2) How does the local society understand the killing of women on the basis of the family honor?

The subject of killing of women on the basis of the family honor began to receive more attention from women’s legal centers than previously. People concerned are now approaching this issue without much confusion or hesitation, since they consider this crime to be a very serious one against women and humanity.

The family forms the core productive unit in Arabian society, and it represents the foundation for unity in the community. Members of a family share responsibilities and duties, and enjoy its successes and failures. They feel proud when a member of the family achieves success, and feel ashamed when a member of the family fails in a job or a task. If some member of the family makes a mistake, or does something shameful, this is considered disgrace to the whole family.

Therefore, the relationships between members of the family are simply relations between interconnected members of a cohesive unit. Each member plays his/her role, but remains closely linked to roles of the other members; like the father, the wife, the husband and the children. Each one of them ‘lives’ his character, but feels responsible for the others. His/her behavior affects all other members of the family. For example, when a girl misbehaves, she is not only violating traditions, but also bringing shame to the whole family. This is where the roots of the crimes of killing on the basis of honor lie. The family undertakes such a crime to attempt to re-establish the honor of the family. (Barakat, 1999, pages 175-176)

The above mentioned explanation of the Arabian family illustrates how the crimes of honor killing are caused by the behavior of the woman, which is looked at as bringing shame to the family. This crime is in fact “killing an innocent soul (a female) because of social concepts that differ from one society to another. The crime relates the honor of the family to the behavior of the female. Her unacceptable relationship with a man  justifies the crime that ensues in an attempt to ‘wash off’ the shame and redeem the honor of the family.” (Zaghbabeh, 1998, page 1)

As we see, the social traditions and customs play a major role in promoting the occurrence of this phenomenon. The focus on the value of honor has great importance in Arab society. The position and value of women is decided by what actions the woman takes with her body. She is supposed to stay at home, care for the household and produce children. This fact shapes the Arab society in the traditional paternal mold, in which the man dominates everything, and the elderly people dominate the young. In other words, sex and age decide the authority in the community. (al-Turki and Zuraiq, 1995, page 80)

The Arab woman is known as, or referred to, not by her name, but by her relationship to men. She is often called, the mother of (a man) or the wife of (a man) or the daughter of (a man). Marriage also encourages this fact. It is worth mentioning here, that women (females) feel inferior since birth, since Arab society prefers males over females. Arab families give boys more attention, and provide them with better living conditions and facilities, such as education. As for work, men can be flexible; they may agree for women to work if that suits their financial interest. In the countryside, men may allow women to go to work, specially in the fields, because that is an economical necessity. In the city, the situation is different. Men may allow women to go out to work if there is a financial need, with one condition that she covers her hair (wears a veil or the hijab). This stipulation is related to her honor. And when a woman agrees to this condition, and earns money from her work, her “guardian” - her husband or her father or brother- will have the right to use her salary, spend it, the way he likes. (Kh. Sa’eed 1991, page 71 and al-Zayyat 1993, page 166)

So, the concept of honor is connected only to the sexual organs of the woman (the hymen). The honor of a man is not related in any way to his own behavior, it is related primarily to the behavior of his wife, his daughter or his sister. A man who commits all the wrongdoings in the world is considered ‘honorable’ if his wife doesn’t deceive him by having an affair with another man. A man who is known as a wrong-doer is considered ‘honorable’ if his daughter safeguards her virginity. So the honor of a man is not related in any way to his behavior; such as being honest and respectable and always being truthful. This is a skewed understanding of the concept ‘honor’. It is limited and defined by the lower part of the woman’s body, to her hymen . (al-Sa’dawi, 1900, page?)  ‘Honor’ is defined in accordance with the interests and values of the society, and those are defined by the dominant powers of the community. Man has been, and is still, more economically powerful than woman in the Arab society, therefore he defines and understands the concept of ‘honor’ as he feels fit. To most men, the meaning of honor is limited to the sexual virtuousness of the woman. (Al-Zayat, 1993, page 166)

As a result, a group of contradictions often live within the Arab woman. First she feels impure, and she realizes that an affaire (with a man) outside of marriage is illegal, and can be fatal. Despite the general feeling that a woman’s body is ‘unclean’, this body has a considerable importance. Any touch or contact with the woman’s body is a breach to the honor of her family, and the punishment for that crime will be death, in order to wash off the shame. (Sa’eed, 1991, 74)

The above mentioned analysis suggests that the crime of killing women on the background of family honor is primarily based on the foundation that the Arab society is a paternal-dominated community, and this male authority works hard to ‘discipline’ the behavior of the women.

