The Crime of Honor - Chapter 1

PART I – ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
1 – The Crime of Honor

AMMAN — The criminal prosecutor on Monday charged a 68-year-old father

with the premeditated murder of his daughter for reasons the suspect claimed were

related to family honour, official sources said. The 26-year-old victim was shot six

times in the head and neck, reportedly by her father, at their family’s home on Monday

morning, one official source said. “When the police and criminal prosecutor arrived at

the scene, the father fired several rounds in the air, saying he was celebrating the killing

of his daughter,” the official source told The Jordan Times. “I have cleared the family’s

name and cleansed my honour. Let everyone in my town know that I killed my daughter

for this reason,” the official source quoted the suspect as saying. The victim was allegedly

involved in an affair with a married man, who sought her hand in marriage six months prior

to the incident, according to the source. The victim’s family refused because the man was

married, the source said, adding that almost two weeks ago, they discovered she was pregnant.

“The family took their daughter to a different city and arranged for her to undergo an abortion

and an operation to restore her virginity,” the source said. For the past two weeks, the

victim’s family locked her up in the house and on Monday they decided to kill her, the

source added. Pathologist Awad Tarawneh, who performed an autopsy on the victim,

removed four bullets from her skull and indicated that two other bullets penetrated and

exited her lungs, the source said. “Tarawneh also established that the victim underwent an

abortion and hymen- restoration surgery recently,” the source said. Coroners extracted bullets

from the floor and walls of the victim’s room, where the reported murder occurred. “It seems

the victim was run from one place to the other in an attempt to avoid the bullets, because coroners

found several bullets on the floor and other locations in her room,” the source said. There

was evidence that some rounds were fired while she was lying injured on the floor, the source

added. The victim became the seventh person reportedly murdered in a so-called honour crime

in the country since the beginning of the year, according to judicial and medical sources (Jordan Times 04/10/2007).

More than once experts[1] stressed that it was impossible to make generalizations in relation to honor crimes, but I found there were statements that came up time and again throughout the interview process. "These things happen in certain areas, among certain people. Usually the poor overcrowded places where word of mouth travels quickly; usually its uneducated people, unemployed mostly." Nonetheless, there are those who commit honor crimes where people can't believe they would. In one case a woman had decided to divorce her husband, so she sought the advice of an NGO. The social worker told her to give her husband a deadline of June 21st and if he didn’t agree to her demands, then to divorce him. The woman went home and repeated what she had been told to her husband. On the night of the 20th he bludgeoned her to death with a hammer. "He's a nice man. No criminal records and never in a fight on the street, so dealing with domestic violence is difficult."[2]

Nadia Shamrukh, executive director of the Jordanian Women's Union, expressed the opinion that these girls came from a family where there was "usually a history of violence." Girls whose families murder them are also in her view girls with a "bad reputation," and it may be a family’s last resort after less severe disciplinary actions to cleanse the family honor.[3]While this may be true of some cases there are many others where the woman will be killed for unsubstantiated rumors. "If they want to kill her they won't wait for the forensics report, they will kill her regardless," says Dr. Jahshan of the National Center for Forensic Medicine. In one case a teenage girl was sitting too closely to a male relative visiting from the city when her father came into the room. Seeing the situation he flew into a rage and beat her with a stick. When her suicide was later investigated and in addition to the bullet wound in her right fontal lobe they found bruising on her buttocks and legs her father confessed to beating her, but claimed he had not killed her. It was only after the forensic pathologist told the father that it was next to impossible for a teenage girl to shoot herself on the right side of the head with her left hand that the father confessed. He had been a police officer for a number of years, so he knew she needed residue from the gun on her hand to make it look like a suicide.[4]

There are a growing number of researchers who have begun to question the legitimacy of so-called female suicides. In response Dr. Jahshan stated emphatically "some researchers think we classify honor crimes as suicides, because we don't find it, but I take it as a personal offense to me, because it is my job as forensic pathologist to discover if it is suicide. I can't guarantee that occasional cases don't happen, but I can record them very easily. It's not a significant number." There was a case where the family claimed their daughter was having heart trouble and they could not get her to the hospital before she died. Their neighbor noticed a huge refrigerator truck running all night – They had put her in the truck, and then buried her the next morning. It was not until after the burial that the information got to the authorities, so they exhumed her body and discovered that she had been poisoned.

