Abbas: Honor Killings Benefit Women!!

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas promised several times that he would change the shameless laws protecting perpetrators of “honor killings”. But this did not happen. Abbas has backtracked on his promises. Today Dec. 25 2012, Ma’an News Agency reported that Abbas “has no plans to outlaw honor killings”.

The Palestinians believe that the reason for the high numbers of “honor killings” has to do with the policies of the Palestinian Authority and the exploitation of the women who work in its institutions, women who are abused sexually by superiors and co-workers, putting their lives in big danger due to the tradition of “honor killings” in traditional Palestinian society.

In the West Bank and Gaza there are no laws that forbid women from being murdered or prosecute their murderers. The Palestinian Authority applies the Jordanian Penal Code in the West Bank towns. The Jordanian law is considered as a discriminatory law, it reduces the penalty for the murderer when he perpetrates his crime under the pretext of “issues of honor”.
 “Honor” has become a justification for murdering women and protecting the murderers, as well keeping the power in the hands of the men who lead the society and impeding women from reaching power. This is a clear threat for all women who seek equality with men in their rights.

The statement of Abbas’ legal adviser published by Maan Agency about “honor killings” compounds the inhumanity of how women are dealt with in Palestine by law. Women are seen as being no better than herd animals and in the best circumstances. Women are often enough treated like minors and “crooked ribs” (in reference to the biblical passage whereby women were created from one of Adam’s ribs) even after they become adults and marry.

A Man Slaughters Wife in The Streets of Bethlehem
Girls Forced To Hysterectomy At Palestinian Hospitals
Honor Killing Or Barbaric Crime? Video

While denigrating women and lessening our position in Palestinian society in this way, Abbas has found enough time to pass decrees and laws of questionable legitimacy to protect himself and his cronies from prosecution for varied crimes.

Maan Reports: Abbas: No plans to outlaw honor killing
By Soraya Al-Ghussein and Hannah Patchett

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – President Mahmoud Abbas has no plans to amend laws that reduce sentences for suspects who claim an “honor” defense for murdering women, his legal adviser says.

“Why change it? This would cause serious problems,” Hassan al-Ouri told Ma’an, adding that such a reform would “not benefit women.”

In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum penalties for “honor killing” in response to protests over the killing of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron.

The decision was announced in a phone call to a primetime show on state TV, drawing tears among crowds of mourners shown in a live link-up from the Ramallah studio to Baradiya’s hometown.

Abbas suspended Article 340, which offers a pardon for murder if the perpetrator committed the crime on finding his wife in bed with another man.

The reform was cosmetic: Article 340 had never been used in Palestinian courts since it was legislated in 1960.

“So why did we change the law? To garner public opinion,” al-Ouri said in an interview in the presidential compound in Ramallah.

“I, personally, was against the amendment because the crimes that happen in the street have no relevance to Article 340,” the legal adviser added.

Al-Ouri says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend family “honor.”

Articles 97 to 100 of the Jordanian Penal Code, in force in the West Bank, still offer reduced sentences for any act of battery or murder committed in a “state of rage.”

“The (law) only addresses 1 percent of the problem. What we need is a new culture,” al-Ouri said.

Other officials insist the penal code is the problem.

The law “privileges the killer,” Interior Ministry official Haitham Arrar told Ma’an.

“It encourages some people to commit crimes against women, which will go (as far as) killing them,” said Arrar, who heads the ministry’s democracy and human rights unit.

Abbas fears ‘conservative forces’

The Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since 2007, when Hamas and Fatah split, but women’s rights expert Soraida Hussein dismisses arguments that reforms must wait until parliament reconvenes.

“For us, for women, all this is irrelevant,” said Hussein, general director of the Women’s Technical Affairs Committee, an umbrella group of women’s organizations. “Until now, our lives — in law and in practice — are seen as less than men’s.”

The president should issue a decree that “anybody killing anyone else will be sentenced to the highest sentence possible, whether it is a woman or a boy,” says Hussein.

“The minute the law is changed and applied, the minute people will think twice,” she says. “It’s simple and it’s not done.”

Hussein suggests Abbas is hesitant to pass legal reforms because “he is not ready yet to confront conservative forces.”

In 2009, Abbas ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, but al-Ouri, the legal adviser, says it will only be implemented “so long as it doesn’t contravene Islamic code.”

“Look, we are for total equality but if there is a basic tenet of Islamic code that we would be forced to change under CEDAW, then people would revolt and brand us as non-believers,” al-Ouri said.

