Several days ago, Mohammad Saleem Kefaya slew his sister Yasmine (Jasmine) Kefaya in Edleb using a knife! Slicing her throat on the temple of “honor”, and went straight to the police station to surrender himself shouting: “I washed away the shame!” assured that he’ll walk out free in several months! , or maximally in two years!
Mohammad Saleem has a well-known history in the area, for he was once sent to jail for theft! And his sister has been jailed for prostitution! And the whole area knows that her brother knows that for years. And even more they know that he is directly involved in it. And rumor sais that this “Slaying” in nothing but ending a dispute between them about the prophets she makes in her job as a prostitute! However that means nothing to the Syrian “MALE” supported by cases 548 & 192 of the Syrian Penalty laws which will give him full freedom in a little period of time, along with a “medal of honor” hanging on his chest!!
And Why not? Is “Honor” in Syria not that monstrous killing which the government approves and supports by their absolute silence towards those daily killings? The government pretending to “support” Women issues in all the international gatherings while never making a positive change in the direction of cancelling distinction against women in the last 25 years?! Oh no, they did something, they did and they still do a lot to abort any positive movement in that direction, whether civilian or governmental! Isn’t this the government where the ministry of justice, which is supposed to be the leader of the progressive law-changing process in Syria, make a stiff wall in front of Syrian Women, insisting that they’re one (or more) grade lower than the “male citizen”?! Doesn’t the ministry of internal affairs stand still day and night towards these killings, even when they know that this killing will take place before it is committed?! Didn’t the ministry of social affairs and employment assured by the person of its minister, which is a woman, that 200 to 300 women killed in Syria by the name of “honor” doesn’t represent “a phenomenon worth stopping at”?! And didn’t the chief of the legal office in the GWU say that “we didn’t get any case of honor-crimes, and what is being raised in the media about this issue has different goals”?! And doesn’t the ministry of Islamic affairs give us speeches of mercy and tolerance in Islam while never moving a finger to those mosque spokesmen who lecture against women day & night!...
Are we saying this to show our good lingual skills? We don’t need to do that in something that became beyond words. Isn’t this Syrian government the same one that did nothing in the case of young “R.M.” which we pointed at several times as a person who is seriously threatened of being killed in the name of “honor”? So does all this leave any doubts in this government’s co-operation with those who kill Syrian women? NO, there’s no doubt. Yet more, this is not but one face of this government which celebrates the international day of opposing violence against women, they do but on their own way: Supporting the killing of Syrian women! Supporting that they’re less than citizens by denying them of their right to give their nationalities to their kids! Supporting random divorces that kick them out of their houses without anything! Supporting denying them of their children’s custody by baseless law-cases! Supporting women’s denial of choosing how many children she will have! And denying her of their right to choose where to live! Supporting daily violence against them “as long as it doesn’t reach brutal beating”, but of course, killing doesn’t qualify as “brutal beating”!!!
It doesn’t work anymore to hide behind empty justifications. The Syrian government today is the basic obstacle in the way of cancelling distinction against Syrian women. This distinction which physical violence represents only one of its many forms which is mostly practiced by the government itself by banning any activity that opposes this distinction, and by refusing to change Syrian laws to the benefit of real citizenship against the “citizenship of males”. This government today is a partner in the campaign against Syrian women, and it is this government who in completely responsible for all the violence practiced against Syrian women, and especially those crimes committed under the name of “honor”.
by: Bassam ElKadi, 5/1/2008, (A new “honor” crime in the international day of opposing violence against women… and the Syrian government supports!)
Translated by: Nawar El-Sabaa