Her father stabbed her a dozen times in the chest. Father waited to make sure daughter was soundly dead, then he called police. Father was charged with misdemeanor. No prison time. Judges clapped their hands for father because he upheld the honor of his home.
Autopsy performed on murdered young woman. Why? To check to see if she were virgin. If not, the Christian man with whom she spoke must be murdered as well.
Where does this fiendish act take place?
Jordan.
The land next to Israel. The country whose deceased head of government years ago married an American woman. This happened, not in the African bush country, but in modernized Jordan.
HONOR LOST is the real-life book by Norma Kouri. The woman killed by her parent? Dahlia. Dahlia had the misfortune of being reared in a Muslim home. Though she was smart, vibrant and concerned about others, her father was of the killing faith. Others of her gender are killed daily for the same "reason."
It is figured that 5,000 women are slaughtered in so-called "honor killings" every year in the Middle East. What have they done to deserve this? They have been raped. Or they have been accused of adultery, though that is trumped up. Or they have talked to a strange man, suspicioned to be Christian.
If father or brother or husband gives testimony in court of any of these situations, that's enough. Off with her head or knife blades in her torso.
In 2000, the United Nations had before it a draft resolution condemning "honor killings." Muslim Jordan and 19 other countries abstained from voting. Go figure.
And this is the segment of the world where sane diplomats are dialoguing concerning humanitarian treatment guaranteed other mortals. This is where a fresh democracy is trying to plant itself. This is where the United States President George W. Bush seeks to establish a roadmap of peace between Jews and Arabs.
Give me a break in all this high ground venture.
Surely those living in a democracy have become so enamored with the their freedoms that they envision the entire planet enjoying same. But write it down in bold print that there is a vast killing machine out there that works on self-absorption rather than caring for human beings.
That is why every day in every way the American liberty-blessed citizenry must stand alongside every effort to overcome the killing machine - whether it is that macabre murder plot of a father to knife his daughter or the militant alley thugs who seek to snuff out every Jew and eventually topple North American democracies.
(email comments to josephswank@yahoo.com)