BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CAUSES OF HONOUR CRIMES IN
EGYPT:
The legal system in Egypt is contradictory in that it guarantees women's rights in the public arena, restricting them in the private sphere. The personal status law for
example, permits not only male polygamy, but the right of the husband to divorce his wife for no good reason and the expulsion of a divorced woman from the marital residence if she has no children or her children are beyond custody age. It also
requires the wife's obedience if she needs the husband to spend on her. Family law prioritizes the reproductive role of woman, assuming that men alone are responsible for providing for the family. It places the protection of the family unit above individual rights within the family, giving men privileges to go with the role of sole
provider.
Likewise women are not treated as individuals, but rather as wives, mothers and daughters expected to obey the patriarch; and the control of the sexuality of girls and women is observed and monitored by male members of the family. [
Just Breeding cattle - Cal]
Economic rights are further determined by the woman\s position within the family.
Because the family remains the basic unit of Egyptian society, family structure and relations play a significant role in determining women's economic opportunities.
The problem is not only with the law but also with the application of the law that undermines women's rights. Judges in many cases are influenced by the same patriarchal biases of society. Women cannot be judges in Egypt except in the Constitutional court.
The law is implemented by men only (police and justice depts.
are all men) Girls are socialized to consider marriage life's mission, because a woman does not have status unless she is married. As a result, women tend to accept and tolerate injustices that take place in the family. Many women, especially from low and middle
income classes, tend to sacrifice their individual rights for the sake of preserving the marriage. Control of women's sexuality is a major obstacle to their practice of rights.
Religious extremists place the blame for excessive libidinal drive on women alone, with the result that female genital mutilation is universally practiced and veiling is increasingly imposed and honour crimes are acceptably practiced.
Honour crimes refer to the murder of a woman by her male family members for a perceived violation of the social norms of sexuality, or a suspicion of women having transgressed the limits of social behaviour imposed by traditions. This includes seeing
or meeting a man even if this is only a suspicion or a gossip. Honor crimes include also a husband kills his wife whom he or other family members suspected her of adultery.
It is difficult to estimate the overall number of honour killings that take place yearly in Egypt. An Egyptian report based on 1995 statistics counted 52 honor killings (out of 819 murders) reported.
Neither Shariah nor modern laws have appropriately penalized the practice due to the strong influence of the tribal system and popular beliefs about women's sexuality.
In addition, modern penal codes and also the practices reinforce the notion that men have a "right" to punish women for improper sexual behaviour.
Honor crimes constitute a major violation of women\s human rights. It is the most extreme form of domestic violence. Murder to cleanse family honor is a type of crimes committed against women, with impunity, in many parts of the world.
Egyptian films represent honour killing as part of highly valued and well respected tradition. Family honour is shown as dependent on the sexual conformity of its female family members. With the strong wave of conservatism in Egypt, strong criticism ofthe practice of honour killing by activists is rejected by many. They consider activists
who condemn the practice as deviants from the religious principles and from good traditions and that they are only attempting to adopt a western agenda that does not respect family's honour and that permit females to practice premarital and extra
marital relationships.
Article 17 of the Egyptian Penal code allows judges to decrease the sentences given in the case of murder when they decide that the condition of the murderer requires so.
Such reductions reach as little as six months that could also be spent during the trial.
Therefore the murderer can escape being imprisoned and walks free.
Also in the same penal code, a man's act of adultery is adulterous only in the marital home (article 277), but a wife is adulterous outside, or inside the marital home, and need not be found deflagrate delicate for the husband to benefit from the defense of
inflamed emotions. The constitutionality of these laws has been challenged by activists in Egypt.
[
Ok, this UN report must be wrong. Lestat's study was what he observed himself in Egypt. Who is going to send the UN the correction memo? Cal ]
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-gp-2005/docs/experts/khafagy.honorcrime...