Here is my letter to the editor of the Jordan Times:
Jordanian men of true honor, arise. It is time for you to take charge and make change commensurate in reflecting modern Jordan in modern civilization.
If you don’t, Jordanian women of honor will be the pace-setters for ushering Jordan into the 21st century of human rights. History will remember you as cowards who were controlled by fits of fury rather than true honor: hiding behind archaic laws that allow the use of violent domination to ‘punish’ and provoke fear in the the females you were called to protect and cherish. Shame on those who perpetuate these barbaric practices, from Parliament to parlor; whether by act or complicit silence.
Women such as Rana Husseini, Asma Khader and Nermeen Murad in her op/ed piece today will be the heros, not you. I am sick to death of having to read about so-called crimes of honor, where fathers and sons are given a cultural pass for beating their women to death over make-up and gossip. I am sick to death of Jordan’s world-wide identity being tied to so-called ‘honor killings’.
Men of honor, you are there, but your voices are not loud enough. Make it a big enough priority to change. You have tarried too long, it is time to act.
March 24, 2009 at 3:37 pm |
hmm, technically it is a ‘legal pass’ as opposed to a ‘cultural pass’… I am sure that if they treat these murders as what they ar, murder, not only would the rate of such crimes decrease but the mentality that condones such acts will also start to fade.
March 24, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
hope it gets published!!!
March 24, 2009 at 5:45 pm |
Very well said Kinzi! It is really shameful that we are letting those crimes take place. We need to address all of the media address. Let them all raise their voices and speak up. It is time to put an end to this law.
March 24, 2009 at 6:54 pm |
And why are you calling Jordanian men to the rescue? honor killing is a law that was approved by the King and can only be overturned by the King. do you think this is a democracy?
Why don’t you people get it? only the King can stop honor killing laws. This is the King’s parliament. The King’s Senate. Why do you keep rallying the wrong troops? Do you want Jordanian Men of Honor to carry torches and march on the Royal Court? Why are you lecturing to the wrong audience? let me repeat: Jordanian Men of Honor, as you call them, can’t change any laws let alone fight honor killing laws.
but I did get a kick out of your Jordanian Men of Honor speech. I feel like we are still in the middle ages.
March 24, 2009 at 8:38 pm |
@Susu — perhaps that is true, but in a society where cultural pressure can have even more impact on individuals than the law, kinzi is justified in haraaming these men into action. If the male leaders of the community rise up and say, “This is disgusting, this is shameful, this is immoral, and we will not stand for it,” there is a better chance that we will see a decrease in the number of “honor killings” in Jordan. How many men would stop beating their wives, or brothers stop hunting down (and brutally murdering) their “immoral” sisters if a sheikh or imam said it wasn’t right?
Hope to see you published!
March 24, 2009 at 8:43 pm |
loolt, good point! It got me to think: in my mind, murder of family should carry greater punishment, not less, to reflect teh broken trust of intimate relationships.
T, me too! Thanks for getting us started. We need to keep the momentum going.
Observer, I think we need to resurrect that idea we emailed about some months ago. Thanks for being a man of honor.
Susu, well, as a guest in Jordan I have much to learn about how things work, officially and unofficially. Maybe you’d like to rally those troops?
Glad you enjoyed my soap-box moment, I think you can tell I have watched LOTR too many times. (welcome to the blog, btw)
March 24, 2009 at 10:10 pm |
Well said, Well said.
Remember, they are all businesses, do not expect them to what do what’s supposed to be done instead of what makes their papers sell, plus the last thing these people want is a bad reputation, I am pretty sure their sales will dramatically drop if the Imams at Friday prayers start accusing them of working against the sharia laws.
March 24, 2009 at 10:13 pm |
Sharon, you will never abolish crimes of passion or honor. This has nothing to do with culture or progress. It has everything to do with law. In US, crimes of honor (aka passion) happen all the time. Just because a spouse or lover does the murder it does not make it more civilized. so let’s get that straight. But what matters is how the law treats these crimes. in Jordan, for example, the King has decided that it’s OK for men to kill their women over honor and get off with a light slap on the hand.
As for fundamentalist Islam, before you make uneducated statements, please do some research. the muslim religious establishment has always been against honor killing, b’cause it’s unislamic. The strict Sahri’a muslim laws do not differentiate between men and women when it comes “honor” or “passion” murders, and only the state can administer punishment and determine guilt or innocence. As a matter of fact, in a purely fundamentalist society, if a man kills his sister over honor, or a husband his wife, the man will be charged with murder.
when the murder rate for honor killing is less than 20 per year in Jordan, I hardly call that a phenomena. It’s tragic nevertheless. Americans with the help of Western NATO kill hundreds of Muslim women every year allover the world and you don’t even blink. You are the least qualified people to tell us how we should treat our women.
