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When the decapitated body of Aasiya Zubair Hassan was
found early
last month in Orchard Park, N.Y., there was widespread speculation that
the gruesome death was an “honor killing” based on Islamic religious or
cultural beliefs. The dead woman had recently filed for divorce from
her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, whom police promptly arrested and
charged with second-degree murder.
It is, of course, ironic that the defendant had founded
a
Muslim-American television station to help fight Muslim stereotypes and
noteworthy that the Muslim community strongly protested suggestions
that the murder was either motivated or condoned by Islamic tradition.
But there is good reason to believe so.
At least three similar murders have occurred in the
United States over the past year and thousands have been reported
worldwide.
As unfathomable as it is to Western minds, “honor
killing” occurs
frequently. Though largely a vestige of traditional patriarchy and not
explicitly approved by Islamic law (Sharia), it remains part of
the fundamentalist culture. In that world, a man’s honor consists of
two primary components: his reputation, as determined by his own
actions in the community, and the chastity or virtue of the female
members of his family. [`Honor
Killings’ Rife In Islamic World]
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