Wow. How tragic.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A Gaza man is being held on suspicion he bludgeoned his daughter with an iron chain, cracking her skull in a particularly brutal family honor killing, two human rights groups said Wednesday, citing police and forensics reports.
The assault was triggered by Jawdat Najjar's discovery that his daughter Fadia a 27-year-old divorced mother of five - owned a cell phone, the groups said. He suspected she used it to speak to a man outside the family, according to the groups' reports.
Three of the woman's brothers were also detained on suspicion that they acted as accomplices....
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Twas the tenth this year.
Fadia Najjar was the 10th victim of a so-called honor killing this year in the Palestinian territories and among Arab communities in Israel, according to rights groups.
In the West Bank and Gaza, honor killing assailants serve between six months and three years in prison, said Mona Shawa of PCHR.
These murderers serve only minimal sentences for pre-meditated murder.
Traditionally, assailants have received light sentences.
But the killing of Najjar shocked even activists used to detailing such crimes.
Her father used an iron chain to beat her, while also kicking and punching her for about 40 minutes until she died of a fatal blow to the head, said Mezan and the PCHR.
http://www.google.com/...
Syria's making progress. Right on Assad.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch reported Wednesday that the Syrian government abolished a law that waived punishment for some honor killings and now allows judges to sentence perpetrators to at least two years jail.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
But it still has a long way to go to outright condemnation.
Here's an explanation of the reasons behind honor killings.
Honor is everything," says Ahmed, a 52-year-old Palestinian Muslim. "If a person loses his honor, he becomes like an animal." The significance of honor among Muslims is complex, especially when compared to Western standards, but in the high-context, collectivist cultures of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, the inappropriate behavior of relatives brings shame to everyone in the extended family.
Palestinian communities are typically insular. Family members often remain in the same village or neighborhood for their entire lives. "Everyone knows each other," says Muhib Nimrat, consul with the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, D.C. "When you mention someone's family name, most people can tell you their history." Wealthy or poor, the reputation and honor of a family are its most important attributes.
Steeped in a collective sense of identity, families take pride in the accomplishments of individual members and feel shame if one of them does something dishonorable. "The family plays a role in every aspect of life in the Arab world," says Nimrat. "Whatever you do, you have to consider the immediate family and extended family, even the neighbors. How will they react? What will they think?"
http://www.worldandi.com/...
So in this latest report a father brutally beat his daughter because she owned a cell phone and called some dude, or spoke to some dude. Somehow that brought dishonor on the entire family making it permissable for this maniac to murder his daughter - leaving five children motherless. How ironic is it that in reality it's the murder of this woman that brings the dishonor, not owning and talking on a cell phone. Same for all the killings or pre-meditated cold blooded murders, which is what they are.
It ain't what the girl does, but what gets done to her that crosses the line on civilized behavior. Right. That's just common sense. Nothing "cultural" is gonna persuade me otherwise either. That's some bad culture. period. Time for a change.
moon