Why did she go visit him at all, after he had murdered her mother, brother and sister? Anyway, here is yet another Islamic honor killing.
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.
The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”
In light of all this, until authorities get the courage to tell the truth about honor killing, there will be many more such murders.
“Afghan inmate kills wife during prison visit,” from AFP, January 2 (thanks to Lookmann):
AFP – An Afghan prisoner murdered his wife when she went to visit him, allegedly because she had been unfaithful after he was jailed for killing her relatives, police said.
Din Mohammad was sentenced to 20 years in prison two years ago for killing his mother-in-law, and his wife’s brother and sister in the northern province of Samangan.
Mohammad’s wife, whose name has not been disclosed, visited him in jail in the provincial capital Aybak on Monday and was found dead in a small private room used for inmates to see their wives, police said.
Mohammad confessed to her murder, Samangan police chief Ikram Nikzad told AFP.
“Mohammad was told by his mother that his wife had affairs,” he said, citing a police investigation.
“When she came to visit him in jail he strangled her with her veil and killed her. They were meeting in a private prison room,” he said.
Mohammad’s mother has been detained for questioning, Nikzad added.
According to a UN report last month, Afghanistan has made progress in protecting women against violence, but many still suffer horrific abuse 11 years after a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime.
Afghan women still endure killings by relatives in the name of family honour, forced marriages and domestic abuses….