Woman Murdered by Relatives to “Maintain Family Honor”

[oberliner]

The Palestinian Centre for Human (PCHR) condemns in the strongest possible terms the murder of a woman in Rafah on Tuesday 3 June, allegedly to maintain “the honor” of her family. PCHR calls for the perpetrators of all so called ‘Honour Crimes’ to be rigorously prosecuted, and for appropriate legal action to be taken in order to end such crimes.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 23:50 on Tuesday, 3 June 2008, the body of Khouloud Mohammed al-Najjar, age 32, was brought to the Martyr Mohammed Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Her bruised and bloody corpse was transferred to the Forensic Medicine Department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

According to police sources, a police patrol arrived at the house of Mohammed Hussein al-Najjar, in the al-Brazil neighborhood of southern Rafah late on the evening of 3 June, as the police had been informed of a murder at the house. A police officer discovered the body of Khouloud Mohammed al-Najjar, and the police immediately transported the body to the local hospital. Her father, Mohammed Hussein al-Najjar, was arrested, and during questioning he apparently confessed that his daughter having died as a result of having been severely beaten by members of her family for her “immoral behavior.”

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/55-2008.html

[silverojo]

1. Crimes like this should be punished by death

There's no rehabilitating people like this. No matter what your society says, nobody with any shred of humanity could bear doing this to their own flesh and blood.

[oberliner]

2. 2-3 years in custody certainly seems pretty lax

From the article:

The perpetrators of these crimes enjoy virtual immunity as they are sentenced to short periods of imprisonment, not usually exceeding 3 civil years (which results in approximately 24 months in custody).

[notfullofit]

10. Lock 'em up and throw away the key. nt

[Vegasaurus]

5. Except that it is an acceptable cultural practice

and people can do and do do this to their own flesh and blood.

[azurnoir]

11. Acceptable to whom? n/t

[pelsar]

15. obviously

to the families/cultures/religious leaders that do it ......and they are found in quite a few places.....

[azurnoir]

17. Which families /cultures/religious leaders

where are they found? Canada, Mexico? Nice nonspecific answer though.

[oberliner]

18. Here are the countries indicated in a 2002 UN report on honor killings

"The report of the Special Rapporteur ... concerning cultural practices in the family that are violent towards women (E/CN.4/2002/83), indicated that honor killings had been reported in Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries, and that they had also taken place in such countries as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing#Locations

Wikipedia links to the PDF of the report from the United Nations from where this information is cited.

[azurnoir]

3. Horrible

Her own father and other relatives killed her?

I wonder what the "immoral behavior" was, holding hands in public, something as "extreme" as that?:sarcasm:

[LeftishBrit]

4. A truly horrible crime!

www.stophonorkillings.com

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Whew! Fundy Muslims *are* worse than fundy Jews! nt

[oberliner]

7. It is not a competition

Violence against women continues to be a major problem around the world, often under the guise of religion, but frequently simply because people can get away with it.

From the honor killings documented by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, to the UN report on Peacekeepers who have been sexually abusing young girls, to the "modesty patrol" spilling acid on an Israel teenager, to the forced "marriages" of girls in the Warren Jeffs cult, to the domestic violence against women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and on and on.

As this is the I/P forum, our attention is focused on how these crimes manifest themselves in that region.

Thankfully, there are Palestinian groups who document and speak out against the crime of "honor killings."

I see no reason to turn it into some sort of "who is worse than whom" game between Palestinians and Israelis (or Muslims and Jews).

[ProgressiveMuslim]

12. Nor do I.

But it sure came up fast in the "throwing acid" thread....

[oberliner]

13. Only after someone compared Israelis to the Taliban

Certainly the Haredim and the Taliban are not the only two groups that have issues when it comes to the rights of women.

But that aside, I think we progressives ought to work together to shine a light on any acts of violence committed against women anywhere in the world.

It is a major problem, and, in my opinion, it is one that more energy ought to be devoted to improving.

[notfullofit]

14. All humanity should denounce this kind of atrocity. nt

[Vegasaurus]

16. And these atrocities should not be excused due to cultural relativity

Non-western atrocities such as this are not OK, just because they are non-Western.

Violence against women is horrific across the globe, and often overlooked or excused because they are due to cultural norms.

We must, as progressives, champion human rights for all people, even if societies accept these practices.

[azurnoir]

19. Are you refering to this comment

Didn't the Taliban do this ? n/t

As the one who made the comment that is now claimed to have compared every Israeli or all of Israel to the Taliban. I find the continued response just a bit hysterical, exaggerated, not to mention purposefully disingenuous and being used to distract from an embarrassing episode.

