News about murders of women are a constant in Jordanian society, with figures that hardly vary over time. But the brutality of the most recent data has generated a wave of indignation amongJordanian women and a response to “honor killings”.

In just two months in Amman, a young woman eight months pregnant has been hammered to death by a neighbor; a young man has shot dead a student who had rejected him inside the university, and a man has taken his sister’s life with a shot for a & laquo;family dispute & rdquor; .

The term family feud is often a euphemism used to refer to such “honor killings,” those in which a woman is killed by men in her own family. who consider that he has tarnished her good name, having committed adultery or had sexual relations outside of marriage.

There are no official figures On murder rates of women or on honor killings, but the latest report on the matter from the Jordanian Women’s Solidarity Association, published at the end of 2021, placed in 21 deaths of women at the hands of family members in 2019, in 20 in 2020 and in 14 in the first 10 months of 2021.

Demonstrations in front of parliament

Jordanian society it is divided between those who reject this type of crime and others who implicitly agree with what the family does “in defense of honor”; and hold the victim accountable.

But the Women of the Arab country have begun to mobilize against this scourge and on July 22, several dozens demonstrated&nbsp ;in front of the Jordanian Parliament for this reason.

In his memory, in addition to the femicides of recent weeks, there was that of Ahlam , a young womankilled savagely two years ago at the hands of his own family  It hit the entire country and was a wake-up call about “honor” killings.

Ahlam was first brutally beaten by her father and her brothers in her house in the town of Safut, next to Amman, and when, bloodied, she left the house. running into the street to ask for help, her parent chased her & oacute; and hit her with a stone on his head. Her parents then waited by her body to make sure she was dead while they drank tea, according to eyewitnesses.

PAINTING LEGISLATION

The demonstrators on July 22 demanded a change in the laws which they consider encourage the murder of women and allow the perpetrators to escape their consequences or mitigate their sentences.

One of the legal aspects from which these types of parricides benefit, as lawyer Sajr al Jasawneh, who claims to have been in charge of several of these cases, explained to Efe, is a rule applied in many Arab countries by which ;The murderers who are forgiven by the victim’s family are spared the harshest punishments

In these cases, as the perpetrators are the relatives themselves of the crime, alone The public accusation acts against him, not the private one, which is the one that can ask for more severe punishments.

In addition, the general secretary of the Committee The Jordanian National for Women’s Affairs, Salma al Nims, has lamented to Efe that the Jordanian Penal Code encourages this type of crime by recognizing a mitigating circumstance for the person who commits it.

The article referred to Al Nims reference tacitly offers  mitigating excuse” who “surprises his wife or one of her female relatives in flagrante delicto of adultery (understood as any relationship outside of marriage) with another person and proceeds to kill her, kill the man who accompanies her or kill both”; .

Women in property

On the factors that favor this indulgence towards “honour” crimes In Jordan, sociologist Amal Awawda, from the Center for Women’s Studies, has considered that social education is the main factor responsible for giving the men their social status and guardianship over women.

The protection system and guardianship for women protected by the Customs make men, whether they are brothers, sons or husbands, take care of her as if she were their property, which leads them to assume that violently assaulting or killing them is something permitted and legitimate, she told Efe.

Al Nims criticizes that while Jordanian society is quite lax towards “any practice that goes against religion or traditions”, they do not consider that it affects the good name of the family, «the simplest mistake of a woman touches the family honor«.