Norma Khouri - Fact Or Fiction?

Norma Khouri: Fact or Fiction? By Madhavi Madala Friday, 29 August 2008 Norma Khouri and her book Forbidden Love have attracted much controversy since the book’s publication in 2003. Norma Khouri has been heavily criticised and ridiculed by many of her subsequently large audience for the book’s apparent neglect of correct information and statistics, the creation of non-existent characters and its possible strategic appearance after the tragic events of September 11 when the Islamic world suddenly became the focus of every news story and documentary. Many claim that Norma Khouri’s book is full of factual errors and misconceptions. They say that honour killings are extremely rare events that occur only in rural Muslim communities. However, there are a lot more honour killings occurring in Jordan, a lot of these being in Christian families as well. So has Norma Khouri really conned the world with her emotional and heartbreaking story, or was there even some truth hidden in the pages of her bestselling book? An honour killing by definition is the intrafamilial murder of a person for the actual or perceived immoral sexual behaviour in an attempt to restore “family honour”. Actions that can constitute immoral sexual behaviour include rape (in which it is the victim that is killed, rather than the offender), extramarital or premarital intercourse, and even something as trivial as alleged flirtation. Honour killing is believed to have its origins in misinterpretations of the Muslim holy text, the Qu’ran. In 2000 the UN Population Fund estimated that globally there were over 5000 cases of

honour killings every year, a majority of these occurring in but not restricted to Islamic dominated countries, around 2550 of these in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan. However, some people say that only about 20 have been reported in Jordan each year, not even close to what Norma Khouri reports in her book. As you can see, there is no consistent data available to judge to what extent honour killings occur. According to Khouri in her book, there is inconsistency in the figures given by the government and other official organisations. Some governments claim that 25% of all murders in Jordan are honour crimes, while others protest that only about 25 in all occur each year. In 1999, the Public Security Director, Major General Thaher Fawaz said that of the 61500 crimes in Jordan that year, 54000 of these were robbery, assault or immoral acts which include honour crimes, rape, molestation and other charges made against a woman’s honour. As you can see, there are far more than just 25 honour crimes occurring every year. So it seems that the information that Norma Khouri has provided in her book is not so inaccurate. There does seem to be proper justifiable information evident in her book. Honour killings are not restricted to only Middle Eastern countries. They happen everywhere from Turkey to Brazil and even in Britain. Turkey has a long history of honour killings. A recent government survey estimated that at least one person dies every week in Istanbul as a result of honour killings. This put the nationwide

death toll to 220 in 2007, with around 1000 which have being committed in the past five years. Police also estimate that more than a dozen honour killings take place in the UK every year. There was the case of the brutal rape and murder of 20 year old Banaz Mahmod by her uncle and father in 2006 and the murder of Rukhsana Naz in 1999 who was strangled for wanting to file for divorce. However, honour killings don’t seem to be happening to only women. Gay men are being targeted as well. This recently came into light with a wave of anti-gay killings happening in 2006 in Iraq by fanatic Islamist militants. A Jordanian man was also shot and wounded by his brother in 2004 for apparently being gay. Recently, another case has emerged of Ahmet Yildiz, who was another victim of homosexual honour killings. The 26 year old was shot outside a café near the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey earlier this year, his crime, to openly admit to his family that he was gay. A few months after coming out, Yildiz claimed to a prosecutor that he was receiving death threats but the cases were dropped. Police are now investigating his murder. For gay rights groups, Yildiz’s inability to get protection was a typical side effect of the indifference, if not hostility, with which a large portion of Turkish society views homosexuality. The military, for example, sees homosexuality as an ‘illness’. So there is obviously no backlash by a majority of the population against occurrences of honour killings, and most often, the people involved in an honour killing are treated as heroes by the community.

If there was one major reason that Norma Khouri was so heavily criticised, it was because the characters in her book were fictional. Dalia didn’t exist. Neither did Michael. Norma never lived in Jordan, well at least not for as long as she claimed. But do all these things matter? No, not really. Sure, maybe not all of the book was true. But Khouri actually explored the gruesome details of honour killings with so much depth. She wrote the book so it could be more accessible to a larger audience. Perhaps, if she hadn’t written the story to be so personal and emotional, and it was just another boring book talking about women’s right, etc, it may not have appealed to so many people and it could have been just another book sitting on the back shelves of a few libraries, read by no one. Honour killings would not have been known about and so many people would not be trying to gain women rights and petition against violence towards women. As you can see, there is a lot more going on in world than some people might want us to believe. Honour killings do happen, not only to mostly innocent women, but also to men. And they happen in very large numbers. It’s up to us to decide whether what is happening to these unfortunate people is just. We have to go beyond the media hype of factual errors and emotional deception, and actually look at the basic message being put out in the book. Honour killings are a serious issue, and they must be dealt with so that the generations to come can have a safe, secure environment to grow in.

Bibliography Author Unknown, 2007, “Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public Opinion Survey”, Amazon.com, [Online Site] Available at: www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Honor-Jordan-National-%2522Honor%2522/dp/9957860704

Nicholas Birch, 2008, “Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey's first gay honour killing?”, The Independent, [Online Site] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-ahmet-yildiz-the-victim-of-turkeys-firstgay-honour-killing-871822.html

Terri Judd, 28 April 2008, “Barbaric 'honour killings' become the weapon to subjugate women in Iraq”, The Independent, [Online Site] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/barbaric-honour-killings-become-theweapon-to-subjugate-women-in-iraq-816649.html