The crimes of killing women on the background of family honor are not something new, but people prefer to keep such cases within the family. And when such crimes occur and the police know about it, they often register them under ‘family disputes’ or find other reasons to explain the killing. (Woman Center for Social and Legal Counseling, 2001, page 32)

Honor killing is one of the forms of killing women because of having sex with men outside of marriage. A man who is closely related to this woman who ‘misbehaves’ kills her in order to safeguard the honor of the family. (Khader 1999, page 8 and Zaghbabeh 1998, page 1)                          

In a study that was conducted in Jordan in December 1998 with the aim to find out the motives for killing women, the killing to ‘defend’ the honor of the family was the major motivation. As for the relationship between the killer and the victim, the study revealed that in 75% of the cases the killer was ‘the brother’. Description of the killers in most of the cases showed that they were young men, with low level of education who received low salaries. (Zaghbabeh, 1998, page 1)

It is realized then, that in the Arab society, of which Palestine is part of, that the understanding of the killing of women on the background of the family honor is basically the same in all countries. This understanding is related, and affected, by a series of old customs and traditions that have been the heritage through generations.

One of the studies conducted on the issue of honor-related crimes, discussed the change in the concept of honor in the Palestinian society according to the different time periods. (Abdo, 1999) From 1948 to 1967 women in the countryside did not go out to work, so they remained in the frame of household work and responsibilities. Women did not take part in the public life of the community. They only participated at times of armed conflict, mainly in transporting food and ammunition. Bedouin women didn’t have much freedom, even their souls and bodies were under the ‘ownership’ of their men (husbands). Bedouin women lived under very strict circumstances forced on them by the traditions of the tribe they belonged to. They even were used in the so-called custom of “Gharret el-Yadd”; an ancient tradition in the Bedouin community. When a member of the second tribe killed a reconciliation “Sulha” occurs between two tribes after a man from the first tribe, the first tribe takes away a virgin girl from the second tribe to live with them. When she gives birth to a boy and he grows up to replace the man who was killed, only then can she go back to live with her family. This tradition reflects the ambiguous understanding of the meaning of the concept “honor” of the woman. Here we notice that the killing of a woman because of the honor of the family can be implemented if she practiced sex voluntarily, since the general understanding says a woman must remain a virgin until marriage.

The position of women in the city was influenced by various factors during that time period. In the fifties the custom of wearing the veil “hijab” appeared and spread, representing more limitations on the movement of women. In addition, there was not much development in the media, at that time, and communication methods were still primitive.

The time era after the war of 1967 witnessed a major transformation in the position of women in the Palestinian community. Women played a role in the economic well-being of her family, as a result of the policies of the occupation, such as the confiscation of land and loss of sources of income, that pushed women to enter the work market. Women began to share responsibilities of the family with men, and so gained financial authority. The reality of women from the village or town going out to work every day broke many old traditions. It was no longer a shame for girls and women to work, and therefore removed that as an influence to family honor. This monetary need opened many doors for women who began to seek higher education to gain better qualifications in order to earn higher income, and so the long-built fortifications of honor collapsed. (Abdo, 1999, pages 18-20)

