This week has been tough on the news front and given the following account, it is about to get tougher.

Earlier this week a court in Amman opted to halve the jail term of 15 years granted to the unnamed 29-year-old who shot his sister 12 times last year in their home town of Mowaqqar.

Her crime? Being the victim of rape.

According to officials:

The woman disappeared from home for six months after she was raped last year. Police kept the woman in custody for protection and later handed her over to the family, but the brother shot her 12 times in different parts of her body once she arrived home, killing her immediately. [Source]

Murder is usually punishable by death in Jordan, but all too frequently the notion of ‘honor’ skews the judgement into leniency.

This is, of course, simply abominable.

The poor girl had suffered what no woman should ever have to and clearly was too terrified to return home – hence the disappearance.

Were the police aware that they were releasing her into an even more volatile environment? If so, was there anything else they could do?

Perhaps we should look away briefly from the perpetrators of the honor crimes and the scandalous judgements and ponder the frameworks in place for victims of rape.

If safe-houses were available potential victims of honor crimes could at least salvage some form of life from their trauma.

As it is, they are being thrown to the lions.

And the blood is on the hands of the courts, too, for commuting the sentences in the name of an archaic tradition.

It’s worth noting, as an addendum, that this sentencing came shortly before a 24-year-old farmer stabbed his sister to death on the basis of rumors that she was dating a man.

On average 20 women die a year in Jordan as victims of honor crimes.

With the court showing such empathy to the murderers there is little deterrent.

Life should mean life – there is no honor in killing another human being.

Khalas.