The comment said nothing of Israel or Israelis in general, the incidents of the Taliban doing this are the most well publicized and it was the first that came to mind.

[oberliner]

20. What was the intent behind asking "Didn't the Taliban do this?"

Clearly, it was a rhetorical question, since, as you state above, the incidents of the Taliban doing this are well-publicized.

To be clear, the actions of those who spilled acid on that girl are criminal and hopefully the perpetrators will receive due punishment.

The Haredim (and others) in Israel (and elsewhere) have serious issues with regards to the rights of women and actions such as what was done by the self-proclaimed "modesty police" ought to be condemned.

That said, I do not understand what the point of a rhetorical question about the Taliban is, other than to suggest an analogous relationship between that organization and the Israelis who committed this crime.

Bringing in a hyperbolic comparison to the Taliban does more to distract from this embarrassing episode than reacting to such an analogy.

It is similar to asking the rhetorical question "Didn't the Nazis do this?" in response to some incident of Israel promoting positive propaganda about itself.

The Nazis and (more recently) the Taliban have sort of come to represent the embodiment of evil and intolerance in the modern world. Dropping them unnecessarily into these discussions seems like a rhetorical tactic designed to create linkage between Israeli society and these nearly universally condemnable ones.

[azurnoir]

21. A rhetorical tactic?

Much unlike the claim that by simply making a that comment I supposedly condemned all of Israel?

Then you throw in for good measure the Nazis?

Dropping them unnecessarily? I can understand why no Nazi references, but this is a casual board, no one is here for the purpose of spreading propaganda for either side of the conflict, are they?

There was no ulterior motive in the comment except those that others chose to read into it, for IMHO the sole purpose of distraction from the actual subject of OP in that thread and the fact that apparently embarrassing fact there are Jewish "Modesty Police" albeit they are a small minority, that act in a similar way to there Muslim counterparts

Sir you may have been better to have condemned the act it self, which Sir you failed to do.

[notfullofit]

22. Therein lies the difference

your quote 'Jewish "Modesty Police" albeit they are a small minority, that act in a similar way to there Muslim counterparts'

'Jewish Modesty Police' are a SMALL minority of Israelis and not their culture.

Their counterparts are not a small minority, not even a majority, it is ALL of them (the Taliban) and it is their culture.

[azurnoir]

23. Thanx for backing my point

about the minority of Jews, but are you claiming that this is a Muslim practice or just the Taliban, I do not quite get your point with that one, as no one said anything different.

[notfullofit]

24. I believe

it is a practice of the fundamentalist Muslims, however I am not fully 'edificated' on the subject.

Trying to educate myself on the religion of Islam is very difficult, there are so many variants, opinions and contradictions on the internet it gets very confusing at times.

[Violet_Crumble]

26. I hate to be blunt here, but who gives a fuck if it's a minority...

Even if there's only five religious nutters running around attacking women for not being all religiously modest and stuff, that's five women-hating morons too many as far as I'm concerned. I don't give a shit if they're Israeli or Palestinian, they're all as bad as each other...

When it comes to culture, the Haredi are part of the culture of Israel, just like the fundy Islamic types are part of the culture of Palestine....

[oberliner]

27. And the fundy Christian types are part of the culture of the USA

Thankfully, the sorts of folks who would shoot at abortion doctors in the USA or would throw acid at young women in Israel are not in the majority in those countries.

Similarly, the sorts of folks who would approve of honor killing as an acceptable practice are not in the majority among the Palestinians either.

[Violet_Crumble]

30. I agree with what you said there....

Most of the religiously based anti-abortion movement in the US sits on a bedrock of contempt for women having equality. To take away their reproductive rights is to assure that women are seen as little more than incubators. I'll just step on the soapbox here and say that imo any feminist in the US who is thinking about voting for McCain because they're annoyed that Hillary didn't get the nomination is a piss weak excuse for a feminist seeing as how they'd be voting for someone who has said they'll nominate judges who'll overturn Roe v Wade...

I also agreed with what you said in an earlier post in this thread about attacks on women not being a competition about which bunch of fundies are worse. Unfortunately I see that one response by another poster to me totally ignores that and appears to be implying that I think that violence towards women, be it honour killings or spraying acid in women's faces, are acceptable cultural practises. They're not. This vent isn't aimed at you, btw. I doubt those few it's aimed at will bother reading or have the ability to comprehend what I'm saying so I'll just plonk it here. Those who take glee in pointing out that fundies of only one religion harbour hatred towards women and see them as property etc, while turning round and making light of the hatred towards women of fundies of other religions by screeching their outrage about the former while claiming the latter isn't as extreme and that fewer do it aren't the slightest bit interested in women who suffer at the hands of fundies. What they're interested in doing is trying to portray the majority of a population as supporting the mistreatment of women and they're not particularly bothered by whether it's true or not. You'll never see any ideas coming from them as to what steps could be taken to put a stop to abuse of women because they're not really interested in seeing it stop. It provides them with another weapon to add to their arsenal of 'See how evil (insert nationality or religion here) are!!

