Syria Quotes
If a man commits a crime with an honorable motive, he will go free. If a man witnesses a female relative in an immoral act and kills her, he will go free.
This law is used to free “honor killing” murderers who have killed female relatives for what they thought was a sexual transgression that “stained the family honor.” The custom exists in some other countries but rarely with such sanction of law. In the case of Article 548 the word “witnesses” is interpreted to mean “heard about it” or even has some reason to suspect it. Each year in Syria hundreds of innocent women, and even girls are killed with impunity. In one 2007 case a 15 year old girl was kidnapped and raped. When she was freed by the police she was jailed. A cousin got her released by agreeing to marry her, but after the marriage, one of her own brothers, with the knowledge and concurrence of the rest of the family, butchered her with a knife. The family then held a party to celebrate the cleansing of their honor.
Syria, 2007 Criminal Code, Article 192 & 548
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This proverb which actually has the force of de facto law in much of the Arab world, while detested by many sophisticated Westerners and Americans in particular, was actually a custom in America for many years. Under the principle, a rapist is not a rapist if he marries the girl. A seducer is not a seducer. In the Bedouin culture there is no difference between the rapist and the seducer. The reason that the practice is so hateful is that it assumes that when a woman is raped or seduced the damage is to the woman’s male relatives—to their honor. Therefore, the “crime” can be remedied by marrying the girl and satisfying the male relative’s sense of honor. Then no harm has been done, except of course to the woman who often becomes the double victim, first of the rape or seduction and then of a forced marriage. In modern America the honor of the male relatives has no standing in law, yet even today some judges and prosecutors will go easy on a statutory rapist or worse if he marries the girl and the girls family goes along with the arrangement. The term “shotgun wedding” stems from a time when family members would force the alternative on seducers.
Unfortunately, his close successors did not share Alexander’s surprisingly modern view.
A daughter’s behavior is a reflection of the family and its honor. If a girl is unchaste, it is the duty of the father or other male relatives to kill the girl. However, this proverb warns about hearsay and gossip causing action which would have been unjust and regretted later.
In 1877 Wasburn was dropped from the List of Ministers by the Unitarian Church. He had become very critical of organized and orthodox religion of all kinds.
Syria, officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. Syria's capital and largest city is Damascus.
