Violence Against Women & Honor Crimes - A Global Problem

In honor of October being National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I think it's only appropriate that I write about an important subset of domestic violence, honor crimes. According to the United Nations, 5,000 women around the world are murdered each year in the name of preserving their family honor and reputation. Rana Husseini is considered to be one of the world’s leading advocates against these so-called honor killings. In 1994, she was a young journalist with the Jordan Times and began uncovering dozens of stories of women killed by their own family members. Husseini has continued to investigate and speak out about this form of violence, whether in Jordan or other parts of the world. She’s just out with a book chronicling some of these stories, Murder in the Name of Honor: The True Story of One Woman’s Heroic Fight Against an Unbelievable Crime. The following quote is a great segue into how honor crimes and the theme of violence against women is connected and perceived:

"First of all, I would say to you – violence against women is part of global culture. It’s not isolated to any religion, class or country. However, some societies develop quicker than others and have better mechanisms for coping with it and discouraging it, and people there can’t ignore the struggle going on around the corner.

We need to remember that we are all human beings, and honour crime goes against human dignity. Ending this violence means a better world for everyone."

- Rana Husseini during an interview on Arabcomment.

A recent interview w/ Husseini on Democracy Now! had me vigorously nodding my head in agreement as I read her opinion on honor crimes.

"So-called honor crimes, I’d like to call them, because 'honor crime,' when you say that, you’re justifying the murder, so we’re trying even to change the terminology. But there, you know, domestic violence or violence against women is a global phenomenon, as we said. Women get killed all over the world by their abusive partners, by their family members, by their husbands, by their sons, fathers. And there are still reports of murders going on in countries such as Italy, like in Sicily, in South America, Pakistan, Turkey.


So it’s really not restricted to any religion. I have covered cases of Christian women who were killed in Jordan for tarnishing their families’ honor, same in other parts of the Middle East. So really it has nothing to do with any religion. I think it’s mostly a tribal—I’m sorry, it’s a traditional practice more than a religious. For example, in India, Sikh families kill their daughters. In Iraq, a woman from a Yazidi faith was stoned to death recently. So, really, it has nothing to do with any religion, as much as it has to do with peoples’ wrongful cultural and traditional beliefs."

I couldn't say it better myself. While most of my life has been spent researching about and advocating on behalf of vulnerable women everywhere, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia, working on these issues while being in Cairo has transformed my belief system. Dealing with harassment on a daily basis and being constantly immersed in an environment where women feel they must adjust to an endless feeling of helplessness impels me to feel a new sense of urgency. At work recently I have been analyzing what legal protection, if any, women in the Arab region are accorded for sexual harassment incidents. Soon enough I came across how the law deals with other incidents of violence against women, like honor killings. This entire subject of according leniency in the law for crimes against women is disgusting and inexcusable. Nothing about a 15 year old boy killing his sister because a cousin accused the girl of having sex outside of wedlock is justifiable:

"Taghrid's cousin had accused her of being promiscuous. Taghrid had shamed the family. Her father called on his son Muhammad, only fifteen at the time, to carry out the murder. Lamya guessed Muhammad was chosen because he would get a lesser prison term as a minor. Muhammad killed Taghrid almost five years ago. He had been released from prison less than a year ago.
Only after the autopsy did my host family learn that Taghrid was a virgin. Only after it was too late did my host family discover that Taghrid's cousin had lied. He had wanted to marry her and she had refused. So, he lied out of spite. I thought to myself how could one rumor lead to a young woman's execution and her brother's lost childhood in prison. This was clearly not a crime committed in a fit of rage. This was premeditated and precalculated.
For the girls in the village, Taghrid had been a role model. Despite tremendous economic hardship, she had managed to make high enough grades to gain entry into pharmacy school. Taghrid's death was not just a tragedy for the family, but for the young girls of this village who dreamed to be like her one day."
- My good friend Maryum discusses her experience during her time w/ Peace Corps in Amman, Jordan

While I sit in a cafe on a cloudy October afternoon here in Cairo, I hope that this post has at least made one step towards raising more awareness of how important this issue is. It's not a Western or Eastern problem, it's an obligation upon all of us to recognize and end this global phenomenon.