Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence

The following article contains content related to sexual/domestic violence that might be traumatizing to some audiences. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence in any form, call the domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233.

Globally, around 47,000 women and girls were killed by their family members or a significant other in 2020 as reported by UNODC. Many of the victims suffered from the brutal reality of honor crimes. Having lived in Jordan for four years, the subject of honor killing caught my attention during the COVID-19 lockdown of summer 2020, when reports of increased domestic violence against women sparked efforts to raise public awareness of the issue, particularly online.

In July 2020, a video of a woman screaming and being murdered in public by a man in Jordan went viral on the internet, accompanied by the hashtag #Screams_of_Ahlam (#صرخات_احلام). The woman in the video was Ahlam, a divorcée in her late 30s, and the man who killed her with a brick was her own father. Prior to the incident, Ahlam had just left a women’s detention facility, to which she was sent for complaining about experiencing domestic abuse. After stoning his daughter, Ahlam’s father sat beside her body to drink tea and smoke cigarettes.

Unfortunately, Ahlam is not the first, nor the only Jordanian woman to die brutally by honor killings. In May 2020, a 25-year-old man in Madaba killed his 14-year-old sister for exchanging texts and pictures with other men. Just a few months ago in Irbid, a man used a wooden stick to beat his wife to death under suspicion of her “alleged affairs”. According to Human Rights Watch, around 15 to 20 women are killed in Jordan annually in the name of family honor. The Jordanian Women’s Solidarity Institute reported 21 and 17 family murders of women in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Woefully, many honor crimes around the world either go unreported or are miscategorized. Ahlam’s case enraged Jordanian society as hundreds took to the street in protest despite COVID-19 restrictions. Others chose to advocate online for victims of honor killing and domestic abuse with hashtags such as #StopKillingWomen and #Stand_for_Women (وقفة_للنساء#).

Crimes of honor include but are not limited to murder, and are committed as retribution for behaviors seen as depreciating the respectability and social standing of relatives. Honor killing specifically refers to the murder of female family members by male family members for dishonoring the family. A form of gender based violence, crimes of honor are justified by the belief that a female family member has brought shame to the family for engaging in socially or culturally unacceptable sexual behaviors.

In this context, “honor” is defined in terms of women’s sexual identity, behavior, and familial roles. As a result, premarital relationships, (un)consensual sexual relationships, or physical or verbal contact with men outside the family may cause the woman and her family to “lose” their honor. In certain situations, trans people assigned female at birth are also perceived as violating this code. A woman’s honor is thus seen as a “commodity” linked to the honor of a man (the foundation of a patriarchal family system), and should be protected by the community.

Men who commit honor crimes assert that their family’s honor was threatened by the victim and that their retributive actions are justified. In court, the man who killed his 14-year-old sister claimed “he should receive a reduced sentence because he is young, and his sister committed shameful and disgraceful acts that are not acceptable by anyone.” Compared to other types of murder, perpetrators of honor crimes are treated more leniently in court. Although the Jordanian courts and government increased the punishment for perpetrators of such crimes from three months to one year in the 1990’s to 7 years to life in prison today, oftentimes, such acts are treated as crimes of passion, which leads to a reduced penalty. Consequently, less time in jail results in comparatively early release and possible future repeat offenses.

While many Muslim scholars believe that there is no religious support for honor killing, some Islamist members of the Jordanian parliament have asserted that it complies with part of Islamic code. These individuals believe it is a Muslim man’s duty to protect and restore his honor and, by extension, that of his family. Furthermore, since they argue that honor can only be restored by punishing the guilty women, men are justified in freely committing such atrocious crimes against their own female relatives.

According to Jordan-born professor and author Lama Abu-Odeh, honor-related violence (honor crimes), social violence (public reactions and judgements based on cultural norms), and state violence (a state’s inability to protect females in vulnerable positions) form a “triangular interaction” that reinforces the deadly patriarchal system. Stated in Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code, “any man who kills or assaults his wife or any of his female relatives in the act of committing adultery or in an ‘unlawful bed’ benefits from a reduction in penalty”. Despite continuous efforts and pressure from social organizations to amend it, Article 340 is still present today.

The phenomenon of honor crimes should not be understood as distinct to one specific country or region. Women around the world continue to experience various forms of sexual and domestic violence. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, one in three women globally had been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence within their household. That number has increased since the pandemic, due to escalating stress and insufficient access to spaces away from abusers. Additionally, other forms of gender-based violence towards women, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), remain a crisis on a global scale. To some, FGM is also seen as a method of protecting the victim’s and her family’s honor. Ultimately, such brutal treatment of women should be considered a direct and preventable symptom of the alarming lack of reproductive freedom and sexual education in patriarchal systems.

The media and public discourse on honor killing in the West often perpetuates a hegemonic Orientalist perspective, contributing to a problematic, singular understanding of complex, multi-faceted cultures. As a result, such misinterpretations lead to insufficient resources and biased treatment directed to immigrant populations. Moreover, the often-justified distrust of law enforcement and inadequate access to social services among many immigrant communities in the United States and Europe place potential victims of honor killings in the West in uniquely vulnerable positions.

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