Violence... The story so far

Honor Lost??
Norma Khouri

Updated 29 Mar 2007

A host of research has shown this book to be fiction though it was meant to be read as a true story. Several sources have converged in reporting that the events Khouri recounted never happened; it was a hoax. Honor was lost and it was Khouri's. The story is quite engaging and largely does reflect the backward tribal mores that give Islam a bad name in so many quarters. Although the details are fictitious, the overall ambience is not; though it is primarily limited to tribes and local chieftains, most notoriously in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The fiction came to light when The Sydney Morning Herald reported after an 18-month investigation that this best-seller was a sham as the author only lived in Jordan until she was three years old. Khouri has denied the accusations.

In the post-Sept. 11 era, Khouri's book met a certain demand in the US and other Western societies, where the shortcomings and "backwardness" of Arab and Muslim societies have become a focus of intense interest to which precious little genuine expertise is brought to bear. Indeed the desire to "rescue" Muslim women has become a prominent theme in liberal justifications for US intervention in the region. This was most common at the beginning of the Afghanistan war.

There is also a Western tendency to assume that violence is a pathology when it occurs among Arabs and Muslims, and to apply spurious religious or cultural explanations for it. Murder rates in general, and specifically for the murder of women by male family members and intimates, are far higher in the United States than in Jordan (the setting for the book), though few analyses attribute this to American culture generally, or to Americans' devout Christianity. There is high irony here.

Husseini [a reporter on the crime beat for the Jordan Times] points to the well-worn stereotypes that infect Western media discourse about the issues to which she has devoted her career. She notes the exotic artwork on the cover of Khouri's book, which shows a women clad in black head-covering with only her long-lashed eyes peering out - dress that certainly exists, but is not typical in Jordan, where women outnumber and outperform men in secondary and higher education, and are increasingly present in all sectors of the economy.

"We have this problem (of honor crimes) in Jordan and elsewhere," says Husseini; "(T)here are people here working on it, the government is working on it and the royal family. The country acknowledged the problem before anyone outside was talking about honor crimes."

From Husseini:


Husseini received both a bachelor's and master's degree from Oklahoma City University. Since returning to Jordan, she has fought for an amendment of the Jordanian penal code to give harsher punishment to those who kill in the name of honor.

Through her writing and her lectures in Jordanian international universities and human-rights forums, Husseini has urged the government to address these crimes seriously and systematically.

The Jordanian government says the killings have subsided since Amman amended article 340 of its penal code in December 2001, annulling the clause that exempts from its penalties against any individual who kills his wife and the man with whom she is committing adultery.

We applaud the courage and balance Rana Husseini exhibits in her reporting. It is people like her who are bringing about reformation in Islam. The Catholic reformation was slow and painful and so will be any Islamic reformation. For more, see: Reformation.

For web sites reporting on this important women's issue:

National Public Radio: -- ...Translator: "A week ago, father met with all members of the family together with our uncles and cousins to discuss your case. The outcome was that he demanded all members that they should kill you wherever they meet you and defend the killer against any danger even against the law." Ms. A married her lover and fled to the US. She was denied asylum by an immigration judge. ...The denial was a shock to the couple and it was a setback for asylum advocates like Karen Musalo at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the Hastings Law School.

Global Women's rights Treaty -- WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--For the first time since 1994, the U.S. Senate plans hearings on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the U.N. global women's treaty which has been ratified by 168 countries since 1979.

Campaign Against Violence on Women -- "The 16 Days Campaign against violence on women which is held from the 25 of November until the 10 of December calls for the elimination of all forms of violence against women. The campaign starts on the November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day."

Palestinian Human Rights Monitor -- "Killing of Women on the Basis of Family Honor."

Washington Post -- "In Turkey, 'Honor Killing' Follows Families to Cities. Women Are Victims Of Village Tradition."

Rana Husseini -- "Imad Sharqawi, a lawyer and a human-rights activist, said Husseini's insistent reporting had a large influence on the government's decision to partially amend the law pertaining to honor crimes. "Husseini was the first journalist to launch the campaign against honor crimes," he said. "She succeeded in attracting the attention of the government and the lawmakers to this issue. Her voice was heard by the concerned establishments and the international organizations."