Ramallah: Black clad Palestinian women from the non-government organisation Forum to Combat Violence against Women in the Palestinian territories have been organising daily strikes in front of the Palestinian presidential headquarters (Mukataa) in Ramallah to protest the sharp increase in the number of women murdered under the pretext of protecting their family’s honour.
Nineteen women have been killed in honour killings in the Palestinian territories until the beginning of September — compared to 12 women murdered under that pretext in the whole of 2012.
Palestinian women activists have urged the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian civil society institutions to stand up to their responsibilities and provide women the necessary protection by ratifying the Palestinian punitive law.
The law would increase the punishment for killing women on the grounds of family honour.
Lubna Al Ashqar, a women’s rights activist at the forum, said that it was time for Palestinian society to handle the killing of women as a full crime that should be confronted with the toughest possible punishment and not offer killers quick prison terms — some of which amount to less than a month of imprisonment.
“The number of women killed in Palestinian society has been on rise and this should be confronted,” she told Gulf News.
The expiry of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament, has been cited as the key reason for the failure to put the new law in place. The parliament, which has headquarters in Gaza, has not met since 2007.
The women activists demand that the Palestinian president sign the law and approve it for issue in a presidential decree. Legal experts declare that unless reviewed and approved by the Palestinian parliament, there is no chance of the measure to be put in place as a law.
“The number of women murdered for family honour has been on a sharp rise, with no movement on a local level to address this issue,” she said.
“Palestinian society is in urgent need for Palestinian punitive law and family protection law to be approved instantly,” she stressed.
She said that it has been claimed that a woman murdered in Betonia suburb of Ramallah several days ago was killed on the grounds of family honour. Palestinian security forces investigating the case instead found that the woman was killed so her family could take her share of the inheritance from her father.
“Men have aggressively abused the family honour pretext to take over women’s financial rights, without any concern for their family reputation,” she said.
The Jordanian punitive law No. 16 for the year 1960 has been implemented in the West Bank with some minor amendments applied on it whereas the Mandate punitive law No. 74 for the year 1936 has been implemented in Gaza Strip. Al Ashqar said that both laws grant the killer swift punishment for his crime under family honour grounds.
Women activists vowed to organise daily strikes in front of the presidential headquarters, the Palestinian Prime Minister’s offices and the Palestinian Legislative Council to secure the success of the new Palestinian draft punitive law.
They are using the theme “there is no honour in crime” and are wearing black to symbolise their grief over the women murdered on grounds of family honour.
