murders deemed to be honour killings face only six months to a year in prison.

The conference called for the honour crime exemption to be eliminated from the statute books, so that individuals convicted of murder in honour-related crimes would face a minimum of 15 years in prison.

“Article 548 gives permission for half of the [Syrian] people to commit murder,” said family affairs commission chair Simwa Astor. “We want to eliminate this article… for the sake of the sovereignty of the law, and to protect human beings.”

Women’s groups estimate that close to 300 so-called honour killings are committed every year, most in rural communities.

Brigadier Ali Alush, a senior official in the interior ministry, told the conference that honour crimes have accounted for seven per cent of homicides so far in 2008. But he acknowledged that the figure was probably an understatement because such crimes often go unreported.

“The problem with these crimes is not the numbers, but rather the deed itself,” said Raghda al-Ahmed, vice-president of the women’s general union. “Even if there is only one homicide, it remains a source of shame in our history.”

Women’s and human rights advocates have fought for many years for the honour crimes law to be changed.

The official backing given by the conference raised hopes that the recommendations could influence a change in a law that women’s groups say decriminalises violent crimes against women.

Syria’s chief Muslim cleric or Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmed Badr Hassoun, last year called for the law to be amended after parliament reportedly stalled on legislation that would have changed the penal code.

In 2006, human rights activists, intellectuals and media outlets also participated in a campaign to reform the laws.

Conference participants tried to pressure members of parliament invited to the event to change the penalties for this kind of crime.

But not all politicians favour reform.

Ghalib Inaiz, a member of the parliament’s legislative committee, told the conference that the honour crime law “is derived from Islamic sharia, and we cannot change it”.

Another member of parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would not support changes to the law, “because a person cannot give up his honour, and he should receive a commuted sentence if he kills one of his relatives if he catches them in the act”.

But another legislator, Mohammed Habash, who is an expert on Islam, said this law is not based on Islam and has “become a butcher’s knife to kill people in the name of honour”.

Ahmed Talib, a Shia sheikh from Lebanon who attended the conference, blamed honour crimes on what he called the “dominant culture”, in other words local tradition rather than religious tenets.

“Men grow up [thinking] they are above their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. That is the primary reason for the prevalence of such crimes,” he said.

Huda al-Himsi, a member of parliament who sits on the family affairs commission, said reforming the law would not automatically change the customs and traditions which sanction honour crimes.

“I am not optimistic,” she said. “Even if we abolish Article 548, we will not be able to stop honour crimes.”

IWPR