[oberliner]

31. Some thoughts on your post

I agree with your point about how some folks highlight the various acts of violence against women (such as "honor killings") more to "prove" that certain cultures, nationalities, or religions are "evil" than with an eye towards working to bring an end to the problem of violence against women.

However, I also think it is true that some folks seem not to devote as much attention to the problem of violence against women that one would think such a widespread issue would warrant.

Specifically, anyone who is interested in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict ought to be speaking out against this unfortunate phenomenon that is present to varying degrees among different communities in the region.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza devotes the majority of its reports to criticism directed at Israel. They still take the time, however, to bring attention to human rights violations within Palestinian society - such as the 'honor killings' and the lax punishment meted out for the perpetrators.

Similarly, the issue of violence against women among the Haredim has been discussed openly in the Israeli press and by various Israeli human rights organizations.

Anyone who cares about human rights generally, and their manifestation in this conflict in particular, ought to be bringing these issues out into the light moreso than seems to be happening currently.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

32. Most estimate that 1/4 of the women in the US experience domestic violence.

What's that? Upwards of 25 million women?

Violence against women is indeed a worldwide phenom, and it exists in hideous forms here in the good o' US of A.

The problem, Oberliner, in what you're saying, is that the stats about Arab women, are generally used by westerners, not to aid those women, but to demonize Arab men. So I would warrant that the best advocates for Arab women, are not Arab-despising Israeli supporters. Western efforts to help the "plight" of Arab women often come along with other agendas.

Your concern is obviously genuine. I would advise you to turn your attention to the plight of women in your own country, or in Israel. There is more need than is currently being met. Women's shelters in every state in this union need volunteers.

[oberliner]

34. I think that anyone who cares about Palestinian human rights out to speak out

against so-called honor killings in the West Bank and Gaza.

Silence about this problem or downplaying its significance only serves to allow this behavior to continue.

Domestic violence in the US is a major issue. As is the violence against women going on throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world.

As this particular topic forum is focused on I/P, discussion about the treatment of women in the region is relevant to the conversation.

Just because there is plenty of work to be done in the US does not preclude Americans from discussing the issue as its manifests itself elsewhere.

There is plenty of racism against Arabs in the United States, but racism against Arabs in Israel is still a valid topic for discussion in a forum such as this one.

Progressives who support the Palestinian cause ought to be the loudest voices speaking out against 'honor killings' and other acts of violence against women among Palestinians, in my humble opinion.

I commend groups like the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza for their commitment to bringing this issue into the light.

[Vegasaurus]

35. And deflecting attention

("Look over here" Americans beat their wives too") does not minimize the human rights abuses in the middle east.

They don't go away, just because some people don't want to talk about them.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

36. Do you acknowledge that "haters" use Arab women to demonize Arab men?

Can you at least recognize that the dynamic I'm describing exists, and that it complicates matters?

[notfullofit]

37. Psychological Analyses of the Arab Male Psyche

I came across this article by Dr. D. Gutman of Columbia Univ. Dept. Psychiatry


It is often asserted that the changes set in train by modernization are particularly toxic to the Arabs. No doubt this is true. But if we are going to be therapeutic, our diagnoses need to be more specific; we need to identify the particular pathogens that are released by modernization.

Besides sharpening their sense of inferiority relative to the West, modernization threatens to bring about the liberation of women (as in Afghanistan and Iraq). I say "threatens," because the self-esteem of Arab males is in large part predicated on the inferior position of their women.
The Arab nations have for the most part lost their slaves and dhimmis, the subject peoples onto whose persons the stigmata of shame could be downloaded. But anyone who has spent time among them knows that Arab males have not lost their psychological need for social and sexual inferiors. In the absence of slaves and captive peoples, Arab women are elected for the special role of the inferior who, by definition, lacks honor. Arab men eradicate shame and bolster their shaky self-esteem by imposing the shameful qualities of the dhimmi, submission and passivity, upon women. Trailing a humbled woman behind them, Arab men can walk the walk of the true macho man.

