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Defying a Clan Code of Silence on Unspeakable Crimes

[New York Times] Isabel Kershner - The Abu Ghanem women are buried just inside the main gate of the old Muslim cemetery in Ramla, Israel, eight in the last seven years. So-called honor killings among Muslims are a phenomenon across the Middle East, including in Israel, where Arabs, most of them Muslim, make up almost 20% of the population. The Israeli police and courts have caught and convicted some of the killers; unlike the laws in some Arab societies, Israel's do not make allowances for such acts. In January, after the last killing, of Hamda Abu Ghanem, 18, female relatives decided to speak up. Twenty of them. According to the police, Hamda had refused to marry a man her family had arranged for her as a husband.
2007-04-20 01:00:00
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