SOK Research

Rebecca Galea AH1B

Honour Killings
Human Rights Watch defines "honour killings" as follows:
Honour killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family
members against female family members, who are held to have brought
dishonour upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her
family for a variety of reasons, including:
- refusing to enter into an arranged marriage,
- being the victim of a sexual assault,
- seeking a divorceeven from an abusive husband
- or (allegedly) committing adultery.
The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonours" her
family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.
Although rarely, men can also be the victims of honour killings by members of
the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate
relationship. The loose term "honour killing" applies to killing of both men and
women in cultures that practice it.
Some women who bridge social divides, publicly engage other communities, or
adopt some of the customs or the religion of an outside group may be attacked.
In countries that receive immigrants, some otherwise low-status immigrant men
and boys have asserted their dominant patriarchal status by inflicting honor
killings on female family members who have participated in public life, for
example, in feminist and integration politics.
General characteristics
The distinctive nature of honor killings is the collective nature of the crime many members of an extended family plan the act together, sometimes through
a formal "family council". Another significant feature is the connection of honour
killings to the control of womens behaviour, in particular in regard to
sexuality/male interaction/marriage, by the family as a collective. Another key
aspect is the importance of the reputation of the family in the community, and
the stigma associated with losing social status, particularly in tight-knit
communities. Another characteristic of honor killings is that the perpetrators
often don't face negative stigma within their communities, because their
behaviour is seen as justified.
Extent
The incidence of honour killings is very difficult to determine and estimates vary
widely. In most countries data on honour killings is not collected systematically,
and many of these killings are reported by the families
as suicides or accidents and registered as such. Although honour killings are
often associated with the Asian continent, especially the Middle
East and South Asia, they occur all over the world. In 2000, the United
Nations estimated that 5,000 women were victims of honor killings each year.
According to BBC, "Women's advocacy groups, however, suspect that more than
20,000 women are killed worldwide each year." Murder is not the only form of

SOK Research

Rebecca Galea AH1B

honour crime, other crimes such as acid attacks, abduction, mutilations, beatings
occur; in 2010 the UK police recorded at least 2,823 such crimes.
Methods
Methods of killing include stoning, stabbing, beating, burning, beheading,
hanging, throat slashing, lethal acid attacks, shooting and strangulation. The
murders are sometimes performed in public to warn the other women within the
community of possible consequences of engaging in what is seen as illicit
behaviour.
Use of minors as perpetrators
Often, minor girls and boys are selected by the family to act as the killers, so that
the killer may benefit of the most favourable legal outcome. Boys and sometimes
women in the family are often asked to closely control and monitor the behaviour
of their sisters or other females in the family (there are also few cases of men or
boys being killed in the name of 'honour', to ensure that the females do not do
anything to tarnish the 'honour' and 'reputation' of the family. The boys are
often asked to carry out the murder, and if they refuse, they may face serious
repercussions from the family and community for failing to perform their duty".
Forced suicide as a substitute
A forced suicide may be a substitute for an honor killing. In this case, the family
members do not directly kill the victim themselves, but force him or her to
commit suicide, in order to avoid punishment. Such suicides are reported to be
common in South Eastern Turkey, Iraq and Iran. It was reported that in 2001, 565
women lost their lives in honor-related crimes in Islam, Iran, of which 375 were
reportedly staged as self-immolation. In 2008, self-immolation, "occurred in all
the areas of Kurdish settlement (in Iran), where it was more common than in
other parts of Iran". It is claimed that in Iraqi Kurdistan, many deaths are
reported as "female suicides" in order to conceal honor-related crimes.
Restoring honor through a forced marriage
In the case of an unmarried girl associating herself with a man, losing virginity,
or being raped, the family may attempt to restore its 'honour' with a 'shotgun
wedding'. The groom will usually be the man who has 'dishonoured' the girl, but
if this is not possible the family may try to arrange a marriage with another man,
often a man who is part of the extended family of the one who has committed
the acts with the girl. This being an alternative to an honor killing, the girl has no
choice but to accept the marriage. The family of the man is expected to
cooperate and provide a groom for the girl.

Nujood Ali
Nujood Ali (born 1998) is a central figure in Yemen's movement against forced
marriage and child marriage. At the age of ten, she obtained a divorce, breaking
with the tribal tradition. In November 2008, U.S. women's magazine Glamour
designated Nujood Ali and her lawyer Shada Nasser as Women of the Year. Ali's

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Rebecca Galea AH1B

courage was praised by prominent women including Hillary Clinton and

Condoleezza Rice.
Ali's lawyer Shada Nasser, born in 1964, is a feminist and specialist in human
rights, whose involvement in Ali's case received much acclaim. Ali has also
written a book together with Delphine Minoui called: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and
Divorced.
Nujood Ali was nine when her parents arranged a marriage to Faez Ali Thamer, a
man in his thirties. Regularly beaten by her in-laws and raped by her husband, Ali
escaped on April 2, 2008, two months after the wedding. On the advice of her
father's second wife, she went directly to court to seek a divorce. After waiting
for half a day, she was noticed by a judge, Mohammed al-gadha, who took it
upon himself to give her temporary refuge, and had both her father and husband
taken into custody.
Shada Nasser agreed to defend Ali. For the lawyer, it was the continuation of a
struggle begun with the installation of her practice in Sana'a, which she opened
in the 1990s as the first Yemeni law office headed by a woman. She built her
clientele by offering services to female prisoners.
Yemeni law allows girls of any age to wed, but it forbids sex with them until an
indefinite time when they are considered "suitable for sexual intercourse." In
court, Nasser argued that Alis marriage violated the law, since she was raped.
Ali rejected the judge's proposal of resuming living with her husband after a
break of three to five years. On April 15, 2008,[7] the court granted her a
divorce.
After the trial, Ali rejoined her family in a suburb of Sana'a. She returned to
school in the fall of 2008 with plans to become a lawyer. Ali's memoirs were
published in 2009, and royalties from international sales of the book were
intended to pay for her schooling; but she did not attend school regularly.[9]
Because of negative world press coverage about Yemen resulting from the case,
Ali's passport was confiscated in March 2009 and she was prevented from
attending the ceremonies for the Women's World Award in Vienna, Austria. Media
reports also questioned whether proceeds from the book were in fact coming to
the family.
In 2010, Ali's family was living in a new two-story residence bought with the help
of her French publisher and running a grocery store on the ground floor of the
building. At this time, Ali and her younger sister were attending private school
full-time. Because the publishers were not able to pay Ali directly under Yemeni
law, they agreed to give $1000 a month to her father until she was 18 to provide
for her and her education.
The English-language version of the memoir was published in March, 2010.
Introducing the work, New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof praised
the work done to raise awareness regarding such societal problems as terrorism,
associated with polygamy and child marriage, saying, "little girls like Nujood may
prove more effective than missiles at defeating terrorists." Indeed, publicity
surrounding Ali's case is said to have inspired efforts to annul other child
marriages, including that of an eight-year-old Saudi girl who was allowed to

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Rebecca Galea AH1B

divorce a middle-aged man in 2009, after her father had forced her to marry him
the year before in exchange for about $13,000.
In 2013 Ali reported to the media that her father had forced her out of their
home, and has withheld most of the money paid by the publishers. Her father
has also arranged a marriage for her younger sister, Haifa. He used the money
earmarked for Ali's education to buy two new wives for himself, and, according to
haaretz.com, sold Haifa into marriage with a much older man. Ali's ex-husband
only pays her $30 a month alimony.
As of June 2015, Ali, now sixteen, has unofficially changed her name from
Nujood, which means "hidden," to Nojoom, which means "stars in the sky."