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. In this case the victim was the murderer’s daughter, a victim to the culture of violence and intimidation that such laws help create.
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.”
Until the encouragement Islamic law gives to honor killing is acknowledged and confronted, more women will suffer.
“Honour killing: Mother kills 17-year-old daughter in Vijayawada, gets arrested,” News X, July 8, 2016 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
New Delhi: In a case of honour killing, a mother killed her 17-year-old daughter in Vijaywada on Tuesday. The accused Bibi Jaan smothered her daughter to death using a pillow while the latter was in her sleep at her residence in Vambay colony.
Bibi jaan was angry with her daughter Sheik Nazma who had an affair with their neighbour Deepak. The issue came to light after Deepak approached the police on Wednesday.
Nazima used to have frequent quarrels with her family over her love affair with Deepak.
“Bibi Jaan and Mysore Jaan were opposed to the relationship of their daughter with Deepak who belongs to another community,” the police said.
Bibi informed her relatives and friends in the morning about her daughter’s death and told them that Nazima died due to severe stomach pain.
Noticing this, Nazima’s boyfriend Deepak got suspicious and informed the police about the whole incident….