Honor killings of women condemned in PA daily op-ed

Excerpt of op-ed by Hanan Bakir, regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: "Stop the victims of false honor"

"At this point we are seeing a rise in the rate of honor crimes (i.e., “honor" killings) in the Arab societies, and in the Western states because those with primitive opinions among the immigrants carry with them in their suitcases their ignorant and primitive heritage, a social heritage that is granted a religious sanctity, and it constitutes blatant damage that strengthens Islamophobia. My topic is not new and I have written about it many times. But the spread of this moral plague in our Palestinian society pains me, after women have come a long way in the fields of science and employment…

Attacking Palestinian women in particular, everywhere they are throughout the land of Palestine, is nothing but a negation of the history of their culture and struggle since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. In the battle of 1936 (i.e., the 1936 Arab Revolt) they were in the trenches with the men… and the path of their struggle since the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) until now has become well known.

The types of death our people find are enough for it… Are they so insufficient for us that we consider crime legitimate, and the law does not prosecute over it? We appreciate how great the challenges are that the [Palestinian] National Authority faces… but it has become necessary to pass a law that defends the women and considers the honor crime a crime according to all the criteria of despicable crimes and more!"