Project Activities

The IRC had been invited by the organizers of the KARAMA Human Rights Film Festival to be one of the Jordanian NGOs and institutes present during the festival from 5th to 10th December 2010. At a Mathlouma-stand in the reception area in the Royal Cultural Center – the main venue of the festival – the Mathlouma-films were being played on a monitor, and Mathlouma-articles were handed out to visitors. Two members of the IRC staff were present at all times during the six days to answer the many questions that were posed by the generally very interested visitors regarding our study and the issue of honor crimes in Jordan.

In response to the keen interest expressed by the mostly young Jordanians who visited the stand, the IRC decided to organize a seminar especially for these youth and collected their contact details. On January 17, 2011 they were invited to a seminar at the IRC to discuss the issue of honor crimes.

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One of the project’s objectives is to disseminate information and raise awareness on so-called honor crimes based on creating evidence-based links between crime and poverty indicators. The awareness sessions conducted by the IRC over the span of a full year was also designed to build and encourage open and productive dialogue on the cultural mindset behind such crimes and the impact of the crime in the long term on affected individuals, families and the society.  To fulfill that objective, the IRC conducted a total of 33 awareness sessions in the Middle, Northern, and Southern parts of the Kingdom. 

The target groups included both male and female adults and youth, with around 450 women, 127 men, 240 children, and 90 female and male youth benefiting from the awareness sessions.

The research team presented the groups with the objectives of the project entitled "Removing 'honor' from 'crimes of honor’’-  a project to change the mindset of Jordanians towards so called Honor Crimes- and open a dialogue over the findings of the study.  Selected videos created during the course of the project to display the public, religious and cultural opinions on such crimes, were also presented to the audiences of the awareness sessions.

One of the more revealing outcomes from these series of awareness sessions is that women were found to be less tolerant of the behavior of other women and therefore more forceful in their demand for killing the “truant” woman. Men, on the other hand, were found to be mostly guarded in their support for such crimes. Young children were seen to be the most important beneficiaries of these sessions especially that they were the most inquisitive and questioning of the reasoning behind such crimes.

The groups proposed recommendations on how to tackle this issue most notable of which were:

-          Educating both boys and girls

-          Tighter surveillance on media and technology

-          Emphasis on the role of the family in upbringing and guidance

-          Starting with awareness on such issues in schools

-          Media campaign to create awareness

-          Raising both females and males on the same principles and values

-          Achieving equality between men and women

-          Strengthening the relations between parents and children

-          Applying tougher penalties on such crimes

Selected quotes from the sessions:

 “If the girl is wrong, she should be killed, so she will be a lesson for others.”

“When there is shame, there should be fire" - “the society and the people will not forgive you.”

“The boy has honor in the same way as the girl" - “the boy can bring shame to his family too.”

Four round table discussions have been held at the Information and Research Center (IRC) premises with the purpose of disseminating the findings of the study, engaging relevant stakeholders in discussion on the issue and eliciting recommendations. These sessions were part of the advocacy and lobbying efforts in order to liberate the concept of 'honor' from so-called honor crimes.

Participants included journalists, sociologists, psychologists and other academics, women's rights defenders and activists, religious leaders, representatives from various NGOs and the Ministry of Justice.

The majority of the attendees agreed on the importance of the study conducted by IRC with its partners, Macdera and the Jordan Center for Social Research (JSCR) especially that it was multidimensional with a unique emphasis on the economics of the crime.  

Most of attendants emphasized the need to arrive at a collective and socially relevant definition of the term 'honor', in order to separate this social concept from the sexual and social behavior of women. Many - especially legal experts and lawyers - also argued against the legal relevance of using the term  “crime of honor” as it was clarified that there are no legal texts that refer to any crime as a so called “crime of honor.”

Participants at these round table discussions highlighted the importance of the study’s investigation into the link between poverty indicators and so-called honor crimes and recommended taking the research further and conducting multidisciplinary investigation into the contributing factors to the occurrence of these crimes in order to facilitate an evidence-based approach to eradicating them.  

Specific recommendations were made to increase the penalty for these crimes and extending the legal liability to include those who encourage these crimes such as extended family members and to remove the legal allowance for a guardian to drop charges against the perpetrator of the crime in cases where the guardian is the relative of both the victim and the perpetrator, such as in the case where a father drops the charge against his son who kills his daughter.

The Information and Research Center held the closing ceremony of the project Removing ‘Honor’ from ‘Crimes of Honor’ on the 10^th of February 2011 at the Century Park Hotel.

The ceremony started off with an opening note from Ms. Nermeen Murad, the Director of the IRC, in which she gave an overview of the two-year project, the challenges faced during the research process and the lessons learned. Her Excellency Ms. Joanna Wronecka, the Head of the EU Delegation in Jordan, followed by pointing out how this project falls into the EU – Jordan action plans and priorities, while stressing the need for similar projects in the future and the EU’s commitment in supporting them, in order to change current mind-sets in the long run.

The conference hosted three guest speakers, Parliamentarian Ms. Wafa Bani Mustafa, Rapperteur of the House’s Legal Committee and member of the Public Freedom Committee & Citizens Rights, who highlighted the legislative and cultural challenges facing campaigners against so called honor crimes. Brigadier General Mohammad Al Zobi, Director of The Public Security Department’s Family Protection Unit, gave an overview of his Department’s activities. Finally, Judge Mohammad Al Tarawneh wrapped up the opening ceremony by highlighting the positive change in the legal environment and legislation but impressing the crucial need to change Jordanian mindsets and attitudes towards such crimes.

The IRC presented short films it developed as part of the project to create awareness of the religious, legal and cultural contexts of so called honor crimes. This was followed by a light lunch offered which gave participants an opportunity to engage in informal yet fruitful discussions. Transcriptions and PowerPoint presentations are available for review below.

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