Honor Killings & Murder Quotes
This proverb is a large part of the conceptual basis of the concept of honor killing. It starts with the notion that women are property. However, being animate property women are in the same class as livestock. And if a camel or a donkey get lose and does damage, the owner is responsible. So if a woman does something wrong, it is the father or the husband who is responsible. Since sexual behavior of most kinds is contrary to the Islamic custom and law, any activity in this regard, demonstrates that the father of husband has not been up to his obligations and is therefore dishonored. Therefore, the least he can do, to provide a deterrent to other women is to kill the offending female. Without the concept of property, the entire chain of logic collapses under its own weight.
The logic of this quotation is irrational and faulty but exists the world over. Someone is told to refrain from certain activities because others will be offended and resort to immoral and illegal activities. This is what was said to the Orangemen of Ireland parading in Catholic areas and the reverse. Or women were warned against certain kinds of dress less they be raped. See {623723} .
This clause is a real puzzlement to non-Muslims throughout the world. What it means is that a person is allowed to murder certain other people—the “blood” was permitted. These include homosexuals, heretics. blasphemers, and those individuals who have had Fatwas—Islamic legal opinions—calling for their death as enemies of Islam. So if a Muslim cleric issues a fatwa calling for the death of someone, anyone who can kill the person will be exonerated. Under Sharia, a Muslim who murders his own daughter or sister because she violated the sexual taboos of Islam, is exonerated because in this case the blood of the victim was permitted. It is the same for murdering a homosexual, or someone who converts from Islam to Christianity.
This is another proverb that has the de facto force of law. “Cutting her braid” means the honor killing of a girl who has been morally transgressed, usually sexually by a close relative. Even in earlier times fathers or even brother might have a love for a daughter or sister that would transcend this obligation to protect the family honor. The society to get around this human emotion which might produce total licentiousness if girls were not so disciplined came up with the idea of extending the right and obligation even to the paternal cousins. So if the father would not kill the girl, and the brothers would not, and the paternal uncles would not—or were unable to by reason of age or infirmity—any of the cousins could and should do dispatch the young lady and preserve the family’s honor—hence the term “honor killing.” In many Muslim societies, even today, this proverb is a legal defense against murder.
In much of the Islamic world if a woman commits adultery or becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she will often be killed by her own father or brothers who perceive that this is the only way to maintain the honor of the family. The primitive custom really becomes gross when a woman who is the victim of rape, ends up being killed by her own male family members. In some Muslim countries honor killings are against the law but that prohibition is rarely legally enforced.
Article 17 of the Egyptian criminal code allows judges to reduce or even suspend sentences after a conviction. That has been used to effectively exonerate murders where “honor killing”—the killing of a woman or man whose alleged behavior was contradictory to existing mores, thus bringing dishonor upon the family. Women who were suspected of adultery or even dressing immodestly were murdered by husbands, brothers or fathers without any serious criminal punishment. Some have called for repeal of Article 17.
Rape has been used as a tool of war. Similarly here, rape has been used as the ultimate humiliation.
The Minister was commenting on a case where a 28 year old Punjab woman of low family status was sentenced by a Pakistani court to be gang raped in front of her father. The offence for which she was punished was that her younger brother age 11 had been found in the presence of a 20 year old daughter of a wealthy and high status family. The male members of the high status family beat and sodomized the young boy and then appealed to the tribal court for justice and defense of their family honor which the court granted by sentencing the daughter so the other family’s honor would be besmirched. The Pakistani national government, after outcries throughout the world, declared the punishment illegal. They named a school after the victim, Mukhtaran Bibi, and arrested the rapists. However the rapists were not charged with a capital crime according to Pakistan law and traditional Muslim law, Sharia.
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.
Islam is no more monolithic than any of the other major religions. This view is not held by most Muslim Coutnries or Islamic leaders throughout the world. It is held by a significant minority however.
Another danger for a woman reporting rape, is that her male relatives might murder her for bringing shame and dishonor upon the family. This is not uncommon in some Islamic nations.
Jordanian Political Party. In much of the Islamic world “honor killing” is allowed and/or condoned. Males may murder their wives and other female relatives whose sexual behavior brings “dishonor” to the family. To make matters worse, many females are killed on the basis of rumor or innuendo. The Jordanian Royal family has for several generations been a modernizing force.
The “law” that the murdered woman had broken was that she had dated a man who although a Muslim was not a Druze. Even in Israel where so called “honor killings” are definitely illegal, amongst some traditional communities there is understanding if not subtle approval. The woman had been killed by her own father and two of her uncles. The Shfaram Duse community actually celebrated the murder.
