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.
“Two Teenage Sisters Murdered In Pakistan Dishonour Killing,” Indo-Asian News Service, November 5, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Two teenaged sisters were strangled to death by their cousins for allegedly meeting boys in a fresh case of dishonour killing in Pakistan, the police said on Monday.
Bisma Bibi, 19, and Naheed Bibi, 17, were killed by their two cousins on Sunday night when they returned home after meeting the two boys, said Jamaldin Wali, police spokesperson for Sadiqabad district where the crime took place.
The two accused were waiting for the sisters near their house and later strangled them.
“They died on the spot,” Wali told Efe news, adding that it was a case of dishonour killing and that the accused had been arrested.
Dishonour crimes are very common in South Asia and often involve men killing women they believe had brought disrepute to the family name.
So far this year, 938 women and men have been victims of dishonour killings in the country, according to the non-profit Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The non-profit had also warned that unofficially the numbers might be much higher….