Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar, 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.”
Until the encouragement Islamic law gives to honor killing is acknowledged and confronted, more women will suffer.
“Rocky River dad killed his daughter because of ‘disrespect,'” by Adam Ferrise, Cleveland.com, October 17, 2017:
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Rocky River father admitted Tuesday that he shot his 27-year-old daughter to death because he felt she disrespected his rules about coming home late and failing to clean up her room.
Jamal Mansour, 64, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault for the Sept. 27 death of Tahani Mansour, a pharmacist at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center and the youngest of seven kids.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo sentenced him to 22 years in prison. Prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended Russo sentence him to between 15 and 25 years.
Mansour cried throughout the hearing. He apologized to his family members who wept in the seats in the back of the courtroom. He waved to them and blew them a kiss as he left the courtroom in handcuffs.
“I hope that they can forgive me,” he said through tears. “I miss her so much. I wish I was the one that was dead.”
Mansour, who owns several gas stations throughout Northeast Ohio, spent his life providing for his family and had no criminal history or any prior allegations of abusing his children, defense attorney Angelo Lonardo said.
Rocky River police had only been called to his home one other time, in 2012 when Mansour threatened to kill himself because his daughter was on a business trip in Las Vegas.
“All his life he’s been an ideal father,” Lonardo said. “He was always working and he worked very hard for his children.”
Until he killed one of them.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Andrew Rogalski said the father and daughter had several issues with each other in the months leading up to the shooting.
He said Tahani had been dating a non-Muslim boyfriend for about a month and worked to keep it a secret from her father who would not have approved.
“When she was with him, she had to pretend like she was with other people,” Rogalski said. “She was worried about what would happen if he found out.”
They also fought regularly about the state of Tahani’s room, which included piles of clothes all over the room and half-eaten meals left under her bed.
Mansour went on a month-long trip to Jerusalem before the shooting. Tahani stayed in Ohio. She didn’t spend any of her nights at her home and her father found out, Rogalski said.
A few nights after Mansour returned home, Tahani came home after midnight and the two argued. She brushed him off, went upstairs and fell asleep, Rogalski said.
Mansour grabbed the gun he often took with him while making large bank deposits and followed her upstairs, Rogalski said.
He told investigators that he grabbed the gun and thought: “If she doesn’t respect me, then she’ll respect this,” Rogalski said.
Mansour shot her once in the back of head and once in the left side of her face. He stayed at the home and admitted to police that he shot her….
“Your daughter had a bright future ahead of her,” Russo said. “I bet the last thing she worried about happening to her is being killed by her own father.”
Not necessarily.