Murder in the Name of Honor (6 page)

In addition to Basil and myself, the committee included Asma Khader, our legal adviser and a lawyer and activist, Muna Darwazeh, a TV production company owner, Maha Abu Ayyash, sculptor and copyrighter, Najwa Ghannoum, an assistant manager, Muna Abu Rayyan, a PR and marketing specialist, Sultan Abu Mariam, an agricultural engineer, Khalid Kasih, a food factory owner, Samir Abdul Aziz, an engineer, as well as Ruba Dabis and Nisreen Hannoon, who were both university students at the time.

We decided that one of the best means to fight the status quo was to organize a nation-wide campaign to collect people's signatures and present it to Parliament. The aim was to collect fifty thousand signatures; if we could present this many signatures to Parliament, then the issue would have to be debated. This would be the first petition of its kind in the history of the Kingdom – it was not a popular thing to do. People who had tried collecting signatures for petitions before had found themselves harassed by the security forces.

But we knew if we could show MPs that the people of Jordan wanted change, then maybe, just maybe, they would help to make it happen. We hoped to start a new movement that would bring the government more under control of the people. At least by doing this we would get people involved and interested in how the
country was being governed – and it would show people that it was possible to make their voices heard.

We prepared pamphlets that included information and statistics illustrating the problem, and held lectures in public and private institutions to raise people's awareness about the issue and encouraged them to sign our petition. We created an archive that included everything that was written in the press about honour crimes. Several committee members appeared on TV and radio talk shows.

Of course, we had to be very clear about which laws we wanted to change. In March, we met and had an animated discussion with Asma Khader in the chair. Asma suggested that we focus our campaign on the cancellation of Article 340, which dealt specifically with adultery, rather than Article 98, which was generally applied to several types of crime, not just so-called honour crimes, and would be much harder to change.

Article 340 included two clauses of particular interest. One stipulated that ‘he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery (with a man) and kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, is exempted from any penalty.'

The other clause stated: ‘He who discovers his wife, or one of his female relatives with another in an adulterous situation, and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, benefits from a reduction in penalty.'

Article 98 said: ‘Any person who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unlawful and dangerous act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction in penalty.'

I was in favour of targeting Article 98 because I knew, from having witnessed dozens of court cases, that it was the one more commonly used in relation to so-called honour crimes. It was Article 98 that allowed the amending of charges of premeditated murder to misdemeanour.

Khader argued that Article 340, which was a specific article, was
the better target because it was so specific. Article 98 was general and it would be difficult to make amendments to it since it was applied in many other criminal matters.

Her opinion was that amending Article 340 would be the first strategic move that would eventually lead to the elimination of all of the laws that discriminated against women in Jordan, including Article 98. When we voted, everyone, with the exception of myself, voted in favour of targeting Article 340. Of course, even though I would have preferred to tackle Article 98 first, I remained a hundred per cent dedicated to our objective.

We called all of our contacts, including several government officials, to try and obtain the necessary approvals for our activities and put together a press conference. One of our first heavyweight supporters was the late Iyad Qatan, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Information. On 21 August 1999, he wrote to the police, stating that we would be gathering signatures in public places, hotels and government institutes and that we had his support. Qatan was a courageous man; he even helped free some of our petition-signature collectors who were held by the police for questioning, despite behaving properly and legally throughout the campaign.

Qatan also sent similar notices to the newspapers and the governor to inform them that the Ministry supported our campaign and gave us approval to hold our first press conference.

Despite this, our first request to hold a press conference in Amman was rejected by the mayor. It took a senior official at the Royal Palace to persuade him otherwise.

Our petition read:

We are a group of Jordanian citizens who have no personal, political, or racial interests, but are gathered with one unifying issue as free individuals, which is our right to a good and safe life, free from violence in a society that protects the rights of all,
which abides by the Constitution that assures equality to all in front of the law in rights and duties.

Through the years, our country has witnessed abhorrent crimes that appal every clear-thinking and honest Jordanian. These crimes were committed in the name of honour, and those who have committed them have received soft sentences, which in turn encouraged their belief and that of others that the crime they committed is socially acceptable.

Since the victims no longer have a voice to raise, and since we jealously guard the life and the safety of all Jordanian citizens and the right of each Jordanian to live in peace and harmony based on respect for human dignity, individual rights, justice, security, fair trial and defence and because these crimes contradict Islamic law (Sharia), the Constitution and the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), we express our support of the decision of the Minister of Justice Hamzeh Haddad and the government, who, in moving to abolish Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code, have acted according to the spirit of His Majesty King Abdullah's directives to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

Based on these principles, we decided to organize this campaign to practise our civil rights to demand that legislative, judicial and administrative authorities and the various national official sectors take all necessary measures and use all legal, democratic means at their disposal – judicial, legislative, educational and media – to eliminate this ugly phenomenon.

In the name of our sisters, daughters and mothers who do not have any voice, in the name of those who this minute unjustly suffer different forms of violence and injury to protect honour, with no one to protect them and guarantee their human rights, we raise our own voices.

We call for the immediate cancellation of Article 340 in its
entirety, which reduces penalties and exempts those who kill or injure in the name of honour.

We stress the need to implement the law so as not to waste any chance to punish killers and to show society that these crimes will not be tolerated. We stress the need to enforce a fair and preventive punishment against anyone who commits crimes against women in the name of honour.

We call on all concerned citizens of this country to share our work to ensure that this initiative is a national effort which will allow Jordanians to express their opinions so that the authorities will take the necessary steps to protect the safety of innocent women who are victims of traditions and social norms that have no basis in Islam, the Jordanian Constitution or basic human rights.

