The Dishonor of Killing

I'm sure that many of you have heard about the practice of so-called "honor killings" in Muslim cultures. So even though this may not be a new phenomenon, there is no way we can hope to end this barbaric practice unless we continue to call it out when it occurs and express our outrage.

In the most recent case last week, a 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion. A horrifying video of the stoning is now available on the Internet. Amnesty International condemned the death of Du’a Khalil Aswad as "an abhorrent murder" and demanded that her killers be brought to justice.

According to reports, a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.

Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honor killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.

Miss Aswad had tried to take shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader. But as a large crowd watched, eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged her into the street. They hurled stones at her for over 30 minutes until she finally died.

The stoning happened last month, but only came to light with the release of the Internet video. More details are available here.

On January 25th of this year, the Associated Press reported on one of the first honor killings of 2007-- one that occurred in Jordan when a father fatally shot his 17-year-old daughter whom he suspected of being sexually active-- despite a medical exam performed before her death that proved her virginity, according to a government forensic pathologist from Jordan's National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The young woman had apparently "run away from home several times for unknown reasons" and had returned home from a family protection clinic after doctors "vouched for her virginity" and her father signed a pledge not to harm her. He ignore the pledge and killed her anyway. The pathologist reported that the autopsy performed after her death again demonstrated her virginity.

According to a 2002 United Nations report, the "honor" defense for murder is allowed by law in the following countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Peru, Syria, Venezuela and the Palestinian National Authority.