An estimated 95% of honor crime perpetrators receive the lowest sentencing available, which is between 6 months and 3 years. In the case that the judge is seeking to press for a harder sentence, 15 years to life imprisonment, 99% of the families will drop charges, so that the sentence will be reduced and they can have their sons, fathers, and husbands return home[5]. There has only been one recent case where the defendant received a harsher penalty; a man saw his sister who had run away from home 25 years previously. He went home and told his 20 year old son what she had done to the family and that he should go kill her for the family's honor. The young man got 10 years imprisonment for committing manslaughter[6].
Jweideh Women's Prison holds 30 to 40 women in protective custody who are seen to be at possible risk of an honor crime, in addition to convicted criminals. It is currently the only service in Jordan available to protect victims, but most advocates do not believe there is any legal ground for these forced detainments and a coalition has been formed to find a solution. Eva Abu Halaweh sees it as just being "easier to put victims in prison [when they should] try to put the father or brother in [prison]."[7] Others see this as impossible since they are threatened by the entire family so the 1953 Preventative Law, which is only used through an administrative decision, is the best protection available[8].

"This is a terrible issue. You know I'm a practitioner, so I examined a case

at 1am and a very nice woman police officer was talking with me. I ask after

my examination where are you taking her – she started crying- Not the woman,

the police officer! 'I don't know.' So if you don't have a choice, I'm not giving it

a reason, but at the same time we need to be realistic. I know if she stays with

her father and family she is at risk of being killed. So this is the only choice they

have, so they use it […] It is completely wrong to detain them, but if you don't

have a choice and you are in the middle of a problem a decision need to be taken."[9]

In another case a young girl had been raped when she was 14 by three men. A case was filed against them and they were sentenced to life imprisonment. When she was 17 she fell in love with her neighbor who was in his early twenties and he asked to marry her in the traditional way. His family visited her family and got the marriage contract signed and the wedding ceremony would be a few weeks later. Her new husband knew she was not a virgin, but after his family found out they wanted him to divorce her. He decided he would not and they ran away together. Legally they were married, but culturally they were not. After 3 weeks the police found her and she was examined for having sex with her husband. The governor decided to place her in Jweideh for her protection and for three weeks her family tried to get her out. Finally two uncles convinced the governor's office, they signed the papers and she was released. When she got out her father was waiting for her in the car and they all went to the family home for a celebration lunch. Afterwards he took her to the park and shot her.[10]

It is because of cases like these that the state continues to hold victims in detention. 90% of parents who bail their daughters out of Jewaideh do so with the intention of killing them.[11] Advocates are desperately pressing for the completion of a shelter to house these women, so that they do not have to suffer the indignity of being in prison and they also have the right to stay for as long as they feel they need the protection, regardless of their family's wishes. In the Sharia, if a woman needs to stay in a shelter (traditionally the tribal chief's house) her husband has no law over her and she is free to come and go at her will. In much more conservative countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq there are numerous shelters for women who are in need[12].

[1] During my ethnographic period fourteen individuals were interviewed in addition to attending the kick-off for the 16 Day Campaign against Gender Based Violence, a short play performed by the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation, Performing Arts Center on domestic violence, and a tour of Dar Al-Wefaq Al-Usaree, the state’s pending women’s shelter.
[2] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview, 12/03
[3] Nadia Shamrukh Interview, 11/29
[4] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview, 12/03
[5] Rana Husseini Interview, 12/01
[6] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview, 12/03
[7] Eva Abu Halaweh Interview, 11/29
[8] Enaam Asha Interview, 12/01
[9] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview, 12/03
[10] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview, 12/03
[11] Rana Husseini Interview, 12/01
[12] Dr. Hani Jahshan Interview