If My Parents Ruled the World. . .
By the standards of this case, most American girls would be murdered in their mid teens.
And protecting the privacy of the perpetrator, sentencing him to a measly six months (which is the average sentence in Jordan for these crimes). . .well, just for reference, consider me in my teens. I wasn't even a bad kid. Was an honor student. Hard working. Popular. Well read. Kind to animals, children, old people, and other vulnerable groups. Head majorette (OK, in hindsight, that's a little embarrassing, but the Title IX funds hadn't yet made it into the system, so what was an athletic girl to do?!). But I spent most of my teen years "grounded for life" for being slightly mouthy. And occasionally, when really desperate, my parents threatened to out me and my misdeeds to my teachers and my friends. So I get that, while this man kills his own daughter, keeps his anonymity, and is given a small swat on the hands by the authorities?!
Something is wrong with this picture. Very wrong. Too bad my parents don't rule the world.
http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2008/4/Pages/Jordan.aspx
Man Gets Six-Month Sentence for Killing Daughter in Jordan
By AFP
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A Jordanian man was sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday for murdering his 16-year-old daughter by electrocution in an apparent "honour killing," a court source said.
"In November 2006, the man lost consciousness after his daughter told him that she had slept with a young man. She also cursed him and said it was none of his business," the source told AFP.
"When the enraged man woke up, he beat the girl on the head with a stick and electrocuted her by attaching bare electric wires to her body. She died immediately."
The father committed the crime in the exclusive Abdoun area, west of Amman, and was charged with murder after he confessed to murdering his daughter "to cleanse the family's honour," the source said.
The source refused to give the name of the father.
Jordanian authorities recorded a total of 17 so-called traditional "honour killings" in 2007, a slight increase compared to previous years. [But the true number is unknown, because many others are unreported or disguised as accidents or suicides.]
The killers often receive light sentences if convicted, as parliament has refused to reform the penal code 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...
Connections
Causes Ellen Sheeley Supports
For All Women Foundation
Ellen’s Favorite Books
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...
Useful book
Anthropologist Phillip Carl Salzman’s Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, which I reviewed here (http://erudito.livejournal.com/728868.html) here has a very enlightening discussion on dis honour killings.
Thanks, Michael. I'd read
Thanks, Michael. I'd read this review earlier. . .didn't realize you are Erudito!
Ellen--This entire concept
Ellen--This entire concept that a person can kill their own child is so difficult for me to understand. What happens to those men after they kill their daughters? I don't mean jail time--you have enlightened us on that. But do they not grieve their daughters? Do they not remember and have nightmares seeing her as she died? Are there no "daddy's little girls" over there? I feel so bad for anyone who cannot love their own children. Does the Muslim religion not have the concept of forgiveness? Or is it just lacking in the extremist groups? Can the daughter apologize and make things right and escape death? Why would a person defy a parent if she knew she would be murdered? I would think the prospect of murder would make most of us behave however a parent wanted.
More pondering...
Ellen--I have kept pondering this. (Wish I could get it off my mind, in fact.) It has been many many years since I read The Scarlet Letter. Maybe I need to re-read it. Was that punishment (was it stocks and the letter "A"?) concerned with shame? Certainly it was meant as a shaming of the adultress--was her name Harriet? Something with an "H" I think. Or was it just a punishment to try to prevent future sexual sins? Murder certanly succeeds in preventing future misbehavior. And future virtuous behavior. I am glad you are trying to stop this shameful custom. People can change, and I pray that these murderous fathers come to recognize their dishonorable behavior and come to recognize how horrible and shameful their behavior is. They have brought terrible dishonor upon themselves. I pray they come to recognize this.
Too bad your parents don't rule the world.