Forbidden Love (22 page)

time.

That same month, a 43-year-old man killed two of his sisters. Kifaya, 23, was shot twice in the back of the head, and Nadia, 32, was shot five times in the head and chest. Both were killed in their home in Amman because their brother suspected them of immoral behaviour. According to a woman in the neighbourhood, who wanted to remain anonymous, Nadia and Kifaya had good reputations, while their brother had a criminal record. Another neighbour reported that he might have killed his sisters because he didn’t want them to inherit any property or money.

In June 1996, a 27-year-old man spotted his 25-year-old sister, Nofah, with two female friends in the Liayali Zaman restaurant and Nightclub.

He forcibly dragged her from the

table and shot her seven times in the head and chest, causing a panic in the restaurant. Then he waited for the police to arrive and gave himself in, claiming he had killed her to cleanse his family’s honour.

In March 1997, a man killed his fifteen-year-old daughter by crushing her head with a large stone because he suspected her of having had relations with a neighbour. He told the police that when he questioned her about the matter, she denied having an immoral relationship with anyone, but he later killed her because he didn’t believe her. The forensic examination concluded that she’d never had sexual relations.

Also in March of that same year, a 25-year-old, married, pregnant woman living in Irbid was shot to death by her brother. The family had discovered that she’d had relations with her husband prior to their wedding and urged their son to kill his married sister to cleanse their honour. She’d been married for three months and was two months pregnant.

In June 1997, a 34-year-old Egyptian national raped an eighteen-year-old Jordanian girl. As is the law, both parties were placed in detention at Qafqafa prison to protect their lives. The governor forced the man to marry his victim, which was his punishment for the rape. Two weeks after the incident they were released from the detention facility. Later her father gunned them down, claiming that he had killed them to cleanse his family’s honour and because he and his family blamed her for the rape since she knew the Egyptian, who was a worker in the neighbourhood.

In September 1995, eighteen-year-old Subhieh defied her uncle’s wishes and married 21-year-old Mohammed, the man she loved. Two weeks after they married, her fifteen-year-old brother, under instructions from her uncle, went to her home after her husband left for work and shot her five times in the

head and chest. He immediately turned himself in, claiming to have cleansed his family’s honour.

A fourteen-year-old girl was at home, talking on the phone, one day in February 2000, when her thirteen-year-old brother strangled her with the phone cord. The youth confessed to murdering her and told police that it was a crime of honour because she was talking to men on the phone.

Dalia’s death never reached the newspapers.

My dear Dalia, in your life you made me laugh and made me cry. You managed to touch my soul and become part of me forever, and in your death you’ve become my purpose for living. I write this book in loving memory of you, and I pray that God keeps you safe and happy until we meet again. Till then, ya gazallae, know your spirit strengthens me, and your memory comforts me, and you will always remain a special part of my life.