Reporter Reveals Dishonor of Killing Female Kin

[ccharles000]

What began as a story assignment to cover an "honor" killing in Amman, Jordan, turned into a quest for journalist Rana Husseini to explore and fight against these crimes. Excerpts from her latest book, "Murder in the Name of Honor."

AMMAN, Jordan (WOMENSENEWS)--In summer the temperature in Jordan soars to the unpleasantly high 30s (high 90s Fahrenheit). Across the sweltering capital, those of Amman's citizens who were fortunate enough not to have to make their living on the teeming streets hid away from the sun in the city's many coffee shops.

It was May 31, 1994, the day that Kifaya's mother, uncles and brothers had decided she would die.

In the built-up part of the conservative old city, Kifaya sat, tied to a chair in the kitchen of her family home. The sweets that her older brother, Khalid, had bought earlier to persuade her that everything was all right lay untouched on the counter.

Kifaya's crime was to have allowed herself to be raped by her other brother, Mohammad. She had then been forced by her family secretly to abort his child and had been made to marry a man 34 years her senior, whom she had divorced after six miserable months.

She had shamed her family. There was only one solution.

Khalid held a glass to Kifaya's lips and told her to drink some water. He asked her to recite verses from the Quran and picked up a knife. Kifaya begged for mercy. Outside, the neighbors listened but did nothing as she started to scream.

http://www.womensenews.org/story/crime-policylegislation/091106/reporter-reveals-dishonor-killing-female-kin

[ccharles000]

1. kick

[ccharles000]

2. one more kick

[barbtries]

3. and the rapist apparently walks free

the victims of these crimes appear to be female without exception.

[ccharles000]

4. yup

[Vidar]

5. K&R

[Odin2005]

6. K&R

[grace0418]

7. How, under any logic, can a family decide that it's their daughter's fault she was raped?

I mean, none of the so-called reasons for honor killings make any sense at all, but that one is just heinous beyond description. This poor girl gets raped by her fucking sick-in-the-head brother, then gets pregnant, then has a forced abortion, followed by a forced marriage to a middle-aged man which ends badly. And all of that is her fault? A crime for which she must pay with her life? It makes my fucking skin crawl.

Sadly, it sounds like this girl's life was one torment after another and maybe she's in a better place now. As for her "family," may there be a hell so they can rot in it.

:mad:

[kiva]

8. Thanks, ccharles- this goes on my booklist,

the short one of books I actually buy and read.