2008 Woodie Awards
Husseini alarms audience
Tess Russell
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Features
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After Rana Husseini received her Master's degree from Oklahoma City University (OCU), she found herself in a predicament that will be shared by many Middlebury seniors come next spring - she was finished with her formal schooling but was not sure what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
She did know that she wanted to help advance the cause of women's rights, an interest she had cultivated while working for the newspaper at OCU, and so she returned to her home country of Jordan in 1994 and took up a job as a reporter. Covering the crime beat at The Jordan Times, she was fatefully assigned, during her early days on the job, to investigate a local "honor killing."
Husseini was so moved by the young woman's plight that it inspired her to undertake a career of activism that would ultimately earn her international recognition as a pioneer in the field of human rights.
An honor killing is the murder of a girl or woman at the hands of a male relative - often a minor, who will face more lenient legal repercussions - perpetrated with the intention of "cleansing the family's honor." Adultery, or even idle rumors of it, is enough to condemn a woman, as is her refusal to waive her rights to an inheritance. These atrocities occur mainly among poor, lower middle-class populations where reputation is of the utmost importance.
"In my country, people live for what their neighbors think of them," Husseini told the audience. "This is a fear that we need to get over, and that is something that we are working towards."
Still, despite the fact that her coverage focuses primarily on occurrences in Jordan, Husseini is quick to stress that region, and religion, have no bearing on the incidence of honor crimes. She has written about this tragic fate as suffered by both Christian and Muslim women within her country and believes that the phenomenon - rooted in the male quest for dominance - is universal, citing the Salem witch trials and more recent events in rural areas of Italy and Spain as evidence.
She did know that she wanted to help advance the cause of women's rights, an interest she had cultivated while working for the newspaper at OCU, and so she returned to her home country of Jordan in 1994 and took up a job as a reporter. Covering the crime beat at The Jordan Times, she was fatefully assigned, during her early days on the job, to investigate a local "honor killing."
Husseini was so moved by the young woman's plight that it inspired her to undertake a career of activism that would ultimately earn her international recognition as a pioneer in the field of human rights.
An honor killing is the murder of a girl or woman at the hands of a male relative - often a minor, who will face more lenient legal repercussions - perpetrated with the intention of "cleansing the family's honor." Adultery, or even idle rumors of it, is enough to condemn a woman, as is her refusal to waive her rights to an inheritance. These atrocities occur mainly among poor, lower middle-class populations where reputation is of the utmost importance.
"In my country, people live for what their neighbors think of them," Husseini told the audience. "This is a fear that we need to get over, and that is something that we are working towards."
Still, despite the fact that her coverage focuses primarily on occurrences in Jordan, Husseini is quick to stress that region, and religion, have no bearing on the incidence of honor crimes. She has written about this tragic fate as suffered by both Christian and Muslim women within her country and believes that the phenomenon - rooted in the male quest for dominance - is universal, citing the Salem witch trials and more recent events in rural areas of Italy and Spain as evidence.
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ERS
posted 11/08/07 @ 5:51 PM EST
"Honor" killings are believed to have their origins in misinterpretations of pre-Islamic Arab tribal codes. They pre-date Islam by centuries and, in fact, are un-Islamic. (Continued…)
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