WUNRN
PALESTINE - HONOUR
KILLING DRAWS GOVERNMENT & SOCIAL RESPONSE
Palestinian children walk into the house of Aya Baradiya's family in
the West Bank town of
Karin Laub and Nasser Shiyoukhi - Associated Press - May 19, 2011
A 20-year-old Palestinian woman who was thrown into a well and
left to die in the name of “family honour” has not become just another
statistic in one of the Middle East’s most shameful practices.
The killing of Aya Baradiya — by an uncle who didn’t like a
potential suitor — sparked such outrage that Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas scrapped laws this week that guaranteed sentences of six months or less
for such killings.
And in another sign of changing attitudes, the young college
student is being mourned as a “martyr” and her grieving parents are being
embraced, not shunned, by neighbours.
So-called “honour killings” are committed regularly in
traditional Arab societies that enforce strict separation between the sexes and
view an unmarried woman’s unsupervised contact with a man, even by telephone,
as a stain on the family’s reputation. There were nine such killings in the
West Bank last year, and
Women’s activists hailed Abbas’ decision as a milestone in what
they say is still a long road toward protecting women from such abuse.
“Such a tragic event managed to send a message that change is
needed,” said rights campaigner Hanan Ashrawi. “We have traction and we are
going to move.”
Suha Arafat, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s widow, emerged
from self-imposed seclusion to praise Abbas. Speaking in an interview with the
Associated Press, she said she tried to persuade her husband many times to
take such a step, but was told the Palestinian people faced other pressing
problems that needed to be dealt with first.
One of 13 siblings, Baradiya lived in the West Bank town of
“She was lovely. She was intelligent. She had a big heart,” said
the woman’s mother, Fatma, calling her daughter “the dynamo of the household.”
She disappeared on April 20, 2010, and was killed that same day,
though her body was not discovered until 13 months later, on May 6, after her
37-year-old uncle, Iqab Baradiya, confessed to the crime.
On the day of the killing, the uncle and two accomplices
snatched the woman and tied her hands and feet,
She told them she had done nothing wrong, then her attackers
dumped her into the well.
The water would have reached to her neck, Awad said, adding: “We
can’t be sure. . . if she died immediately or it took her a long time to die.”
Aya Baradiya’s parents, Ibrahim and Fatma, said they reported
their daughter missing within hours after she failed to come home from
university but did not learn her fate until this month.
Fatma Baradiya said she barely left the house during her
daughter’s unexplained absence because she sensed her neighbours’ disapproval.
In Arab society, women live with their parents until they marry, and a sudden
absence from home quickly causes gossip.
The police chief said suspects in honour killings often come
forward immediately because they don’t face serious punishment and a confession
is part of the “cleansing” of family honour. However, Aya Baradiya’s uncle
remained silent, even saying at one point that his niece had called him and
told him she just decided to go away.
Palestinian media say the uncle disapproved of the woman’s
suitor, who had approached the family through traditional channels, asking for
her hand in marriage. One accomplice said the men talked about the alleged
relationship as they planned the killing.
The woman’s father, Ibrahim, said he had given his blessing to
the union but wanted her to wait until she finished university.
Iqab Baradiya, who has been in custody since his confession,
showed remorse in a television interview, saying he was influenced by town
gossip about his niece, though he did not elaborate on what drove him to kill
her. “I feel like a criminal,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
As the horrific details emerged, Surif residents and students at
Palestine TV dedicated a program to her last weekend, and a
senior Abbas aide, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, called in, saying the Palestinian president
was watching and was saddened by the case. He said Abbas planned to scrap the
laws guaranteeing leniency for such slayings.
Ashrawi, a former legislator, said Abbas had promised women’s
groups several years ago to scrap the laws, but put the issue on ice until the
most recent killing.
Abbas delivered on the promise Sunday, signing a decree that
scraps provisions that make killing for family honour a mitigating
circumstance, Abdel Rahim told AP. Suspects could now even face the death
penalty, he said.
Leniency for honour killings dates back to a 1960 Jordanian
legal codex, parts of which are still in effect in the West Bank; the area was
under Jordanian rule until it was captured by
In 2010, there were nine family honour killings in the
In Hamas-ruled
Arafat’s widow, Suha, said that when she lived in the Gaza Strip
with her husband in the 1990s, she used to hide women feeling threatened by
male relatives and would help smuggle them to safer areas.
She said she and the wives of other leaders in the region,
including
Jordanian activist Rana Husseini said change is coming, even if
slowly. “I am really happy to see governments are moving,” she said. “It’s not
the movement we are expecting, but better than nothing.”
In Surif, Aya Baradiya’s family wants the death penalty for her
killers.
Her 29-year-old brother, Rami, welcomed the promise of tougher
punishment, saying he hoped it would serve as a deterrent. “This is a victory
for all of us,” he said.