The BBC reported yesterday that women activists in Jordan are outraged over yet another light sentence for a man convicted of an honor killing. In this case, a man murdered his daughter with “an implement similar to a meat cleaver” after he learned she had premarital sex. For this crime, the man was sentenced to only six months in jail.
Although the Jordanian government has claimed over the past few years that it wants to crack down on honor killings, so far it has been all talk.
Last July, for example, CBS reported on the case of Sirhan Abdullah. Abdullah’s 16-year-old sister, Yasmine, was raped. Yasmine feared for her life and so turned to police who placed her in protective custody. After forcing him to sign an agreement that he would not harm Yasmine, she was released to her father.
By his own account, Sirhan Abdullah waited only about 15 minutes after Yasmine arrived home before shooting her in the head four times. He spent six months in jail. Abdullah told CBS that he didn’t think his sentence was fair. According to Abdullah,
I shouldn’t have been in prison for a minute. If she had stayed alive, everyone in our family would have hung his head in shame.
A bill to set mandatory jail terms for honor killings was defeated by Jordan’s parliament in 2000, and a new proposed bill that would require at least a 5-year sentence for such murders has almost no chance of being enacted into law.
Sources:
Jordanian women fight ‘honour killings.’ Caroline Hawley, The BBC, January 23, 2002.
Honor Crimes. CBS News, July 14, 2001.