However, this development in the understanding of the concept “honor” did not prevent killing women on the background of the honor of the family. As seen from a study conducted by Kivorkian, in association with the Women Center for Legal and Social Counseling in 1999, the phenomenon still exists in Palestinian society. The study showed that between the years 1996-1999 there were 38 cases of murdering women, as recorded in the police files, 26 of them in Gaza Strip and 12 in the West Bank. Men that were first-degree relatives, such as fathers, brothers or uncles, carried out those crimes. Man dominates the behavior of women in a way that serves his interests. Men often make women feel plagued by distrust regarding their behavior. Relatives or even neighbors may suspect (sexual) misconduct of a woman without having confirmed evidence or assurances. (Kivorkian, 2001, page 35)

The study also showed that not all the cases of killing of women were recorded in the police files, either because of the sensitivity of the cases, or due to the reconciliation or family tribunal (sulha) of the crimes by the hands of community chiefs (Mukhtar).

(Women Center for Social and Legal Counseling, 2001, 32)

Therefore, the law is absent –or neglected- in those crimes. There are no specific laws or rules that protect women. The killer often receives very light punishment, which indirectly encourages further crimes. There are accepted reasons, or excuses, that provide the legal umbrella for men to commit such crimes, even when they are convicted. (see the Jordanian penal law number 16 for the year 1960 that is still valid and used in the West Bank)

There are many different laws that influence the subject of honor killing. Arabic laws and legislations have been affected by various factors, most important of which is the Islamic law (Share’a) as a source of legislation in most Arab countries. Although the Islamic laws dealt with basic principles as justice and equality, and provided penal punishment for the crimes of adultery and incest, still the understanding of treatment of women was not fair. People in many Arab states still treat women in a humiliating manner. The Arab legislator adhered to the traditional beliefs regarding the position and treatment of women, and gave them some sort of validity. (Khader, 1999, page 4-18).

A recent Palestinian study that discussed the killing of women in Palestinian society (Kivorkian, 2001) followed a relatively different path, regarding the definition of the concept ‘honor’. The study began by saying that, since women are being killed in all communities, women are killed in Palestine because they are females in the first place. The study also revealed that men who –in most of the cases- lived with them in the same household kill women. The study concluded by pointing out that laws discriminate against women in such crimes, even in western countries. Providing reasons and excuses for these crimes in fact justifies their occurrence.  (Kivorkian, 2001)

The study defined the killing of women as “all actions that cause threat and women or girls to fear that they may get killed on the justification of honor”. The study identified four kinds of killing:

a) The victim feels the danger of getting killed if the family discovers that she was the victim of incest or rape or she had lost her virginity.

b) The victim could be threatened of being killed by a relative, whether verbally or by the brandishing of a knife.

c) The woman or girl suffers physical harassment, but is not killed.

d) The actual killing of the woman.

(Kivorkian, 2001, page 22)

The study gave three examples of the actual killing of the victim, the fourth kind, all occurring in the Palestinian villages; two in the north and one in the middle. Two were single women, and one was divorced. Two of them were killed with the intention of maintaining and protecting the honor of the family – or to prevent a social scandal.

However, meetings with heads of families (Mukhtars) in the south of the West Bank, Hebron area, revealed that many similar actual crimes of killing women would not be known, since people keep them hidden. (Kivrokian, 2001, 67)

This fact suggests that there are number of women who are killed on the background of honor of the family without any documentation. As for the views of the heads of the families themselves, they supported the killing of women for the honor of the family, because violating the honor brings shame and disgrace to the family (to the males). (Kivorkian, 2001, page 65)

The study found out that the majority of women who are threatened by killing on the basis of family honor were from villages (18), from towns (9) from refugee camps (6) and from Bedouins (1). This shows that village women feel the threat more than others. The study affirmed that the option of killing women is socially acceptable, especially in the north and south of the West Bank, less in the center. (Kivorkian, 2001, page 43)

Thus, we realize that since man is dominant in the Palestinian community, not only socially but also economically and politically, the issue of killing women to maintain   the honor of the family will remain in existence. Therefore, efforts have to be made to improve the democratic process, in order to develop the position of woman in the community, and involve her in the social, economical and political life. The crimes committed against women on the basis of family honor must be approached as human and legal crimes. Anyone who commits such a crime must be punished lawfully as any person killing another innocent individual.