The father who killed his daughter got a life sentence (see related post). One thing I find curious though-where are the mentions of honor kills in Gulf states? After all, Jordan (even Pakistan) are relatively liberal Muslim countries, yet the story mentions both as hot-beds of honor killings (Jordan especially seems to crop up many a time). What about Saudi Arabia? Kuwait? etc. Perhaps the stories aren’t coming out of those nations because of their closed societies, but I wonder if the situation might be modelled as an energetic barrier:
A) conservative society + no freedoms for women =>
B) conservative society + some freedoms for women =>
C) non-conservative + freedoms for women
In society A, there is no question of "honor" because women are never in the position to dishonor, in society C "honor" loses its value (relatively), while society B sits atop the energy hill, tottering back & forth between the two extremes, with the volatile mixture of conservative values but enough freedoms to transgress social expectations[1]. I believe today we are seeing many societies moving over that energetic barrier and the tensions & stresses to the social frabic are byproducts of the transition….
fn1. From what little I know, much of it revolves around the appearance of impropriety-a situation more plausible in a society where women have legal freedoms to act as independent agents (to some extent) and possibly enage in "dishonor." Note the the attacks upon great Roman women by historians, from Livia to Agrippina the Younger, a direct consequence of the conflict between a conservative society, but one liberal enough to allow women a place in public life.
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