Violence against women is common in Iraqi Kurdistan, despite government promises to prevent it.”
Why is that? A culture of violence, the foundational text of which commands men to beat women from whom they “fear disobedience” (Qur’an 4:34), is going to give rise to this sort of thing. In the Qur’an also is the strange story of a mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, who kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.” (18:80-81)
And according to Islamic law, “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.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2).
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. 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.
“Father kills his two daughters in Iraqi Kurdistan: police,” Ekurd Daily, September 9, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
CHAMCHAMAL, Iraqi Kurdistan region,— A Kurdish man has killed his two daughters in the town of Chamchamal in Sulaimani governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the police said.
Chamchamal Police Directorate said on Wednesday that it was investigating the suspected murder of two girls by their father in a village in the district.
Chamchamal Police Director Mohammed Abdi said that witnesses said that the suspect killed his daughters and then fled.
Their bodies were later discovered in a graveyard in another village, where they had been hidden, according to a source in the Directorate of Asayish-Western Sulaimani who spoke under condition of anonymity.
The source added that local police were waiting for a judge’s order to take possession of the bodies.
Details about the victims’ identities and ages were not immediately released.
Violence against women is common in Iraqi Kurdistan, despite government promises to prevent it.
Women in Iraqi Kurdistan region experience high levels of domestic violence. In 2019, 120 women died in the Kurdish region as a result of gender-based violence, including 41 who were murdered and 79 who took their own lives.
According to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) General Directorate for Combating Violence Against Women at least three women were killed during the first six months of 2020….
Why is that? A culture of violence, the foundational text of which commands men to beat women from whom they “fear disobedience” (Qur’an 4:34), is going to give rise to this sort of thing. In the Qur’an also is the strange story of a mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, who kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.” (18:80-81)
And according to Islamic law, “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.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2).
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. 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.
“Father kills his two daughters in Iraqi Kurdistan: police,” Ekurd Daily, September 9, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
CHAMCHAMAL, Iraqi Kurdistan region,— A Kurdish man has killed his two daughters in the town of Chamchamal in Sulaimani governorate in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the police said.
Chamchamal Police Directorate said on Wednesday that it was investigating the suspected murder of two girls by their father in a village in the district.
Chamchamal Police Director Mohammed Abdi said that witnesses said that the suspect killed his daughters and then fled.
Their bodies were later discovered in a graveyard in another village, where they had been hidden, according to a source in the Directorate of Asayish-Western Sulaimani who spoke under condition of anonymity.
The source added that local police were waiting for a judge’s order to take possession of the bodies.
Details about the victims’ identities and ages were not immediately released.
Violence against women is common in Iraqi Kurdistan, despite government promises to prevent it.
Women in Iraqi Kurdistan region experience high levels of domestic violence. In 2019, 120 women died in the Kurdish region as a result of gender-based violence, including 41 who were murdered and 79 who took their own lives.
According to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) General Directorate for Combating Violence Against Women at least three women were killed during the first six months of 2020….