March 25, 2009 at 4:51 am |
[...] rally and denounce “this evil slaughter of Jordan’s daughters”. She has written a letter to the editor of the Jordanian Times and is hoping to encourage others to do so. Apparently in [...]
March 25, 2009 at 9:01 am |
I couln’t have said it better myself. You’re a brave soul Khalto!
March 25, 2009 at 9:33 am |
Nizar, thanks. My letter wasn’t printed (way too harsh, I know), but another reader’s was today. I have a comment about your last point but think it best not printed.
Tarab, thanks for your opinion, but I COMPLETELY disagree. Hers were not uneducated statements. Rinse-and-repeat blame-shifting is not going to solve this problem. I encourage you to add your passion and articulate manner to the cause here, instead of arguing points of causation.
Isobel, thanks for the link!!
March 25, 2009 at 11:40 am |
@Tarab — I don’t recall ever saying that this is about Islam; I’m sorry you inferred that from my comments. The only reason I mentioned imams is because, for many people in JO (a country that is predominately Muslim), they are the religious leaders in their communities, people respect them, and if they publicly denounce these actions AND GET INVOLVED WITH MORE THAN JUST WORDS, more ears will perk up. I am realist; even if there is a law written that gives out more severe punishments to those who kill their daughters and sisters in the name of “honor,” honor killings will still happen. That doesn’t stop us from fighting. I fought against domestic abuse in the States, and I will fight against it in the ME. Your accusations against the West tire me; it’s a weak tactic to shift away from the matter at hand.
March 25, 2009 at 11:58 am |
Sharon, I forgot to thank you for your last comment, and this one. I’m thinking it might be time to get the fam across the river, and meet you on the way.
KJ, thank you so much for identifying, I don’t know if I am brave or just angered into carelessness. BUT I would LOVE to see your unique and special mode of communication directed in a blog post, too. You can change our world, KJ.
March 26, 2009 at 3:17 pm |
Alhamdulillah they published a few letters. InshAllah some folks are doing the same thing in the Arabic press.
March 26, 2009 at 9:30 pm |
Um Omar, I am also pleased they published a few letters, (:D). Sadly, as one snarky commenter on another blog mentioned, it’s all foreign women. My husband mentioned that will probably work against the cause, since, you know, we are so subversive. I hope the other ladies like Deena can prove it isn’t just the foreigners spouting off.
I hope there were letters in the Arabic papers. I am very disappointed by the lack of Jordanian male involvement. The silence is sad.
April 2, 2009 at 10:55 am |
[...] things quite now ? well they shouldn’t be. About a week ago or so there was a campaign by kinzi to send letters, messages, and write posts denouncing honor crimes. As usual, I didn’t [...]
April 4, 2009 at 10:13 am |
Just to put things in perspective:
From the 2008 UN Report on Violence Against Women
“Several global surveys suggest that half of all women who die from homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or partners. In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, 40%-70% of female murder victims were killed by their partners.”
http://www.un.org/women/endviolence/docs/VAW.pdf
April 4, 2009 at 11:59 am |
Jawwal, thanks for the link. The additional perspective necessary is that each of those countries HAVE LAWS THAT PUNISH murderers, not allow them to kill with little penalty.
Also as you point out, these women were killed by partners, here it is fathers and brothers. The reasons are different, the result it the same, and there are no laws to prevent it.
April 8, 2009 at 7:59 pm |
[...] Kinzi was among the first to call for Jordanian male bloggers to break their silence about this topic. “You all rose well when it was Gaza. This time, the evil is within our own [...]
April 19, 2009 at 11:11 am |
[...] blogger Kinzi è stata fra i primi a chiedere [in] ai blogger giordani maschi di rompere il silenzio [in] riguardo quest’argomento. “Tutti voi siete insorti a ragione quando si è trattato di [...]
April 23, 2009 at 1:04 am |
[...] ヨルダンの男性ブロガーはだれもこの話題について語らなかったが、Kinziが沈黙を破ろうと呼びかけた。 ガザが相手だったときはみな諸手を挙げて立ち上がった。今回の敵は我々の土地にひそんでいて、ヨルダン人の手により執行された法律のおかげで生きながらえている。罪のないガザの女性には同情したのに、同胞の女性市民はどうでもいいのか？ [...]