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Remember Them, These Women Were Murdered In So-Called “Honor Killings”
The word killing carries a very particular sentiment, one that is removed and swift, and one that doesn’t tend to invoke ideas of an active murder. A killing – a slit of the throat, a job complete. Murder, on the other hand, might suggest planning and calculating – and certainly more blood.
Israa Ghrayeb, 21 years old, was beaten to death by her brothers because she posted a selfie with her fiance a day before they were supposed to get engaged. Palestine
Manal Assi‘s husband Mohammad Nheily beat her for over 6 hours and bashed her head with a pressure cooker. Tala and Sara, Manal’s two daughters, were home and witnessed the entire ordeal. Lebanon
Baghdad Khaled al-Issa, 18. Stabbed and murdered by her brother after he raped and impregnated her. Lebanon
These are but a few cases.
In 2011, the Lebanese parliament annulled article 562 of the criminal code, which had long served as a lenient loophole in the sentencing of people who claim they killed in order to protect the family “honor.” We can change the laws, but something else has to change, too. In the absence of a change at the grassroots level that alters public perceptions and attitudes, women will continue to be murdered. Also, protecting women also means that personal status laws have to be replaced with civil code; the price we pay for religious freedoms cannot be the murder of women. The sectarian harmony (which is not that harmonious) that aims to flourish on the backs of personal status laws are frankly not worth it at this point.
Here we are in 2020. No flying cars, and certainly a grim outlook on women’s affairs in conservative societies that think a vagina is a hole through which worth passes.
Israa Ghrayeb, 21 years old, was beaten to death by her brothers because she posted a selfie with her fiance a day before they were supposed to get engaged. Palestine
Remember Isra’a Ghrayeb? Well so far she didn’t get justice and the courts investigations are repulsive and indicate that her murder will get brushed off as an “Honor killing”. The fact that honor killings are a thing and still justified in the 21st century is shameful. pic.twitter.com/1CNjmIyZi3
— Dana Del Rey (@Danaalrama7i) April 13, 2020
Manal Assi‘s husband Mohammad Nheily beat her for over 6 hours and bashed her head with a pressure cooker. Tala and Sara, Manal’s two daughters, were home and witnessed the entire ordeal. Lebanon
Baghdad Khaled al-Issa, 18. Stabbed and murdered by her brother after he raped and impregnated her. Lebanon
These are but a few cases.
In 2011, the Lebanese parliament annulled article 562 of the criminal code, which had long served as a lenient loophole in the sentencing of people who claim they killed in order to protect the family “honor.” We can change the laws, but something else has to change, too. In the absence of a change at the grassroots level that alters public perceptions and attitudes, women will continue to be murdered. Also, protecting women also means that personal status laws have to be replaced with civil code; the price we pay for religious freedoms cannot be the murder of women. The sectarian harmony (which is not that harmonious) that aims to flourish on the backs of personal status laws are frankly not worth it at this point.
Here we are in 2020. No flying cars, and certainly a grim outlook on women’s affairs in conservative societies that think a vagina is a hole through which worth passes.
