My remark about the ability of Palestinian parents to keep their daughters home, while proclaiming their helplessness to reporters to prevent their sons from participating in the rock "throwing," (those slings they whip around their head make the rocks into projectiles adequate for hunting game, actually) refers specifically to the "honour killing" phenomenon. Here's one case in which a 15 year old girl was forced to marry a man because she chatted with him without a male chaperone :
"Focus (3): Palestine/Israel
"Honour" killings are also regularly reported
in the Palestinian territories of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. In the Canadian
women's magazine Chatelaine, Sally
Armstrong described the fate of one victim:
Flirting was a costly mistake for Samera. She was only
15 years old when her neighbours in Salfeet, a small
Palestinian town on the West Bank, saw her chatting
with a young man without a male chaperone. Her
family's honour was at stake; a marriage was quickly
arranged. By 16, she had a child. Five years later, when
she could stand the bogus marriage no longer, she
bolted. In a place where gossip is traded like hard
currency, and a girl's chastity is as public as her name,
Samera's actions were considered akin to making a
date with the devil. According to the gossips, she went
from man to man as she moved from place to place.
Finally, last July [1999], her family caught up with her. A
few days later she was found stuffed down a well. Her
neck had been broken. Her father told the coroner
she'd committed suicide. But everyone on the
grapevine knew that Samera was a victim of honour
killing, murdered by her own family because her actions
brought dishonour to their name. ... Here in the West
Bank, the Palestinian Authority law allows honour
killing. Samera's parents are walking the streets of their
neighbourhood with their heads held high, relieved that
the family honour has been restored. (Armstrong,
"Honour's Victims", Chatelaine, March 2000.)
Twenty-two other women died in the Palestinian territories in the
same year as Samera...."
gendercide.org
Here's just one more citation that suggests the power of families to control their children's behavior when they desire to:
"Antonelli, A., ‘Crimes Not Stories’, Palestine Report, May 22, 1998, 22-24.
This article traces the work of the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling in the
Palestinian West Bank on the issue of violence against women. Although the number of women
killed in the name of ‘honour’ remains hidden from official statistics, research carried out by the
Centre indicates an annual rise in killings. The restoration of ‘family honour’ through the murder
of young women is not considered unusual social behaviour within Palestinian communities... Women activists face an uphill struggle whilst existing legislation serves to protect
men who kill in the name of honour... "
www1.umn.edu
I just kind of figure if there were a will to keep the sons away from danger, there would be a way.... |
