"WOMEN" PRESS RELEASES

Crimes of Honor attracting national and international attention.  Legal reform imminent.

Monday 11 January 1999

            In the fall of 1998, two major United States television networks (CNN and ABC) began working a story on “honor killings” in Jordan.  Among the people whom both networks interviewed were members of the Police Department’s Family Protection Unit, Jordan Times reporter Rana Husseini, Former President of the Jordanian Women’s Union Asma Khader, Head of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine Dr. Mo’men Hadidi as well as women who are in prison at Juweideh for their own protection and men who have committed honor killings.   Her Majesty Queen Noor agreed to participate in this program a few weeks ago to contribute as balanced a perspective as possible, particularly with respect to Islamic and constitutional principles.

            Queen Noor, in her interviews, affirmed that “this type of violence against women is not consistent with Islam or with our constitution … this area is being reviewed and amendments are being proposed to make these laws more consistent with Islamic law and the constitution.”  She added that she has “very strong personal feelings as a Muslim, as a woman, as a wife and as a mother about this form of violence and every form of violence against women.”  The Queen praised the efforts of the police department who have founded a Family Protection Unit adding that they are going to be “partners with the UNDP and UNIFEM and our Ministry of Social Development in establishing a women’s shelter that is geared to counsel, to rehabilitate and to protect women and their children who may be potential victims of these crimes.  That is because they are very concerned that these crimes be prevented – that these women be given a chance for protection until the pressures are relieved on their family.”  Queen Nor noted that His Majesty King Hussein in his 1997 opening address to parliament condemned violence against women saying that it was clearly not consistent with Islamic law and the spirit of our constitution, which since 1952 has guaranteed equality before the law for men and women in the country. She added that the King “as a Muslim has made that commitment and as a head of state and head of the larger Jordanian family.”

            In November 1998, the United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights condemned the practice of honor killings.  The two articles in the Jordanian Penal Code, which apply to crimes of honor, are the exonerating law: a section of article 340 in the Jordanian Penal Code (no 16, 1960) stating that "he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty”; and Article 98 that states: "He who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unrightful and dangerous act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction of penalty.”  Only men can benefit from the reduction of penalty or total exemption, women in the same situation are not entitled to them.  In her interviews, Queen Noor affirmed that there is no “gender discrimination” in Jordan’s constitution and in Islamic Shari’ah, which do not “distinguish between men and women, male and female, who have committed crimes.”

            According to Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh, in view of the changes that have taken place in Jordan’s “social and economic environment and the development witnessed in humanitarian concepts and social relations”, the Ministry of Justice is preparing a draft new modern Penal Code, which would replace Law no. 16 for the year 1960.  The articles pertaining to “crimes of honor” are also being reviewed as part of the government’s comprehensive legal reforms. When the draft Penal code and its amendments are ready, they will be presented to parliament.