We have prepared numbered petitions [for those who wish to raise their voice against these crimes].

Jordanian citizens who are legally eligible to vote may sign these petitions.

Our aim is to collect thousands of signatures to emphasize the desire of a large percentage of voters to cancel Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code and to work intensively with all means available to abolish this inhuman practice.

We launch our campaign by appealing to all citizens to take the initiative and sign this petition.

We also prepared a pamphlet, which was designed for us for free by Ani Orfali. It was simple but eye-catching, with a bold black, white and red design. It included over eighty names of women recently murdered in Jordan in the name of honour, along with murder statistics and information on Article 340 as well as other laws used to discriminate against women.

Whenever we enlisted the support of a respected public personality, we made sure their name was at the top of our petitions – in this
way we were able to persuade many more people to join us. Most people were very wary of us and were fearful of what would happen if they signed our petition. Discussions would sometimes last for thirty minutes before someone finally decided to sign. It was a hard, slow process and we often wondered whether we would ever get the fifty thousand names we hoped for. This was a very tall order, considering Jordan was a repressive country, with only four million people back then.

A month before our campaign was due to be officially launched, a special committee at the Ministry of Justice announced that it had decided to abolish Article 340. In its place, it suggested another law to toughen the punishment against adulterers, ‘to prevent people from committing adultery', and referred its recommendations to Parliament for voting.

The committee listed four justifications for amending Article 340:

1. The existence of the article violated the constitution since it allowed individuals to take the law into their own hands.

2. It discriminated against women since the leniency in the punishment was only granted to men.

3. It violated the Islamic religion since four witnesses of good reputation are needed to testify to an act of adultery and the state or the ruler are the only ones entitled to inflict punishment on the ‘guilty'.

This sounded very promising. We hadn't even officially launched our campaign, and a government committee had already decided to change the law. But, and this was a big but, the committee included a fourth and final justification:

4. The law needed to be changed in response to western human rights organizations' constant criticism of the existence of Article 340.

Conservatives in Jordan have often successfully used the excuse of so-called ‘western influence and interference' and ‘the west meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries to destroy the structure of its society' to reject or attack the work of activism, as well as to raise people's doubts as to the motives and intentions of campaigners like those in our group.

This fourth justification gave the conservatives all the ammunition they needed to attack us fiercely. Their anti-western view was widely supported by many ordinary people and I could understand why people might react this way if it were true – but it was not.

On 23 August 1999 we gave our first news conference, appealing to the public to join and support our campaign by signing our petition. Our slogan was ‘Right of life and the right for fair trial'.

We announced that around 380 petitions had been distributed in the Kingdom and that we'd managed to collect around three thousand signatures in just two weeks.

‘Our aim is to gather a huge number of signatures which we will present to King Abdullah, [then] Prime Minister Abdur-Ra'uf S. Rawabdeh and the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament to emphasize people's desire to abolish Article 340,' I said.

Basil announced that many royal family members and former Jordanian officials had already signed the petition. Our regal supporters proved to be crucial. They really helped to persuade a great many people to sign our petition. Since ascending to the throne in 1999, His Majesty King Abdullah and Her Majesty Queen Rania have spoken out against so-called crimes of honour several times.

King Abdullah described honour killings as ‘a problem not only for Jordan but for all the Third World,' adding, ‘Jordan is the first country to actually identify the issue and try to deal with it.' The King also promised the leaders of Jordan's women's movements in August 1999 that they had his full backing.

Queen Rania, a strong advocate of women's and children's issues in Jordan, also spoke publicly, arguing that so-called honour crimes have no basis in religion: ‘It was not a practice that was acceptable to the late King Hussein, nor is it to King Abdullah.'

In 2008, Queen Rania addressed the stereotypes facing Arab and Muslim communities on YouTube and spoke out against honour crimes and violence against women, saying it was not exclusive to the Arab world and that it is a ‘worldwide shame'.

‘It is horrific. It is inexcusable. And there is absolutely no honour in it,' the Queen said in her message, as she acknowledged that while honour crimes do happen, ‘It is not a prevalent cultural practice. It has nothing to do with Islam. It is not at all indicative of the status and standing of women in our culture. And it is being challenged.'

Her Majesty Queen Noor has been a determined activist in the fight to end honour crimes and violence against women in Jordan. Ever since the issue began to surface, Queen Noor along with the late King Hussein pushed for a change in the laws that offers leniency to killers in honour crimes.

Her long-standing and outspoken support for my work has been utterly invaluable. One such instance was during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour where Queen Noor spoke of the work done in Jordan to combat these crimes, making positive reference to my work, and providing me with a huge push forward. About these crimes, she said: “this type of violence against women is not consistent with Islam or with [the Jordanian] Constitution ... this [legal] area is being reviewed and amendments are being proposed to make these laws more consistent with Islamic law and the Constitution.” She added that she has “very strong personal feelings as a Muslim, as a woman, as a wife and as a mother about this form of violence and every form of violence against women.”

Most recently, in her book
Leap of Faith
published in 2003, Queen Noor spoke of the honour crime problem in Jordan and
recognised my work again. She wrote: “The Jordanian journalist Rana Husseini almost single-handedly brought this problem to the attention of the public in a series of newspaper articles over a nine-year period. Many criticized her work and motives, and some of her detractors even sent hate mail and threats. But Rana persisted. Her achievements were given special attention when she was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998.”