Honor Killings

Honor Killings are a dark, but necessary topic when discussing Women’s Rights in the Middle East. Over the past few years, specific cases of honor killings have been documented in Western media; one striking example includes “Saudi Woman Killed for Chatting on Facebook” in which a young woman from Riyadh was killed in 2008 by her father after he discovered her chatting with a man on Facebook.com, a social networking website (McElroy). While these isolated cases seem rare, there are still about 5,000 women killed annually in order to protect a family’s honor. While reputation continues to be very influential in society, this method of ‘cleansing’ a family is not, and never has been a mainstream option.

Honor Killing is now an uncommon, but horrific phenomenon in the Middle East and migrant communities in the USA and Europe, in which young women are murdered by their family members in order to protect the family’s honor and reputation. It is a struggle, in some ways, however, to define in less simplistic terms, but usually take place in less advantaged urban communities. In many cases, the murderers turn themselves in to the police to prove their families moral cleanliness, and only serve menial sentences in prison for their crimes due to loopholes in local legal systems. In Jordan specifically, if a male minor committed murder, they served a very short sentence and many of the cases were not fully investigated (until 2003, when this law was reformed). In classifying an honor killing, there is generally a certain act carried out by a woman that is viewed as irrevocable and unforgiveable by her family, and she pays for it with her life. In extreme cases, women have been brutally murdered for talking to a man, wearing a skirt too short, or even publically chewing gum.

This issue was publicized internationally for the most part by Rana Husseini, a Jordanian journalist who made it her personal mission to investigate and publish in local newspapers, such as The Jordan Times, the true stories behind honor killings taking place. Her 2009 book, “Murder in the Name of Honor” details many high-profile cases that took place in Jordan. Husseini has received numerous international prizes for bravery and persistence in journalism. Her efforts have led to legislative reform (in Jordan specifically) that no longer protects these criminals (Husseini). While it is debatable that honor killings will ever be fully stopped, countries under international scrutiny, such as Saudi Arabia, are making a greater effort to investigate, publicize, and hopefully halt these crimes.

Further Reading:
-Murder in the Name of Honor (Rana Husseini, 2009)
-Price of Honor (Jan Goodwin, 2002)
-Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan (Norma Khouri, 2003)

Bibliography:
Husseini, Rana. Murder in the Name of Honor. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009. Print.

McElroy, Damien. "Saudi Woman Killed for Chatting on Facebook." Telegraph.co.uk.
Telegraph News UK, 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 3 May 2010.