Reverse Honor Killing

When it comes to honor killings, usually you hear about some poor woman who has been killed for daring to date a man, or not get engaged to whomever her father chose, etc.  This is more of a reverse one.  An Indonesian man in Australia killed his mom's lover because he felt it dishonored his family.  Honestly, I am a bit surprised he didn't kill his mother.

More Problems for Women

The Guardian has a really good article on the problems and violence facing women living in Iraq. One of these problems is honor killings. See my post on honor killings too.

More Rape

ABC's 20/20 showed a segment Friday night about a French boy (age 15) who was raped in Dubai. When he went to the police he was accused of being a homosexual and consenting to the attack.

Analysis: Again, this does not surprise me. See my topic More Sex in the Middle East about honor killings. There have been honor killings when a woman (a virgin) is raped. Even though it's not her fault, she is seen as having lost her honor. For the police in Dubai, it was probably easier to believe that this boy was a homosexual than to prosecute his rape. There will probably be a horrified outcry from the West, which I agree with. But I would like to bring up some of the hypocrisy that goes on as well. How many women who are raped go to the rape trial and end up being asked what they were wearing or how they acted to incite the rapist? I think it has decreased as time goes on, but I remember this being a really big deal in the 1970s and 1980s - that the rape victim was basically on trial. It greatly annoys me when I see people in the US complaining about those horrible Muslims, when they are guilty of similar acts.

More Sex in the Middle East

I don't have any current links for you, but there have been problems in Jordan and Syria with honor killings. If I remember correctly, there are something like a dozen to 20 cases a year of honor killings in these two countries. Usually it happens when a young woman meets a man and either has sex with him, or marries him against her family's wishes. In Islam, a lot of honor revolves around a woman's virginity. So when a woman loses that in a dishonorable manner - whether of her own accord or by rape - there are repercussions, because it reflects badly on the family. To regain their honor, the family must kill her. Many women try to flee when their family finds out, because they fear for their lives. There are even cases where sisters and aunts have helped lure a young woman to her death to help out the family honor. One young woman even went to jail after she fled. I wanted to point this out to illustrate another point in the article on Rape in Saudi Arabia. I believe there's this fear that if men and women mingle, who knows what might be going on, hence the law against mingling. So if someone breaks that law, there may be the feeling that the couple involved were intending to be up to something. Otherwise, why would they break the law? This just further complicates the issue.