Zahra al-Azzo: Martyr for Ending Honor Killing

It was nice to see the New York Times devoting so much real estate in the Sunday magazine to the ongoing practice of honor killing. Katherine Zoepf basically takes the case of Zahra al-Azzo, which has received quite a bit of publicity, and looks at how it might be the tipping point for really changing both the culture and the law in Arab countries, like Syria, where honor killing is still widely accepted. Though statistics are almost impossible to gather accurately, The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5,000 women die every year as a result of honor killings.
Zahra’s case has been palpable to the public because it isn’t muddled by the hot button issues of female agency and sexuality. In short, Zahra was raped, then married by a sympathetic cousin, and finally murdered by her own brother.
I feel mixed about this, of course. On the one hand, anything that we can do to stop the practice of honor killing must be done. On the other hand, it feels a little disingenuous to have the martyr of that change still fit into a box of purity and innocence so that it makes everyone comfortable. Perhaps the answer is to get honor killing criminalized and then work on changing consciousness. Zoepf reports:

With tensions like these in play, Syrian women’s advocates are careful to phrase their criticisms of tribal traditions of honor and Article 548 in Islamic terms. Though some will privately admit that they are secularists, even feminists, they keep it quiet. It would be politically impossible to suggest in public, for example, that women have the right to choose their sexual partners. The basic culture of chastity is in no way being publicly rethought. Some advocates say that their cause is damaged if they are perceived as sympathetic to “Western values,� and even that honor killing is seen by some conservatives as a bulwark against those values.

Zoepf, the author of the piece, is working on a book on the lives on women in the contemporary Arab world. If her ability to capture the reality and a vision for the future in this article is any indication, it could be a really powerful read.