Hence the relative lack of material achievement by Arabs: the Arab world has stunted the female half of its brain pool, while the men acquire instant self-esteem not by real accomplishment, but by the mere fact of being men, rather than women. No wonder, then, that the Arab nations feel irrationally threatened by the very existence of Israel. Like America, the Jews have brought the reality of the liberated woman into the very heart of the Middle East, into dar al-Islam itself. Big Satan and Little Satan: the champions of Muslim women.

I contend that female liberation is the most hopeful development in the Middle East, greater even than the first stirrings of democracy. I believe that Arab women have a greater stake in liberal democracy than Arab men, and as they acquire political power, they will fight for it. As for suicide bombings, jihadism and the macho posturing of Arab men, they are desperate remedies against further humiliation, against the perceived threat of “castration,” by their own women.

Until Arab women achieve freedom and independence, we can expect, at least for awhile, to see Arab men cling to these remedies

[azurnoir]

38. Could you provide some additional citation

for this "article", I Googled the "author" and came up with this

Dr. David Gutman is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director of Psychopharmacology, Columbia University Medical Center Eastside.

Dr. Gutman received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his medical degree from New York University, and was a resident and chief resident in psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. He then completed a three-year research fellowship at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute where he worked on neurophysiological systems underlying anxiety disorders and deception with PET, fMRI, and physiological markers. Since then Dr. Gutman has also served as the Associate Director of the Columbia Presbyterian Inpatient Unit.

http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu/facdb/profile_list.asp?uni=dg170&DepAffil=Psychiatry

His specialty seems to be the physical causes of psychological disorders, perhaps cultural profiling is a sideline for him.

[oberliner]

39. I think you've got the wrong guy

I think the David Gutmann in question is actually a psychology professor at Northwestern University Medical School who writes for a bunch of conservative magazines and websites.

[azurnoir]

40. apparently then so did you

as I cut and pasted the info I googled from your post, yep I am that lazy

Dr. D. Gutman of Columbia Univ. Dept. Psychiatry

[oberliner]

41. That was not my post

I'm only trying to help.

[azurnoir]

42. Oh so sorry

the words never assume apply here. I will look up the other guy, when I looked at published works there were 2 other MD's with the same name one was I think a maxilla /facial surgeon and the other a hematologist/oncologist, still I find an MD with that bigoted a view disturbing.

[LeftishBrit]

44. I think you're right...

he's done a lot of work on the psychology of aging. I'm not really familiar with his work; but he seems to take a psychoanalytical approach, which I'm afraid arouses all my prejudices as an experimental psychologist!

As regards the article, it seems simplistic to me. In my view, oppression of women is one of the hallmarks of all forms or right-wing, traditionalist/reactionary society. Most Arab states are right-wing and traditionalist or reactionary; therefore oppression of women is common in such states. But it's a mistake to assume that this is something special to Arab culture; it is something special to *right-wing* culture, and was almost universal until comparatively recently.


As I think you've stated, it's important to fight against oppression and violence against women everywhere! We must never excuse such violence as 'part of people's culture', or regards right-wing Middle Eastern states as progressive just because they oppose Bush - but we must also not regard 'enemies' as having a worse culture than similarly right-wing 'allies', or build up the right wing anywhere

[pelsar]

45. oppression of women is not a "right wing" culture....

i know quite a few on the right side of the line and they're views are quite liberal when it comes to individual rights, etc. Their right wing view comes in when it comes to nation states, generalizations about cultures etc.....but to say the oppression of women is some kind of "right wing tradition....i think your way off.

the oppression comes from traditional societies......and religious ones. Both will argue obviously that its the opposite, but then you get into a value system....and most of us here tend to go with the western democratic values, which transcends right or left.

[LeftishBrit]

46. I was referring to a much more global sort of right-wing attitude than I think you were

As far as I can gather, in Israel, 'right-wing' usually means mainly 'hawkish on defence'. It does not necessarily imply right-wing attitudes at a deep cultural level. On the whole, Likud members are not into forcing people into traditional social roles (good grief, can't believe I'm defending the Likud over anything!).

In Britain and elsewhere, 'right-wing' often means merely 'economically right-wing'. Again, this is not as all-encompassing as what I mean.

By 'right-wing culture', I mean cultures which insist that the traditionally or currently strong and powerful should remain so; should have a right to tread on weaker, less powerful people; and that less powerful people should not be uppity and challenge this right of the more powerful. This is often but not always associated with religious justification for the rights of the powerful to remain so, and a lack of separation between church/mosque/etc. and state. The powerful may be the white; the rich; the hereditary upper classes; etc.; etc.; and the right of males to keep their power over females is usually included.