‘Dressing up honor’

Lax laws encourage murder suspects to claim “honor” in their defense, officials and women’s rights activists say.

“Because the penalty is one or two months, they consider killing her and dress it up as honor,” Minister of Women’s Affairs Rahiba Diab told Ma’an.

Khawla al-Azraq, who runs a women’s counseling center in Bethlehem, notes that femicide is a global issue but “now in Palestine, they call this honor killing.”

“Sometimes these girls are abused by someone in the family and they need to cover this (up) and they kill her; sometimes because they need her money,” she says. “These are the real reasons for killing.”

“In Palestine, this is the gap, that until now we don’t have our own legislation that really can protect women.”

The Independent Commission of Human Rights says 13 women have been killed this year, but the real figure is likely to be higher.

“There has been historically a problem of documentation,” says Hussein, the women’s rights expert. The cause of suspicious deaths of women was often recorded as “fate,” which could refer to forced “suicides” or being pushed from a building, she explained.

Despite repeated requests since September, the Ministry of Interior did not provide Ma’an with the official number of women whose deaths were recorded as “fate” in 2012.

Palestinian Minister Rapes Child in Tel Aviv?
Girl Hanged On a Tree in Honor Killing
The UN is Not the Right Place for Honor Killings Talk
Over 13 Honor Killings in Two Months in Palestine
Victims of Incest and Abuse in Palestine
Honor Killings In Palestine
رجل يذبح زوجته من الوريد إلى الوريد في الشارع العام وسط المشاهدين في مدينة بيت لحم
قصة المرأة الذبيحة في بيت لحم من الألف إلى الياء
السلطة تستخدم القوة للسيطرة على غضب الشارع في أعقاب نحر إمرأة في بيت لحم
عائلة تسقي ابنتها سمّا وتدعي أنها شربته بنفسها

6 comments to Abbas: Honor Killings Benefit Women!!

  • FAWZIA

    THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE IS ALL-AWARE, so do not try a stupid cover-up for killings of innocent women.

    Beware the DAY OF JUDGEMENT (to the entire human race)or the Wrath of the Creator may descend in this lifetime.

    Or does one need a Superstorm , tsunami , earthquake etc. to jog one conscience?

    • Austin

      If there was a god it would not allow this happen in the first place, your gods are fake, your religions are false. Grow up humanity, earn your name. If not please wipe your self from this living planet and allow another more sane species to rise

  • Terry

    To kill a woman because of “honour” is haram and something that should challenged. What I fail to understand is why you are displaying your dirty linen when you are as a people being demonised by those that murder you?

    This issue is one for an internal discourse and it is fundamentally about criminality. How dare does the PA tolerate misogynistic crime against women?

  • Jason

    Well, Israel doesn’t have “Honor Killings”. Stop your war against Israel and the Jews and become Israeli citizens to improve your life.

    • Terry

      How can Israel claim any kind of honour when it is a criminal state?

      At least the Palestinians keep their misdeeds to themselves when Israel and Israelis trawl eastern Europe to kidnap women for their sex slave prostitution rackets. Thousands of eastern European women are trafficked by the Israeli mafia.

      I am waiting for Putin to deploy his security apparatus to cull these criminal Israeli gangs.

  • Di,Cerrillos,NM

    Isn’t it time to examine religion itself? Men use religion as a reason to commit mayhem on women and allow themselves no penalties.
    If we are to usher in a new golden age then we must treat everyone with honor and dignity
    and bring our belief systems into alignment with love.
    We are all earthlings with hearts and minds that are adaptable. Harmony can be achieved by those who desire it, first on a personal level, then globally.

Austrian Flag
Bild aus dem Parlament
000_5151A
000_2207A

Advertising? Werbung? Click on the picture below. Klicken Sie auf das Bild unten. kawther [dot] salam [at] gmail [dot] com

000_8696b_edited-1

Advertising? Werbung? Click on the picture below. Klicken Sie auf das Bild unten. kawther [dot] salam [at] gmail [dot] com

Related Books


Support this site by buying these books at Amazon. Thank you!

000_4195A
000_4229A
000_1418A
Der Stephansplatz

Der Stephansplatz

Johann Strauß

Johann Strauß

000_8728

Volksgarten

Nikon (57)

Kurpark Oberlaa

000_2638A

Verbrechen in Israel

Add to Netvibes Creative Commons License