Tuesday, March 18, 2008
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Phyllis Chesler: Murderous Mothers. The Hidden Female Face of Honor Killing - 'Texas-born Patricia ("Tissie") Said, formerly of the Owens family, is the mother who lured her two teenage daughters, Sarah and Amina, to their deaths at the hands of their own father this past New Years Day in Dallas. How can a mother do such a thing? Even if her own life was threatened, even if her husband Yasser had literally held a gun to her head and told her to trick her daughters into returning, isn’t a mother supposed to sacrifice herself for her children? Or at least to protect them? What can explain such a perversion of maternal instinct and of the life force itself?...'
This is one of the misconceptions about dishonor killings. Too often, women are complicit in them (and I am not referring here to the victims).
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"