BEIRUT (dpa) – Killing to protect or cleanse a family’s name is a time-honoured – though gradually fading – Arab tradition.
For that reason experts are surprised to see a resurgence of the phenomenon in Lebanon, one of the most open and western-orientated societies in the Middle East.A national congress on honour crime was held last May by the Lebanese Council to Fight Violence Against Women and it called for abolishing article 562 of the Lebanese penal code which lays down only mild sentences for those found guilty of “honour crime”.Zoya Rouhana, the president of the council, which groups social workers, psychiatrists, journalists and lawyers, said “honour crimes now cover both the crimes committed as a reaction when the victims are caught in the act of adultery, and murders perpetrated as an emotional reaction just for the mere suspicion that the victim has tarnished the family honour”.Rouhana said the council seeks the abolition of Lebanese laws on crimes of honour which exempt close male relatives from punishment if they kill a daughter, wife or sister they suspect of having love affairs.Social worker Rafif Sidawi said an estimated 36 “honour crimes” were committed in Lebanon between 1995 and 1998.“An estimated 22 crimes out of a total of 36 were committed by brothers against their sisters, 7 murders were committed by husbands against their wives, 6 crimes were committed by fathers against their daughters and only one crime was committed by a son against his mother,” Sadawi said.She pointed out that in all the cases the victim was a woman and the killer was a man.Lawyer George Assaf blasted “honour crime” as a blunt violation of the most basic human rights, especially the right of equality between men and women as provided for under the International Declaration of Human Rights.“The Lebanese penal code should be changed and amended to abolish clause 562 in conformity with the international charter of human rights and the agreement to stop all types of discrimination against women which Lebanon signed and endorsed in July 1996,” Judge Nassib Iliya said.“According to Lebanese law, adulterous women are sentenced to prison terms ranging between two months and two years, whereas adulterous men are given light sentences ranging between one month and one year in jail,” Judge Iliya said.“There is no justification for that discrimination in punishment between men and women, but the Lebanese penal law was made like that,” Iliya added.He argued that the lenient punishment that men get under clause 562 of the penal code was encouraging fathers, brothers and husbands to kill their women relatives for honour reasons.“The killer knows beforehand that he will benefit from the lenient punishment law for the crime he plans to commit and as such he can fabricate circumstances similar to conditions under which honour crimes are committed in order to carry out his murder,” lawyer George Assaf said.Rohana said the council was working towards collecting thousands of signatures for a petition demanding the amendment of the penal code in order to ensure harsher punishment for mostly male relatives who commit honour crimes.
