Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has altered a law that granted men an automatic light sentence in the murder of female relatives if they claimed defense of “family honor.” If the PA parliament approves the bill, judges will have the power to rule that the “honor” claim does not stand.
They will also retain the power to rule that the “honor” defense is valid.
Previously, PA law followed Jordanian laws dating back to the 1960s, which ruled that a man who murdered a female relative would get a maximum of six months in prison if he argued that she had been engaged in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. PA society sees improper sexual activity on a woman's part as tarnishing her family's honor, and her death as the only way to remove the blemish.
The change follows a high-profile case in which a young PA woman was murdered by an uncle. While several young PA women in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are murdered in “honor” crimes each year, the case of young Aya Baradiya was different in that her immediate family strongly opposed the murder, and maintains that Aya was innocent of any “honor” offense.
The killing was also particularly cruel – Aya's uncle and his accomplices beat the 21-year-old student and threw her down a well still alive to drown.
PA-based rights groups had different reactions to Abbas' step toward changing the law. While some praised the move as a triumph for women's rights following years of struggle, others expressed concern that the law, even if passed, may not change facts on the ground as it leaves judges with the power to rule that “honor” is just cause for murder.
Violence against women remains a widespread problem under PA rule, and even more so under Hamas. A 2010 study found that up to 75% of Gaza women are subjected to physical violence from male relatives; the findings were blamed on Israel.
Honor killings are an issue in some Arab cities in Israel as well. Police often have difficulty prosecuting such crimes due to witnesses' refusal to testify.