The police in Jordan on
Sunday said they found the
burned body of a pregnant
woman whose throat had
been slit and her belly cut
open showing her four- month-old foetus, in an
apparent “honour killing”. “We found the body of the
woman at dawn in Ruseifeh
(east of Amman). Her throat
was slit in a hideous way.
The body was burned after
the murder,” a police spokesman said. “We believe it was an honour
crime. The belly of the
woman, who was in her
twenties, was cut open and
we could see her four-month-
old unborn child, who was dead too. Investigations are
still under way,” the
spokesman said. 15 to 20 women die annually
in so-called “honour”
murders annually in Jordan,
despite government efforts
to curb such crimes. The United Nations estimate
for the number of honour
killings in the world is 5000
per year, although many
women’s groups in the
Middle East and Southwest Asia suspect that more than
20,000 women are honour
killed in the world each year. Honour killing is the murder
of a member of a family or
social group by other
members, due to the belief of
the perpetrators that the
victim has brought dishonor upon the family or
community. Murder is punishable by
death in Jordan, but in
“honour killings” courts can
commute or reduce
sentences, particularly if the
victim’s family asks for leniency.
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