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Palestinian woman kills daughter to restore family's 'honor'
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/ ^

Posted on 11/18/2003 7:10:32 AM PST by Stew Padasso

Palestinian woman kills daughter to restore family's 'honor'

BY SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON Knight Ridder Newspapers

ABU QASH, West Bank - Rofayda Qaoud - raped by her brothers and impregnated - refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the unwed teenager a razor with which to slit her wrists. So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what she believes any good Palestinian parent would: restored her family's "honor" through murder.

Armed with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, Qaoud entered her sleeping daughter's room last Jan. 27. "Tonight you die, Rofayda," she told the girl, before wrapping the bag tightly around her head. Next, Qaoud sliced Rofayda's wrists, ignoring her muffled pleas of "No, mother, no!" After her daughter went limp, Qaoud struck her in the head with the stick.

Killing her sixth-born child took 20 minutes, Qaoud tells a visitor through a stream of tears and cigarettes that she smokes in rapid succession. "She killed me before I killed her," says the 43-year-old mother of nine. "I had to protect my children. This is the only way I could protect my family's honor."

The guilty brothers are in jail.

Qaoud's confessed crime, for which she must appear before a three-judge panel on Dec. 3, is one repeated almost weekly among Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel. Female virtue and virginity define a family's reputation in Arab cultures, so it's women who are punished if that reputation is perceived as sullied.

Victims' rights groups say the number of "honor crimes" appears to be climbing, but at the same time, getting little attention. Israelis and Palestinians are too busy with political and military issues to notice what they dismiss as domestic disputes, says Suad Abu-Dayyeh, who works for the Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling in East Jerusalem.

Poverty and war have exacerbated the problem, says Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a social work and criminology professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an expert on violence against women.

"Men do not have any power except over women," she says.

Police in Israel investigated at least 18 honor killings in the past three years.

Palestinian police reported 31 cases in 2002 - up from five during the first half of 1999 - the last time such incidents were counted before the current Palestinian uprising began, according to the center's study.

But the number of killings is likely higher, given that Palestinian police investigate only crimes that have been reported, said Yousef Tarifi, the Ramallah prosecutor assigned to Qaoud's case. Shalhoub-Kevorkian says her past research showed the likely number to be 15 times higher than the number of reported cases.

Legal authority on the West Bank has been weakened by Israel's military crackdown, and the growing influence of militant Islamic factions has led clans to dole out their own justice. "In this chaotic situation, every man who thinks he knows a little bit of the Quran … thinks honor issues are supposed to be resolved by killing," says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who adds that leading Muslim clerics in Jerusalem and Jordan have denounced such killings.

Qaoud says her husband, Abdul Rahim, 52, told her the Quran forbade such killings. But neither his pleas nor those of Palestinian crisis counselors swayed her. "Why did she accept what happened to her?" Qaoud asks. "Even a wife can tell her husband `no.' "

According to court records, Rofayda was raped by her brothers, Fahdi, 22, and Ali, 20, in a bedroom they shared in the family's three-room house. On Nov. 26, 2002, doctors at a nearby hospital who were treating Rofayda for an injured leg discovered she was eight months pregnant.

Palestinian authorities whisked her off to a women's shelter in Bethlehem, where she gave birth to a healthy boy on Dec. 23. He has since been adopted by another Palestinian family, court records show.

Rofayda, meanwhile, wanted to return to her parents in the Ramallah suburb of Abu Qash. Ramallah Gov. Mustafa Isa called a meeting with the family and village elders, demanding they pledge in writing not to harm the girl. "He asked me if everyone in the family and the village would promise not to bother this girl, but I told him I couldn't give him a guarantee," Abu Qash Mayor Faik Shalout says.

Rofayda returned home in late January without notifying the authorities.

The shame was unbearable, Qaoud said. Relatives and friends refused to speak to her family. Her elder daughters' husbands wouldn't allow them to visit because Rofayda had returned home.

On Jan. 27, Rofayda sent word that she was in danger to crisis counselors at Abu-Dayyeh's center in East Jerusalem. They, in turn, called Palestinian police in Ramallah, who have jurisdiction over Abu Qash. The police said they couldn't get to the Qaoud home because of Israeli checkpoints.

Qaoud, meanwhile, sent her husband, who suffers from heart disease, to a doctor in the nearby village of Bir Zeit. Her three youngest children went to a cousin's house.

At 11:30 p.m. she killed Rofayda, court records show. Tarifi says he's convinced Qaoud had an accomplice, but Qaoud insists she acted alone.

Qaoud turned herself in and, after four months in jail, was released pending the resolution of her case.

While honor killings committed in the heat of the moment - for example, by a husband who catches his wife in bed with another man - generally carry a six-month to one-year jail term, Qaoud will likely be sentenced to three to five years in prison, Tarifi says. The fact she is a mother who was trying to protect her family's honor mitigates the crime of premeditated murder, which is punishable by death under Palestinian law, he adds.

The brothers are serving minimum 10-year sentences in a Palestinian jail in the West Bank city of Jericho for statutory rape of a relative, Tarifi says.

No trace of Rofayda or her brothers remains in the family home. Qaoud says she ripped up all of their photographs and burned their clothes. The bedroom in which she killed her daughter is now a storeroom.

Erasing the memories is harder, she admits. She eases her pain by doting on her three children still living at home, especially the youngest, Fatima, 9, whom she lavishes with kisses. The children say they've forgiven Qaoud and return her affection.

