A Jordanian court has sentenced a man to six months in jail after convicting him of the honor killing of his 16-year-old daughter.
The court ruled Wednesday that the man killed his married daughter because she had an affair out of the wedlock. The enraged father severely beat her with a baton and ultimately electrocuted her in November 2006.
Neither the father nor daughter were identified.
Like other tribal-oriented societies, many Jordanians consider sex out of the wedlock an indelible stain on the family's honor that can only be cleansed by blood.
1 comment:
Mark, thank you for blogging about this.
As abhorrent as this is, six months is the average penalty for dishonor killings in Jordan. There are three penal code articles on the books that offer this leniency to the perpetrators.
Here are a couple ideas:
1. Why don't we start economically boycotting countries that continue to treat their women like this and the companies that do business with them? We could do for women what the boycott of South Africa did for blacks when they were living under apartheid.
2. Why don't we write to our representatives and leaders and demand that they withhold some meaningful portion of our aid to these countries unless and until they materially, measurably, sustainably improve their human rights track records?
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
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