THE TELEGRAPH: Queen Rania of Jordan is challenging Islamic hardliners by supporting tougher sentences for men who commit 'honour killings'.
On one side is the fashionably dressed Queen Rania of Jordan, an elegant symbol of progressive values for Arab women. On the other are her country's conservative social and religious leaders.
At stake is a political test case for reform in the Middle East, one that pits demands for greater democracy against the need to end the scandal of so-called honour killings of women.
Queen Rania, who regularly appears without head-scarf, let alone hijab [sic?], has given her quiet support to women's rights groups who want to change laws amounting to legal impunity for men involved in honour killings.
But standing against is are another symbol of the country's attempts to show a progressive face. Jordan's MPs, who have been given more power to hold the government and royal family to account than in other Arab countries, have shown little enthusiasm for the moves.
"This whole issue is being exaggerated, and the reason behind it is not innocent," said Sheikh Hamza Mansour, leader of the parliament's Islamic Action Front. His coalition of Islamist and tribal representatives has so far blocked an attempt to introduce tougher sentences for men who have killed their sisters and daughters for bringing "shame" on their families.
"It's as if the government is giving up our personality to turn us into a Westernised society," he said.
The practice of honour killing is more often associated with impoverished and remote areas of countries like Pakistan than cities like Amman, Jordan's sophisticated and Westernised capital.
But it was in Amman's outskirts that Abu Ishmael and his three brothers recently picked up their sister after a call from her husband, took her home, and stabbed her to death. >>> Richard Spencer in al-Baq'a | Sunday, December 06, 2009
