Reporter reveals dishonor of killing female kin
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: Womens Enews
A so-called honor killing occurs when a family feels that their female relative has tarnished their reputation by what they loosely term 'immoral behavior.' The person chosen by the family to carry out the murder (usually male: a brother, father, cousin, paternal uncle or husband) brutally ends their female relative's life to cleanse the family of the 'shame' she brought upon them. The title 'honor killing' is ironic in the extreme because these murders, and the manner in which they are carried out, lack any honor whatsoever. It was in my capacity as a journalist writing for The Jordan Times, Jordan's only English-language daily newspaper, that I had the eye-opening encounter with Kifaya's murder, which changed my life forever. Thankfully, despite strict state censorship of the media when I started reporting in the mid-1990s, my courageous editors agreed that the story should be published. The resulting article, published on Oct. 6, 1994, appeared under the headline 'Murder in the name of honor.' (11/10/09)