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| − | '''Honor killing''' is the barbaric practice of killing a woman, often times by stoning her. The purpose of this practice is to restore a family's "honor" after the woman "dishonored" alleged sexual misconduct. Western [[Christians]], [[Jews]], and [[atheists]] and [[agnostics]] often find the idea that [[rape]] victims are considered to have brought dishonor, though sexual misconduct.
| + | Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? |
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| − | [[Anthropologist]] [[James Emery]] found that, "[[Palestinian]] culture continues to equate the value of a woman's life to her inviolable [[purity]]. Whatever her progress, ancient traditions still engulf her. Should she become the unfortunate victim of rumor or [[rape]], she'll be sacrificed, just as her ancestors who swept across the [[Arabian Desert]] [[sacrifice]]d sheep and other animals in the name of [[honor]] and [[Islam]]."<ref>''World&I'' May 2003, p. 190</ref>
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| − | The practice is especially prevalent in highly traditional societies, ranging from Islamic communities of the [[Middle East]] to Catholic [[Brazil]] and Eastern Orthodox [[Greece]]. When these people migrate to Western Europe or the United States or Canada, they sometimes bring these traditions along or tolerate their fellow immigrants who commit an honor killing.
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| − | Most schools of Islamic [[jurisprudence]] legitimate the killing by the family of a married person caught in the act of [[adultery]]. Under [[Syria]]n law, an honor killing is not murder.<ref>"Honor, Crimes of." in ''Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, law, and politics'' ed. by Suad Joseph, (2005)[http://books.google.com/books?id=4Uyypm6T7ZsC&pg=RA1-PA221&dq=%22Under+Syrian+law,+an+honor+killing+is+not+murder,+and+the+man+who+commits+it+%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false online edition]
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| − | </ref>
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| − | "Mahmud Ahmad Ghazi, director of the International Islamic University in [[Islamabad]], was interviewed in a BBC film on the honor killing of women, in which [[Pakistan]] has established a sad record. Ghazi coldly defended those feudal practices as [[Islam]]ic, an opinion Islamic scholars all over the world mostly dispute." (Pakistan Versus the Last Superpower: A Former U.S. Ally Moves Toward Jihadism and Isolation - World&I magazine, March 2001, Page 296)
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| − | "We know of some women who are pushed to become [[suicide bomber]]s," says Yariv Ovadia, consul for communications and public affairs with the [[Israel]]i Consulate in [[Los Angeles]], California. "If you dishonor your family, you will be killed anyway, so you can save something of your honor by becoming a suicide bomber. (ibid)
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| − | Honor killings are sanctioned in the [[Koran]] ... in Islamic prophetic tradition and law in general, there is a very strong presumption of women’s chastity along with numerous safeguards to prevent any imputation of unchastity. However if that chastity is broken --the Koran and [[Hadith]]s (traditions relating to the life and deeds of [[Muhammad]]) have a strong resolution -death by [[stoning]].
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| − | The [[Kurds]] of northern [[Iraq]] are known to use [[stoning]] to carry out honor killings.<ref>FOX News: [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270111,00.html Video Surfaces Showing Kurdish Girl Stoned to Death for Relationship With Iraqi Sunni Boy] (May 4, 2007)</ref>
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| − | In [[Jordan]], about 20 women are murdered each year in honor killings, sometimes for simply dating a man. Until recently, the Jordanian penal code allowed for "honor" killers to get sentences as lenient as six months. Attempts to apply thougher punishments for these henious crimes are resisted and blocked by the country's Muslim lawmakers.<ref>FOX News: [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246712,00.html Jordanian Shoots Dead 17-Year-Old Daughter in Honor Killing] (January 25, 2007)</ref>
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| − | == Islamic basis of honor killing ==
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| − | In the [[Koran]], it says, "If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four (reliable) witness from amongst you against them; if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them. Or God ordain for them some (other) way." <ref>Koran 4:15 [http://www.searchquran.org/?k=4:11&t=1&h=off&noar=]</ref>
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| − | Sahi Muslim number 4206 says, "There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Ghamid and said: [[Allah]]'s Messenger, I have committed [[adultery]], so purify me... And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they [[Stoning|stoned]] her. Khalid b Walid came forward with a stone which he flung at her head and there spurted blood on the face of Khalid and so he abused her." <ref>Hadith of the holy prophet (may peace be upon him) [http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/017.smt.html#017.4206]</ref>
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| − | ==Honor killings in Europe==
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| − | Police estimate there are a dozen or so honor killings in [[Britain]] annually; even more women are sent back home where their fate is never known.
