[LANMaster]

Content warning. This is horrible.

Daughter raped by brothers, murdered by mother
'Thousands of women have been killed in the name of honor'

A Palestinian girl who was raped and impregnated by her two brothers was later murdered by her own mother – even though her daughter was the crime's innocent victim – in another of the disturbingly common, if vastly underreported, instances of "honor killings."

The mother will be sentenced in two weeks, but a harsh penalty is not expected.

According to a Knight Ridder report, court records show that Rofayda Qaoud was raped by her brothers, Fahdi, 22, and Ali, 20, in a bedroom they shared in the family's three-room house in the town of Abu Qash in the West Bank. When her mother found she had become pregnant, she insisted her daughter commit suicide, and even bought the unwed teen a razor so she could slash her own wrists. When the daughter refused, Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud took matters into her own hands and murdered Rofayda to restore her family's "honor."

Entering her sleeping daughter's bedroom last Jan. 27 with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, reports Knight Ridder, the mother told her daughter: "Tonight you die, Rofayda." Wrapping the bag around the teen's head, Qaoud cut her daughter's wrists, while ignoring her cries of "No, mother, no!" Qaoud then struck her daughter in the head with the stick to finish off the job, said the report.

Every year, dozens and probably hundreds of brutal "honor killings" of Palestinian women and girls – most of whom are virtually blameless – go unreported, according to an anthropologist's recent study.

In a story for World and I magazine, James Emery says women in the communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Jordan are killed by male kinsmen in an attempt to protect the reputations of their families.

Emery says the women "are murdered in their homes, in open fields and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers."

Most occur among Muslims in poor, rural tribal areas or among uneducated urban dwellers, he says, although the practice is not explicitly condoned by the Islamic holy book, the Quran.

In the feudal, patriarchal societies of the Middle East, writes Emery, "honor is based on what men feel is important, and reputation is everything."

"Unfortunately," he says, "thousands of women have been killed in the name of honor because imagination and rumors are as important as actions and events."

When a girl's chastity is in question, he says, her family feels the shame, even if she is raped or the rumors prove unsubstantiated.

"A woman shamed is like rotting flesh," a Palestinian merchant told Emery. "If it is not cut away, it will consume the body. What I mean is the whole family will be tainted if she is not killed."

Emery says the reasons for honor killings include allegations of premarital or extramarital sex, for refusing an arranged marriage or attempting to obtain a divorce, or simply for talking with a man. The murders normally are carried out by fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles, cousins or sons.

Among Palestinians, all sexual encounters, including rape and incest, are blamed on the woman.

"The issue of consent is irrelevant when it comes to honor killings," says Marsha Freeman, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch. "It has to do with the woman being defiled. It completely objectifies the woman as being about her sexuality and purity. It makes her not human."

Under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at least 25 "official" honor killings occur each year, says Emery, but the actual number of deaths is much higher.

Because honor killings are accorded special status, murderers serve little or no jail time, the anthropologist notes. Some men convicted of premeditated murder serve as little as three months and are treated as celebrities by family and friends upon release.

Emery has done extensive research in Palestinian communities and has lived and traveled overseas for a number of years. He is an expert witness on Asian and Arab culture in civil and criminal cases and a lecturer on Middle Eastern terrorism.

He says the murder of females in the Middle East is an ancient tradition that began prior to the arrival of Islam in A.D. 622. Arabs sometimes buried infant daughters to avoid the possibility they would later bring shame to the family, Emery notes.

In the case of Rofayda Qaoud, the mother will appear before a three-judge panel on Dec. 3. She says her husband, Abdul Rahim, urged her not to do it, and said the Quran forbids "honor" killings. The Knight Ridder account says Rofayda gave birth to a healthy boy last Dec. 23, who has been adopted by another Palestinian family.

Honor killings committed in the heat of passion generally carry a light term – six months to one year in jail. Qaoud's premeditated act is likely be earn her a stiffer sentence – perhaps three to five years, said the report. Yet the fact that she was attempting to save her family's honor means she's not guilty of premeditated murder, which can get the death penalty. The two brothers are serving minimum 10-year jail sentences for raping their sister.

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[Paquadez]

Increasingly happening in the UK, too, Lan.

