The crimes of honor in the Arab world … Who protects the victims?

"The question of society," said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ashtiyeh following the death of Palestinian girl Israa Ghraib in her 21st spring in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, where she lived with her family.

The accounts differ as to the cause and the circumstances of his death. Some said that she was the victim of a "crime of honor". Some members of his family claimed that the jinn were the perpetrators. But social media pioneers and close associates of Israel have confirmed that she was tortured by her family after posting a video posted on Instagram in which she was accompanied by a young man who was delivering her sermon.

More than a week after the incident, the name and image of Israel continue to shake social media sites in Palestine, and protests and demonstrations continue to unfold in several cities to condemn his death.

All this has reopened an extremely sensitive issue in Arab societies. These are "honor killings" whose laws vary from one Arab country to another with regard to the nature of their crimes, but unanimously agree that their sentences should be commuted.

In the following report, we examine two incidents of this type of crime in Palestine and Kuwait.

"Palestinian women react Proud "

The Kuwaiti human rights activist, Fatima al-Matar, left her country last year, where she was subjected to numerous threats of imprisonment and imprisonment. detention for posting tweets on Twitter about religion and politics.

"The murder of Israa Gharib is neither the first nor the last" crime of honor "in Palestine and in our Arab world." Fatima says that despite the deep fear and sadness she has felt, the reaction and silence of Palestinian women on the Israeli issue is proud and hopeful.

Fatima compares the treatment of "crimes of honor" by the Palestinian and Kuwaiti communities. Although these crimes are widespread in Kuwait, local media generally remain silent about them. The Palestinian women's movement, their march and their call for prosecution of the murderer of Esra are positive and necessary, she said.

"Until now, Kuwait has not reached Palestine"

"In all cases of" crimes of honor "in Kuwait, the name of the victim and the name of the author are not mentioned," Fatima said. The crime is kept secret by the media, the press and even by the victim's family. "Cover images increase the horror of crime and do not deter other similar offenses under the guise of" honor ".

"In Kuwait, the bodies of unidentified girls are found on the ground, buried or semi-buried, and sometimes thrown away until they are found by the lamb and camel herders. do not know who the victim is and who she is. " It is the tribal culture of the Gulf, rooted in the sectors of security and justice, and even in Kuwaiti government circles.

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Article 153 helps men to kill girls

Fatima believes that the leniency of Kuwaiti law towards "honor" criminals contributes to spreading this phenomenon. Article 153 of the Penal Code stipulates that anyone who takes away his wife, daughter, mother or sister and killed him shall be punished by imprisonment for a maximum of three years. years.

Although the text defines the status of the flagrante delicto, Fatima asserts that everything a woman does is a threat to the honor of a man, such as the revelation of her hair, her exit from home or the # Exchange of letters on social networks. "In most cases, girls are accused of adultery simply for talking to young people on the phone, sending letters or posting photos.

"Esra did not commit any crime to face this fate"

Majd Karajeh has met several times with a group of young people in Ramallah to express his refusal to kill Israa Ghraib, demanding that the Palestinian judiciary take strict measures against the perpetrators, waving banners and chanting slogans demanding authorities to enact laws protecting women, which do not stem from tribal power.

Majd decided to join the break after listening to Esra's audio recordings screaming at the hospital and declaring that sleep was dry after taking notice of the rest of the story.

"The position adopted is not only for Israa, but for every girl who has had similar experiences with her family under the umbrella of honor and family reputation," he adds. in a sad tone. "Society must not associate the reputation of the family with the personal lives of girls."

"Esra has not committed any crime to deal with this fate," says Majd. "Even if Sharia and religion had been tried, it would not have been proven that they had made an error that deserves extrajudicial punishment."

Majd thinks that Israel's execution has not been carried out by a religious justification or text, but by conservative social norms. Majd describes himself as a committed Muslim man, but a human being. The assassination of Israel is contrary to humanity and to all the divine laws such as the demonstrators who took to the streets to condemn the assassination, including those who wore an Islamic turban and members of the Palestinian Council of Fatwa .

According to Majd, the concept of honor should apply in the same way to women and men. "Our societies usually inflict the greatest punishment on women and commute it to men," he concludes with sorrow. "His pain does not go beyond reproach and his punishment is not limited to killing."

Fatima al-Da'ma, a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza, says the problem of Israel is neither the first nor the worst. There are hundreds like her, but the only difference in the case of Israa is that the news of her murder is widespread on social media.

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What helps Fatima to protect herself from the abuses of the conservative male society in Gaza is the courage and strength of the character she has gained through her work as a journalist and her personal and professional development. "It's not easy for a woman to have a strong personality in our eastern societies," Fatima says.