Free Murder in the Name of Honor by Rana Husseini

her reputation and they wanted her always to be within their sight in case the same thing happened to her. ‘I am upset that I am no longer going to school. I had dreams of becoming a doctor when I grew up, but now I do not know what my future is.’
    As for the man who caused the pregnancy, Um Mohammad told me her son was planning to kill him. However, the authorities had taken him into custody shortly after Amneh’s murder on adultery charges. Um Mohammad bowed her head. ‘May God forgive him for what he did. He ruined our life and caused the imprisonment of my son.’
    The court certainly seemed to forgive Mohammad, thanks to Article 98. The judge agreed that he committed his crime in a moment of rage and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. Of course, his mother dropped the charges, so he was a free man six months later.
    Um Mohammad later told me that her son had been sufferingfrom depression since he had been released. ‘He refuses to talk to anyone. He told me he acted hastily after becoming enraged and that it solved nothing.’
    Her son visits Amneh’s grave every now and then and prays for his sister’s soul, Um Mohammad added. Since the killing, his uncles and neighbours, who had said he had done the right thing, had turned their backs on him.
    I was unable to speak to Mohammad myself; his mother told me that he’d sworn never to talk to anyone except his immediate family. ‘The killing did not solve anything,’ she told me tearfully. ‘On the contrary, it has destroyed our family. If I went back in time, I would defend my daughter. She was a good girl. What happened to her was not her fault. It is not fair that she died.’
    The confused and miserable outpourings from this poor girl’s mother only galvanized me further into action. If I ever needed encouragement to continue our battle, then this experience provided it. I hoped that after hearing Amneh’s story many others would join us. And they did …

CHAPTER 6
We Fought the Law …
    During the first four non-stop weeks of our campaign, we managed to collect eight thousand signatures. Then in September, the Jordanian Women’s Union (JWU) organized a seminar entitled ‘Honour Crimes … Any Improvements?’ Abdul Hadi Majali, the Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, attended the seminar and warned us that, as we expected, any attempt to amend Article 340 would face strong opposition. The JWU’s vice president Nadia Shamroukh announced that she had received anonymous pamphlets that accused the JWU of encouraging adultery.
    At the end of the conference the JWU issued a statement calling on Parliament to cancel Article 340 and to place restrictions on the application of Article 98. They also called for punishment for people who incited false rumours about women, and for an increase in the severity of the punishment for adultery (believing this would add some balance to their call for reforms of Article 340).
    Many moderate religious scholars, mostly Muslim leaders, such as King Abdullah’s former adviser on Islamic affairs and Chief Islamic Justice, the late Sheikh Izzedin Al-Khatib Al-Tamimi, backed the statement and spoke openly about honour killings for the first time.
    Al-Tamimi said, ‘If the punishment for crimes of honour is detainment in a five-star prison, I believe we cannot stop these crimes or this bloodshed. A tough punishment must be implemented. Many men and women have been killed because of theirrelatives’ ignorance … Killers think their victims’ blood is a medal representing their act of heroism of honour. They do not know that God’s anger and curse will remain with them.’ 3
    But despite our regal and rapidly increasing public support, we faced real opposition from the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, along with conservative deputies, who strongly denounced our activism.