Particularly where daughters of devout (I use the term losely!) Asian Muslim families experience the daughter trying to marry a white man.

Makes a mockery of religion, in my view.

However, in the UK, at least where caught, the perps face the full might of the law - like perhaps 7 years! And that is a mockery in itself, too.

Paq

[DNeurococo]

Why single out the Palestinians for weird religious based behavior?

Orthodox Jews will stone someone to death for an "offense" like driving a car on a fobidden day.

#$DN

[Doc Holliday]

Jan 27???!!!!

[LANMaster]

Hi DN
The articles show a propensity for this happening among Palestinians in greater frequency than others. (with little or no legal penalty)

Show me a link showing an Orthodox Jew stoning someone for the offense you describe. Show me how the law looked the other way.

[LANMaster]

Originally posted by Doc Holliday:
Jan 27???!!!!

What's the anniversary of the VietNam cease fire got to do with this?
... or the Apollo 1 fire
... or Mozart's birthday?

[Doc Holliday]

Originally posted by LANMaster:
What's the anniversary of the VietNam cease fire got to do with this?
... or the Apollo 1 fire
... or Mozart's birthday?

None of the above.

Just wondering why it took Night Ridder so long to report an incident almost a year ago. Makes you think if they were trying to be a little bit on the pc side. Just a little strange - that's all!

[Paquadez]

Originally posted by DNeurococo:
Why single out the Palestinians for weird religious based behavior?

Orthodox Jews will stone someone to death for an "offense" like driving a car on a fobidden day.

#$DN

Perhaps "Did" might be more apposite, DN and that would have probably been BC (i.e. Before Cars! ).

In Northern Nigeria, however, strict Muslims have recently been stoning women to death for adultary, amongst other "sins".

Paq

[Hellspawn]

People never seem to pass up an opportunity to get a shot at the jews. It may come as a surprise,but the jews aren't tied to every Palestinian issue. Except of course when something blows up and people get killed. That usually does involve the jews all too often.

[DNeurococo]

Lan –

I don’t know why you question what I wrote. Surely you don’t doubt that the Torah prescribes stoning for many minor offenses. Many such examples exist. See for instance Deuteronomy 21:18-21.

Surely you don’t doubt that Orthodox Jews believe in a “straight” interpretation of what is written.

Surely you don’t doubt that people actually act on this belief:

From the New York Times Magazine:

“Habad runs the country's oldest soup kitchen in the heart of Jerusalem's Mea Shearim, a neighborhood so devoted to the haredim -- those who tremble, as the ultra-Orthodox are called in Israel -- that people caught driving there on the Sabbath have been stoned by residents.”

(See http://www.michaelspecter.com/times/...ag_oracle.html)

P.S. Hellspawn, don't talk to me about taking a shot at people. Many people here, such as Paquadez, have posted very racist remarks about Arabs.
#$DN

[LANMaster]

The articles to which I referred involve CURRENT events.
Not biblical history.

And what happens to those convicted of stoning people?
(assuming the driver wasn't plowing over pedestrians in a crowded marketplace)

[plschwartz]

LAN
In america you can go to jail for stoning other people or even yourself.
In Isreal you learn to drive a different route

[LANMaster]

LMAO subliminal message received.

[AlbertB]

Be careful not to open that can of worms Hellspawn. There is much justification for intense criticism of the policies and behaviour of many of the Jews of Israel. We have seen, in real life, on our own TV sets over here, the butchery and lies of the Israeli regime against the Palestinians and anyone who gets in the way. Take note, I raise the same voice against the butchery of the Palestinians, but the atrocities of your enemy are only an explanation, not a justification, for your own.

Since I have been here, a little over a year now, the Israeli/Palestinian situation has never been the topic of a debate thread. Wisely I suspect. Please let's not open it at this time eh?

[Hellspawn]

You have missed the point entirely or perhaps made it without even being aware. Nowhere in the original post were jews mentioned. It was a purely internal Palestinian affair, but the jews got dragged into the argument anyway. Like there can be no Palestinian crimes without jews being involved somehow, even as an example. Whether or not my people are responsible for atrocities was never involved, Albertb, yet it was pointed to anyway. This article is about a Palestinian on Palestinian crime. Why even mention jews?