A few days ago, I read a news story about a man from the Middle East who shot his daughter dead in the hospital after she gave birth to twins because her husband passed away four years ago.
Honor crimes are rampant in the Middle East. Unfortunately, these crimes have been linked to Islam, not culture, although it is purely a product of culture.
Islam has never called for such crimes.
There are no Quranic verses or Hadith "prophet's saying" which enjoin the killing of the daughters who misguidedly committed Zina, or "adultery."
Strangely enough, the perpetrators kill their daughters and assign no punishment for their sons who commit the same act. It is a severe inequality Islam does not tolerate.
The Quran considers females and males equal, and therefore puts them at the same level in terms of reward and/or punishment.
For adultery, Islam ordains a 100-lash flogging for the single female/male and an until-death stoning for the married male/female. Stoning was ruthless, I feel, but deterrent enough to protect the family from cheating.
It pushes both couples to be as loyal as they can to their partners. It is the culture that picks out only the female to be killed as a price for the wasted honor.
As a Muslim, I feel sorry that one might think Islam calls for honor crimes when it calls for the opposite. With the advent of Islam, all types of oppression imposed on females have changed.
Females used to be severely oppressed 1,400 years ago, and current honor crimes are a remnant of that ancient oppression. Arabian women in the past were prone to rape at the end of battles. They, along with children, were captured by the triumphant tribes, who tended to use women as wives and children as slaves. At this stage of history, weak tribes felt very scared of the strong tribes and began to fear the results: If defeated, your daughter/mother/sister (your honor) will be raped.
To avoid such consequence, Arabs decided at that time to bury their young daughters alive. For them, it was the only way to clear the possible dishonor.
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, came to people feeling sad if their wives gave birth to a female. He came to people who did not want to have daughters; they would rather sons.
Sons defend the family, but daughters defame it, in their eyes. Muhammad reconstructed this ignorant mentality to accept female newborns and eradicated such nonsense.
He taught them their decision of daughter burial is evil. The Quran says, "When news is brought to one of them, of (the birth of) a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and) contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah! what an evil (choice) they decide on? (16:58/9)"
He also enlightened them that the birth of a female or a male cannot be decided on; it is a godly choice that should find acceptance.
The Quran says, "To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills (and plans). He bestows (children) male or female according to His Will (and Plan). Or He bestows both males and females, and He leaves barren whom He will: for He is full of Knowledge and Power. (42:49-50)."
Only through these verses could Muhammad create a new attitude toward women and convert this closed mindset into a more open one. As a prophet and a social reformer, he tried his best through Islamic teachings to defend the rights of women, but the culture remains ignorant of his teachings, continuing honor crimes to this day.
Muteb Alqarni is a Ph.D. student in the linguistics department at UF.