"My mother did this because she does not want us to be punished by people," Fatima explains with a shy smile. Leaning into Qaoud's arms, the little girl adds: "I love my mother much more now than before."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: honorkilling; palestinianhonor
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To: MacDorcha
Yes, and different people have different basic concepts...none of which are right and none of which are wrong, it's all relative.
61 posted on 11/19/2003 10:22:53 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
"it's a stupid concept"

now who's being closed minded?
62 posted on 11/19/2003 10:25:36 AM PST by MacDorcha
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To: MacDorcha
Yes, when it comes to taking a life, I tend to be close-minded.
63 posted on 11/19/2003 10:26:42 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
funny, i thought we all knew what love is... what it feel like to fall in love, even when we havent yet.... strange hows its all DIFFERENT though
64 posted on 11/19/2003 10:26:43 AM PST by MacDorcha
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To: MacDorcha
It would seem otherwise.
65 posted on 11/19/2003 10:27:44 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
Moral relativism..That is your view?
66 posted on 11/19/2003 10:28:06 AM PST by MEG33
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To: stuartcr
so it seems. ever think that you would take a life to defend your own or someone else you love? thats all this honourable suicide is, only it is yourself, not an outsider you are killing.
67 posted on 11/19/2003 10:28:59 AM PST by MacDorcha
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To: Moose4
Western Judeo-Christian culture is superior to Middle Eastern Islam. It just is. (And if that makes me a racist, so be it.)

No, it does not make you a racist, just one of the very few who is able to see beyond political correctness and speak the truth.

68 posted on 11/19/2003 10:44:46 AM PST by Lady Heron
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To: MEG33
Relatively speaking, yes.
69 posted on 11/19/2003 10:49:31 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: MacDorcha
I have to go now, I'll be back tomorrow or tonite, besides...you're last is too weird.
70 posted on 11/19/2003 10:51:02 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
It is relatively better to kill a rape victim than to lose honor..even if the daughter was raped by the sons.It is all relative.The other children would not be shunned.Out of sight out of mind.It is their culture.Is that what you mean?
71 posted on 11/19/2003 10:57:14 AM PST by MEG33
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To: MEG33
No, that is not what I mean. Apparently to some, losing face is worse than taking a life. It's all relative to what one believes.
72 posted on 11/19/2003 1:13:04 PM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
look, bottom line. what the woman did was not only selfish, but beyond sinful. other cercumstances (i.e., it had been herself or the boys she killed) would have made it more grey to you, more white to me.

if indeed you are pushing to make a case for "moral relativism" know this. the sociology of one community to another may change slightly or drastically, but the primal drives, the psychology is almost constant of those people in the community.

we all have a basic sense of protection of things we hold dear. we all know what love is, even if we can only define it by the word "love" to any satisfaction. we all feel that life should be sacred, and only in necessity is it to be taken. only for the good of other lives is a life to end at the hands of man.

im sure you agree with me on those points, so dont fry your brain trying to understand my life without having lived it, and i wont try to revert to how i once was to understand yours again.
73 posted on 11/19/2003 8:31:44 PM PST by MacDorcha
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To: MacDorcha
I really don't care about your life, I just enjoy freerepublic, and all the wonderful things it allows us to do. By the way, the keys to the relativity stuff are usually words/phrases like...'may change'...or'almost'.
74 posted on 11/20/2003 5:36:17 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
Freekin' sadistic satanic animals is what they are.
War on Islam. Now.
Or we will eventually be overrun and brought down
as a nation. Nukes? Green light.
Whatever it takes. Expel them all from the US.
Cancel all VISAS. Our survival is at stake.
When in heaven's name will some people ever realize that?!
There is no room for debate on what this woman did. It is not a matter of what one "believes," etc. It was sadistically evil. Contrary to popular belief, there really are some right and wrongs that are absolute.
75 posted on 11/20/2003 9:23:04 AM PST by Indie ("death was our business....and business was good" -MACVSOG)
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To: stuartcr
as for "may change" that means that something is ALLOWED TO, not whether or not something does. and "almost" refers to the fact that there are psychopaths out there.

as for your concern about my life, why did you try to make such a point to change my opinion then? my opinions form my outlook. my outlook forms my life.
76 posted on 11/20/2003 3:06:47 PM PST by MacDorcha
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To: stuartcr
"losing face" implies one person is at stake. again, honourable suicide is usually meant to protect OTHERS, not the self. it is the ultimate in self giving. the Bible even states "blessed is the man who lays down his life for the lives of those he loves." this doesnt point at suicide, but it does point to self sacrifice, which is how many view suicide. im not talking of the ramblings of a manic depressive. that is selfish and unjust. i am talking of the motives of a man who wants what is best for his family so bad, he has no regard for his own life.
77 posted on 11/20/2003 3:11:56 PM PST by MacDorcha
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To: MacDorcha
I wasn't trying to change your opinions. To me, 'may change and almost' means that these are not absolutes.
78 posted on 11/20/2003 3:33:33 PM PST by stuartcr
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To: MacDorcha
Personally, I view suicide as cowardly and selfish, but I guess there are many weak individuals that cannot handle what life gives them, including the loss of face, and they believe that to die is better, regardless of what their loved ones may think.
79 posted on 11/20/2003 3:39:42 PM PST by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
"To me, 'may change and almost' means that these are not absolutes."

try taking it in context, it shold clear things right up.
80 posted on 11/20/2003 4:16:12 PM PST by MacDorcha
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