Palestinian activists press Abbas to outlaw honor crimes
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to sign laws criminalizing honor crimes despite pledges to do so.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — When Samah Bader of Hebron got married five months ago, she did not know it would be the beginning of the end. She had no clue that she would become the eighth woman to be killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2014. On March 4, Bader's husband, a lawyer and university instructor, stabbed her to death in their Ramallah apartment.
As reported by Al-Monitor in early 2013, the Palestinian territories experienced an increase in the number of gender-based crimes in comparison to other years. In 2012, 14 "honor crimes" were committed, while in 2013, that number almost doubled, to 27. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 15 of the victims had resided in the West Bank, while the other 12 had lived in the Gaza Strip.
