Another Jordanian Dishonor Killing
Below is an account of the latest Jordanian dishonor killing. It's been fairly widely reported in the print media so, in memory of my late friend Pammy, I'm choosing the version her former employer published. It's short and not very sweet, but what strikes me about this one are, well, three things:
1. The perpetrator is a legal minor, probably hand picked by the adult male members of his family to do the deed so as to avoid even the already ridiculously minimal six-month average sentence. To paraphrase one Jordanian respondent in my survey on these crimes, this is child abuse.
2. The number of stabbings. These crimes couldn't be any more brutal. Imagine this young woman looking into the eyes of her little brother/killer while waging a battle for her very life. Her final moments must've been hell on earth.
3. The last paragraph clearly holds the Jordanian machinery of state to account for effectively sanctioning these crimes. This is good. Sometimes reporters launch into mealy-mouthed, multi-culti, apologist mumbo jumbo that makes it seem as though it might be OK to kill people for supposed honor.
There will be no photographs to add to my blog's albums of victims and perpetrators. The state, which controls the media in Jordan, never allows them to be released. They don't even allow them to be named.
Sigh. When will this end?
http://www.theage.com.au/world/teen-charged-with-sisters-honour-killing-20080704-31fi.html
Teen Charged With Sister's 'Honour' Killing
July 4, 2008
A 16-year-old Jordanian boy has been charged with murder after his 23-year-old sister was stabbed to death in an apparent "honour" killing.
The unnamed suspect allegedly stabbed his sister 10 times in the heart yesterday in a village in the northeastern province of Mafraq, an official said.
"He has confessed to murdering his sister because she disappeared from home for a month with a boyfriend," the official added.
It was the seventh reported so-called "honour" killing this year, according to security officials.
Jordanian authorities recorded 17 such murders in 2007, slightly up on previous years.
Killers in such cases 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.
About Ellen
Ellen R. Sheeley is the author of Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public Opinion Survey on "Honor" Killings and a contributor to the anthology Nothing But Red.
In 2003, she journeyed to Jordan, where she learned of the needs for empirical...
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I vacillate between Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." I've read both multiple times and relate perhaps too well to...
And in Scandinavia
Bruce Bower's blog is a source of information on dishonour killings in Scandinavia.
(It doesn't have permalinks, alas.)
Thanks for the link,
Thanks for the link, Michael.
Many European countries are struggling with this issue because they are seeing the numbers of these crimes rise. Although the crimes are not indigenous to them, they are being imported by some immigrant communities. The initial reaction was to embrace cultural diversity and try to assimilate these immigrants and their practices without giving up what makes the European countries great. But, more recently, the pendulum appears to be swinging back. People seem to be realizing there is just no way to "tolerate" dishonor killings. They must be denounced, the at-risk people better protected, and the perpetrators brought to justice. Some in the government are taking a second look at immigration policies, too.
The dust hasn't settled, though.
Yikes
This is just disgusting...I mean seriously,
"The unnamed suspect allegedly stabbed his sister 10 times in the heart yesterday"
10 times in the heart? Its hard to grasp that level of brutality...
It certainly is. But
It certainly is.
But a high level of violence is one of the hallmarks of dishonor killings. This doesn't even come close to being among the more brutal ones of which I'm aware. So one can tell from these crimes, from the brutality involved, inter alia, that there is an emotional connection between the killer and the victim. For if there weren't, there would be no need to kill using methods that involve close body contact and complete, utter overkill.
On the one hand, dead is dead, regardless of the method. But, on the other, how horrid must it be to be killed slowly, painfully while looking into the eyes of one of your family members, the very folks tasked in life with looking after you?