{"id":833,"date":"2011-06-26T04:47:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-26T09:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/?p=833"},"modified":"2011-06-26T04:47:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-26T09:47:10","slug":"sexuality-and-honor-killing-in-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/?p=833","title":{"rendered":"Sexuality and Honor Killing in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was the progression of conversation that startled me. Or that most cases of adultery in America end in a sleuth of curse words and regret for lack of a better prenup.<\/p>\n

Over tea with my homestay family, a traditional Muslim family consisting of seven\u00a0sisters and three brothers, I asked Hadeel–a 26 year old sister who works for Jordanian Customs–if it makes her uncomfortable that I have a boyfriend back in the states.<\/p>\n

“No,” she told me. “What you do there it is your life; in our culture it is different.”<\/p>\n

This segwayed into the topic of sexuality in Jordan. “If a Jordanian woman is harassed, the family will often take care of it,” Hadeel said nonchalantly. Then, with a shrug, “But if a girl has sex before she his married, her family will kill her.”<\/p>\n

The role of honor in Jordan is largely incomparable to the provoked feelings of pride<\/p>\n

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Marj Al-Hammam, where a 19-year-old man killed his 17-year-old girlfriend who may have been pregnant last month to restore honor to his family.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Americans tend to feel in times of familial hardship or workplace instability.<\/p>\n

Silly me for thinking honor killings were a thing of the past in Jordan–for assuming these kinds of rituals only happened in Saudi Arabia or rural Yemen or Libya.<\/p>\n

“[Disavowing honor] is a disgrace to the family,” Hadeel told me. “When a woman does this, every family member going back to the third grandfather must leave the area.”<\/p>\n

Jordan is rumored to have one of the highest per-capita rates of honor killings in the world–about 25 women per year in a country of less than six million. In America, 2,397 people are killed every year by familial violence, girlfriends or boyfriends. Roughly half are female.<\/p>\n

The tradition of honor killing in Amman can be traced back to Bedouin tribes in the<\/p>\n

Badia region of southern Jordan. These nomad tribes who roam the Badia have long-set guidelines for handling premarital sex and adultery.<\/p>\n

In the city, some families will try to cover sexual indecency by marrying a a girl to her cousin and never speaking of it again. If a woman is raped, often she’s not killed but married to the man who raped her (“after he is punished, of course”).<\/p>\n

Premarital sex and adultery not only ruin the lives of the women who commit them here, but the lives and reputation of the entire family. It breaks tribal ties, affects<\/p>\n

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King Abdullah II, who is of Bedouin descent, has been working to stop honor killings for the past decade.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

employment, and prevents second, third, and fourth female cousins from being married.<\/p>\n

Honor killing typically lands the perpetrator (usually a male member in the family or boyfriend) a few months in jail. The more violent the crime, however, the longer the sentence.<\/p>\n

“Everyone here talks. If it happens, we hear about it. It is not common,” Hadeel told me. Last month, a violent killing in Marj Al-Hammam–an area mostly home to Jordanian soldiers–spurred much gossip and speculation amidst the city. But as in the States, it only takes a few weeks for gossip to recede and the families involved to reap the repercussions.<\/p>\n

In Marj Al-Hammam, a man received six months in jail for setting his pregnant girlfriend aflame and throwing her in a dumpster.\u00a0But in Jordan, a violent pursuit of lost honor will never wholly repair the shattered reputation left in its ashes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was the progression of conversation that startled me. Or that most cases of adultery in America end in a sleuth of curse words and regret for lack of a better prenup. Over tea with my homestay family, a traditional Muslim family consisting of seven\u00a0sisters and three brothers, I asked Hadeel–a 26 year old … <\/p>\n

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