It occurs to me now that 'authoritarian' might possibly be a better term than 'right-wing' - though even that may not include everything that I mean.



'the oppression comes from traditional societies......and religious ones.'

I think this is generally true - though some such societies are not so much traditional (keeping to old paths) as reactionary (returning to what they believe to old paths). And some right-wing/ authoritarian societies, notably the Fascist ones, invented their own ideology, rather than using traditional religion.

'most of us here tend to go with the western democratic values, which transcends right or left.'

When you say 'here', do you mean 'here on DU' or 'here in Israel'?

I am not sure that western democratic values do fully transcend right or left. I think that the EXTREME right is excluded, because this is undemocratic in its basic tendency: it considers that significant proportions of a population should be excluded from many rights. Moreover: although such values are probably commoner in the West than outside it, there is a significant undemocratic authoritarian contingent in most western societies, and sometimes this has come to power;again, Fascism was a horrific example.


ETA: part of where I'm coming from, is my concern and shock over the suggestions of Mark Steyn and others that Europe and America should fight against the theocratic oppressiveness of Islamism by becoming more RW, theocratic and oppressive itself. E.g. that Europe is declining and ripe for cultural conquest by Islamists because evil feminism is preventing women from having enough Europaean babies.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

43. Is that like the "Jewish male psyche?"

Something about domineering mothers?

Shocking to see racial trash coming out of Ivy League profs, isn't it?

[Vegasaurus]

33. Or the violence against women and human rights violation in the middle east

are not discussed openly by progressives.

It happens all the time.

[notfullofit]

28. UK 17,000 women just tip of the iceberg of 'brutal ancient custom'

The Independent (UK) says as many as 17,000 women are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.

And official figures on forced marriages are the tip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest.

The crisis, with children as young as 11 having been sent abroad to be married, has prompted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to call on British consular staff in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to take more action to identify and help British citizens believed to be the victims of forced marriages in recent years.

The Home Office is drawing up an action plan to tackle honour-based violence which "aims to improve the response of police and other agencies" and "ensure that victims are encouraged to come forward with the knowledge that they will receive the help and support they need". And a Civil Protection Bill coming into effect later this year will give courts greater guidance on dealing with forced marriages.

Commander Steve Allen, head of ACPO's honour-based violence unit, says the true toll of people falling victim to brutal ancient customs is "massively unreported" and far worse than is traditionally accepted. "We work on a figure which suggests it is about 500 cases shared between us and the Forced Marriage Unit per year," he said: "If the generally accepted statistic is that a victim will suffer 35 experiences of domestic violence before they report, then I suspect if you multiplied our reporting by 35 times you may be somewhere near where people's experience is at." His disturbing assessment, made to a committee of MPs last week, comes amid a series of gruesome murders and attacks on British women at the hands of their relatives.

Marilyn Mornington, a district judge and chair of the Domestic Violence Working Group, warned that fears of retribution, and the authorities' failure to understand the problem completely, meant the vast majority of victims were still too scared to come forward for help. In evidence to the home affairs committee, which is investigating the problem, she said: "We need a national strategy to identify the large number of pupils, particularly girls, missing from school registers who have been taken off the register and are said to be home schooled, which leads to these issues. Airport staff and other staff need to be trained to recognise girls who are being taken out of the country.

"We are bringing three girls a week back from Islamabad as victims of forced marriage. We know that is the tip of the iceberg, but that is the failure end. It has to be part of education within the communities and the children themselves."

Women who have been taken overseas to be married against their will are now being rescued on an almost daily basis. The Government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) handled approximately 400 cases last year – 167 of them leading to young Britons being helped back to the UK to escape unwanted partners overseas. And it is not just women who are affected. Home Office figures show that 15 per cent of cases involve men and boys.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/a-question-of-honour-police-say-17000-women-are-victims-every-year-780522.html

[Vegasaurus]

29. Except that there may be five crazy Haredis to every 500 or 1000 fundy

Islamic types.

It isn't an even exchange between the two, and I would venture to guess that, throughout the middle east, there are fundy Islamic types who practice honor killing and other women-hating behavior at a rate that's probably 100 times what the Haredi do (and nutty as they are, they don't murder their women for hand holding).

It all should be condemned, but having it be an acceptable cultural practice does not make it an acceptable practice.

[oberliner]

25. My apologies

Clearly, I misunderstood your intention.

Let's work together to ensure that violence against women is eradicated across the Middle East, and, ideally, the world.

[Sezu]

8. Given the wink and the nod given to this kind of thing in

most muslim states, one could assume then that the vast majority are "fundies."

[notfullofit]

9. Barbaric. nt