Jordan Times
Tuesday, January 12, 1999
Queen Noor says 'honour crime' is inconsistent with Islam, Constitution
AMMAN (J.T.) — Her Majesty Queen Noor appeared on international television last night to discuss honour crimes in Jordan, and suggested that amendments to the Penal Code were imminent.
Queen Noor, speaking during an interview with the American news network CNN, said that “this type of violence against women is not consistent with Islam or with [the Jordanian] Constitution...this [legal] area is being reviewed and amendments are being proposed to make these laws more consistent with Islamic law and the Constitution.”
Queen Noor appeared on the programme along with members of the Police Department's Family Protection Unit, Jordan Times crime reporter Rana Husseini, Head of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine Mo'men Hadidi and women who currently reside in the Juweideh prison for their own protection. The programme also included interviews with men who have committed honour killings.
Annually 25-30 women are killed to “defend family honour.” A press release said Her Majesty several weeks ago agreed to participate in the programme to contribute as “balanced a perspective as possible” on the practice which has drawn fire from human rights organisations world wide.
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 recently founded a Family Protection Unit adding that the department will soon be a “partner with 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,” she said.
Queen Noor noted that His Majesty King Hussein, in his 1997 opening address to Parliament, condemned violence against women saying that it was clearly inconsistent with Islamic law and the spirit of the Jordanian 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.”
The two articles in the Jordanian Penal Code, which apply to crimes of honour, and now under consideration for revision, 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 claim exemption from penalty under these laws.
During the interview, Queen Noor reiterated that there is no “gender discrimination” in Jordan's Constitution or in Islamic Sharia, neither of which “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 new, modern Penal Code draft, which would replace Law No. 16 for the year 1960. The articles pertaining to “crimes of honour” 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.
In 1997, officials said that at least 25 women were killed in the name of honour. Although officials have not released statistics for 1998, they expect the number of women killed for reasons of “honour” to exceed 20. As of Jan. 4, more than 40 women were retained in government correctional facilities in “protective custody.”
In November 1998, the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights condemned the practice of honour killings