A divorced Jordanian woman was reportedly stabbed to death by her 33-yeard old brother in a suspected crime of “honor killing,” The Jordan Times reported on Friday.
Lt. Col. Mohammad Khatib, spokesperson for the Public Security department, told the paper that the incident was “a result of family feuds.”
The suspect reportedly stabbed his younger sister once in the side of her chest after an argument at his home in the village of Baoun in Ajloun. Pathologist Ali Shotar, who was head of the team that performed the autopsy on the 22-year-old victim, indicated that the sister died of internal bleeding as a result of a deep cut in her chest.
The victim was supposedly divorced almost a year before the incident.
“It seems that the suspect was constantly arguing with his sister about her movements and was attempting to restrict her mobility because she was a divorced woman,” a source told The Jordan Times.
But Col. Khatib An said initial investigation indicates that the murder was related to “domestic issues and the family honor motive is ruled out.”
The suspect, who was not identified by officials, was ordered detained for 15 days at a correctional center pending further investigation in the case.
In October 2011, a Jordanian man stabbed his sister to death after allegedly seeing her picture in his friend’s mobile phone. The incident was reported as one of a series of “honor killings” in the kingdom in 2011.
“Honor killings” occasionally happen in some parts of the Middle East.
On Monday a battered wife was brutally killed in front of several witnesses in an open-air market in Bethlehem, according to report by Lebanon’s The Daily Star.
Instead of getting stabbed by her brother, however,
The throat of Nancy Zaboun, a 27-year-old mother of three, was slashed after seeking a divorce from her abusive husband, after 10 years. The husband is currently the prime suspect and was arrested, West Bank officials told the paper. Zaboun was regularly beaten by her husband, but even so, he was never arrested, only signed a pledge not to beat her again.
On Wednesday, dozens of women staged a memorial for Zaboun in the Bethlehem market alley where she was killed, holding signs and chanting, “No to violence against women.” One sign read, “Shame on us Palestinians for killing our women.”
Thirteen women were killed by family members or in suspicious circumstances blamed on relatives in 2011, said Farid al-Attrash of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights to Lebanon’s the Daily Star, adding that in 2012, 12 women were killed by relatives, including three in so-called “family honor” cases.
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