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| − | [[Germany]] has also seen hideous cases of honor killings. In 2008, in [[Hamburg]], a 16-year-old [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] girl was stabbed 20 times by her 23-year-old brother because "she had become too comfortable with Western life with her uncovered hair, makeup and short skirts."<ref>FOX News: [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358661,00.html Afghan Girl's 'Honor Killing' Sparks Debate in Germany] (May 27, 2008)</ref> In a 2009 case of self-[[censorship]] derived from the 2005 [[Muhammad cartoons controversy]], the German book publisher Droste Verlag canceled a novel about this barbaric practice, in fear that the book would offend the Muslim community and spark violent retaliations.<ref>FOX News: [http://www.foxnews.com/world/2009/10/09/german-publisher-fearing-muslim-retaliation-cancels-honor-killing-novel/ German Publisher, Fearing Muslim Retaliation, Cancels Honor-Killing Novel] (October 9, 2009)</ref>
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| − | ==The Searchers==
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| − | Honor killing has never been tolerated in the U.S., apart from the the lynching of black men accused or raping white women, which was tolerated by some in the era of [[Jim Crow]].
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| − | One of the greatest of all American films deals with the topic. In ''The Searchers'' (1956), Ethan Edwards ([[John Wayne]]), a traditionalistic ex-Confederate, has returned to Texas to discover Comanches have raided his brother's ranch, killing or abducting the family. He tracks his young niece Debbie (Natalie Wood). After a five year search Ethan discovers Debbie has been turned into a squaw and decides to execute her as an honor killing. He is encouraged by some, and denounced by others, especially Debbie's brother Martin Pawley, played by Jeffrey Hunter.
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| − | ==Further reading==
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| − | * Besse, Susan K. "Crimes of Passion: The Campaign against Wife Killing in Brazil, 1910-1940," ''Journal of Social History,'' Vol. 22, No. 4 (Summer, 1989), pp. 653-666 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3787542 in JSTOR]
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| − | * Korteweg, Anna and Yurdakul, Gökçe. "Islam, Gender, and Immigrant Integration: Boundary Drawing in Discourses on Honour Killing in the Netherlands and Germany," ''Ethnic & Racial Studies'' 2009 32(2): 218-238 in [[EBSCO]]
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| − | * Safilios-Rothschild, Constantina. "'Honour' Crimes in Contemporary Greece," ''British Journal of Sociology'', Vol. 20, No. 2 (June 1969), pp. 205-218 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/588531 in JSTOR]
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| − | * Van Eck, Clementine. ''Purified by Blood: Honor Killings amongst Turks in the Netherlands'' (2003) [http://www.questia.com/read/109341020?title=Purified%20by%20Blood%3a%20%20Honour%20Killings%20Amongst%20Turks%20in%20the%20Netherlands online edition]
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| − | * "Honor, Crimes of." in ''Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, law, and politics'' ed. by Suad Joseph, (2005)[http://books.google.com/books?id=4Uyypm6T7ZsC&pg=RA1-PA221&dq=%22Under+Syrian+law,+an+honor+killing+is+not+murder,+and+the+man+who+commits+it+%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false online edition]
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| − | ==See also==
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| − | *[[Violence against women]]
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| − | ==Notes==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | [[Category:Barbaric practices]]
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| − | [[Category:Islam]]
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Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
