Monday, February 16, 2009

More on honor killings

Needless to say, I'm not the only one who noticed the news item about Muzzammil Hassan decapitating his wife. Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs has compiled photos of women who died from honor killings, while Phyllis Chesler has an analysis in Middle East Forum that provides some statistics for the United States and Europe.

Chesler also distinguishes between honor killings, 90 percent of which occur in Muslim families (sometimes Hindus and Sikhs are involved), and domestic violence - the category into which U.S. law officials usually put honor killings. As she puts it: "Now is the time for sheikhs in the United States and Canada to state without qualification that killing daughters, sisters, wives and cousins is against Islam. A number of feminist lawyers who work with battered women have credited pro-women sheikhs with helping them enormously."

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