A 41-year-old Jordanian man was charged with premeditated murder after his raped teenage niece was shot dead on Tuesday to "cleanse" the family's honour, police said.
"The man was arrested and charged after he shot the 16-year-old girl eight times in different parts of her body," a police source told AFP.
"The suspect, who was arrested while carrying his gun, confessed to the crime, saying that he wanted to cleanse his family's honour after his niece was raped last year."
Honour Killings such as this are met with understandable revulsion here in the West. Fancy murdering the women because she was raped. Murder a victim to restore honour? That does not make sense in the West. In the civilised world.
But then again, we have our own version of honour killings.
In the civilised world, many believe abortion is an acceptable way to resolve an ethical dilemma. Of course, aside from the small point that a life is forcibly terminated, there are far more "acceptable" reasons for not putting such actions in the same category.
Moving back to Jordan, let me finish my story of this brutal crime. The raped women actually became pregnant. She gave birth to a baby boy two months ago and her family kept the child. They supported her and the child in spite of the assault on their "honour". The tragedy of this women's murder becomes more heart rending, knowing her child now has no mother.
Related Link: Honour Killing in Jordan
"The man was arrested and charged after he shot the 16-year-old girl eight times in different parts of her body," a police source told AFP.
"The suspect, who was arrested while carrying his gun, confessed to the crime, saying that he wanted to cleanse his family's honour after his niece was raped last year."
Honour Killings such as this are met with understandable revulsion here in the West. Fancy murdering the women because she was raped. Murder a victim to restore honour? That does not make sense in the West. In the civilised world.
But then again, we have our own version of honour killings.
In the civilised world, many believe abortion is an acceptable way to resolve an ethical dilemma. Of course, aside from the small point that a life is forcibly terminated, there are far more "acceptable" reasons for not putting such actions in the same category.
Moving back to Jordan, let me finish my story of this brutal crime. The raped women actually became pregnant. She gave birth to a baby boy two months ago and her family kept the child. They supported her and the child in spite of the assault on their "honour". The tragedy of this women's murder becomes more heart rending, knowing her child now has no mother.
Related Link: Honour Killing in Jordan
We do indeed have our own versions 'of the devil in them & the need for cleansing' here as well. Although we probably treat the protagonists (those that kill)somewhat more leniently ... like community service, cultural 'training,' .....
ReplyDeleteYes, who needs the defence of provocation? "The devil made me do it" seems very acceptable in the secular world, providing the culturally acceptable "PC" criteria is checked.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure what the sentence should have been; my initial reaction is that I wonder on the exact reasons for the leniency granted.
'executed out of love,' I believe ... I wonder how McNaughton's rule relates to that?
ReplyDelete