RUTHFULLY YOURS

According to this report, “the victim was the second woman to be killed for reasons related to family honour during the month of June, and the seventh since the beginning of the year, according to medical sources.” Funny how that keeps happening. The unwillingness on Islamic grounds to stiffen penalties for honor killings within Jordan — the vaunted modern, moderate Jordan — certainly does not help.

“Two brothers charged with premeditated murder of their sister,” by Rana Husseini for the Jordan Times, June 13 (thanks to Larry):

AMMAN – Two brothers were charged on Saturday charged with the premeditated murder of their married sister in the latest so-called honour murder to occur this year, official sources said.

The 19-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, was reportedly shot in the head by her 20-year-old brother in a bus on the way back to Amman from her husband’s house in Irbid, one official source said.

The suspects were immediately arrested by a police patrol unit that happened to be in the area at the time of the shooting, the source added.

The victim’s 20-year-old brother claimed family honour as his motive because his sister married a man against her family’s wishes, while her 18-year-old brother denied any involvement in the murder, but Criminal Prosecutor Aktham Dababneh still charged him with complicity in premeditated murder, according to the source.

A second source told The Jordan Times that the victim wanted to marry her 19-year-old cousin but her family refused.

“After the family repeatedly turned down his marriage proposal, the two decided to marry on their own and moved to Irbid almost 10 days ago,” the source said.

The family knew where their daughter resided and on Saturday night, they took her from her home in Irbid and on the way back, her brother reportedly drew a gun and shot her to death, the source added.

A team of government pathologists comprising Issa Gheishan and Shadi Maaytah performed an autopsy on the victim and established that she died of two gunshot wounds to the head.

Dababneh issued orders for both suspects to be detained for 14 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigation into the case.

The victim was the second woman to be killed for reasons related to family honour during the month of June, and the seventh since the beginning of the year, according to medical sources.

On June 1, two men were ordered detained after allegedly stabbing their female relative to death in the street after learning that she was pregnant out of wedlock.