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The Police doubt the motive given by the father, as Israelis do not normally recruit such young spies. The Police are investigating another possible reason for the killing. Additional suspicions are warrented because although 30 Palestinians have been sentenced to death for being Israeli spies, no others have been executed.
In addition, for the past three weeks, Jordanian bloggers have been renewing calls against "honor killings," following a court conviction of a father and his two sons for beating his daughter to death for "going out with full make up."
The case sent waves of awe and shock across the Jordanian blogosphere and some of the mainstream newspapers, as this was the seventh case of women being brutally murdered by their relatives on the suspicion that they had committed "adultery" this year alone.
Jordanian Entrepreneur
Blogger Kinzi was among the first to call for Jordanian male bloggers to break their silence about this topic.
"You all rose well when it was Gaza. This time, the evil is within our own land, perpetuated by our own laws, executed by Jordanian hands. Don’t you care as much for your fellow female citizens as you do for innocent Gazan women?" from Jordan: No Honour in Killing ' by Rami Abdelrahman, Global Voices
The Arab Observer answered with a post initiating an email campaign:
"It is time for our local media, whether it is printed or online, to stand up to their responsibilities towards Jordanian citizens. It is time for you all to raise up your voices and lobby to abolish such retarded law. We owe it to ourselves, to our mothers, to our daughters and to our wives, we ought to provide them with dignity, equality, and safety. No Jordanian woman should fear the prosecution (Ed note: 'Persecution'?) of a male relative. No man should get away with murder under the name of honor."
Jordanian law stipulates that a man who finds his wife or a related female engaged in "adultery" and kills or wounds her as a result of this discovery in a "fit of fury" receives a reduced sentence according to articles 340 and 98 of the Penal code. The Jordanian parliament, with tribal and Islamic MPs leading majority of seats, failed twice in 2003 to reverse or change these laws. Seven cases of "honor killings" took place that year.
Joining other bloggers, Qwaider wrote in support of stopping honor killings, saying there is no proof whatsoever that this is related to Islamic laws and teachings.
Many think that honor killing has it's roots in the Islamic Shariah. Quite frankly nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, Islam doesn't allow the taking of take people's lives as punishment for committing adultery, without proof... You really need 4 people to see them in the act as witnesses... The punishment for any unmarried person (male or females) is a few floggings (or the modern equivalent).
Qwaider called upon fellow bloggers to start "a campaign to protest the unjust, inhuman, and extremely degrading dishonor killing pardons that are spelled out in the law."
The calls were echoed in the Syrian blogosphere.
According to blogger, Bam Bam, there has been little interaction between Jordanian and Syrian bloggers. But the recent campaign found support from Syrian bloggers as seen in posts written by Abu Fares, Razan, and last but not least, KJ who wrote a fictional story entitled "why I killed my sister."
Bam Bam goes on to say this is high time to ask all the tough question:
“Are honor crimes an isolated occurrence or a culmination of several events that lead to them? How frequent(ly) do those events occur and if I reduce the occurrence of the most frequent event can I reduce honor crimes? Why do people commit honor crimes? Is it because of religion, to protect social status and reputation, or some other reasons?"
Just as bloggers continued to spread these messages, another killing took place - a 19-year-old man was charged of stabbing his 21-year-old sister, just after she was released from the governor's protection. He confessed to the murder, saying his sister "often left their family home to go to an unknown destination."
Blogger Kinzi commented on the sentence, saying it is an "improvement from the six-months slap on the hand," since the man was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. She added that blogger Naseem Tarawnah had written about the murder when it took place in 2007. Tarawnah then wrote that the victim, as in many similar cases, was not sexually active.
It is estimated that an average of 18 to 20 cases of "honor killings" are reported in Jordan every year, according to a televised report.
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