Palestinian Mother Speaks Out About Daughter’s Honor Killing
Those who commit so-called honor crimes continue to receive light sentences in the Gaza Strip despite efforts to amend outdated laws in this regard, Asmaa al-Ghoul reports.
Hiyam, a 23-year-old Palestinian woman, was killed at the hands of her father and brother at dawn on March 8 under the pretext of a so-called honor killing. Her mother Souad, 44, spoke with Al-Monitor at the family's home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the heart of the Gaza Strip. Looking gray with fatigue, and so worn out she could not even stand, Souad said, “They wronged my daughter Hiyam. She was my eldest daughter and the sweetest of them all. May god avenge her father and brother.”
The mother told Al-Monitor her daughter's story. “I was visiting my parents, and I slept at their place. Around 3:00 a.m., I received a call from my eldest son, Adham, telling me to rush back home. I felt there was something very bad. When I arrived at home I found my daughter standing there in silence,” Souad said, pointing to a corner in the house. Souad continued, “Adham said that they had found our young neighbor Ahmed inside the house. I asked my daughter, and she said it was a thief jumping out of the window. They did not give her a chance to speak. My daughter was shy by nature. She did not even defend herself.”
With her surviving children sitting around her, Souad's eyes filled with tears, when she added, “I knew they were going to kill her. I screamed and cried, and then I don’t remember anything except that I woke up in a closed room with my young children.”
They wronged my daughter Hiyam. She was my eldest daughter and the sweetest of them all. May god avenge her father and brother.
