The prosecutor called Noor Almaleki’s attempted (now completed – she died today) slaying an ‘honor killing,’ and expressed concern in court about the community of supporters behind her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who helped in his attempted escape. The Almalekis are from Iraq.
At the link above, you can watch the father’s first appearance in court where he is read the charges and the prosecutor makes the case for not allowing him bail, or setting his bail very high.
Here’s my transcript of part of what the prosecutor says the state believes about his attempt to escape:
We can’t be naive and not admit that there is a cultural aspect to this, and there may be people that would support him – including his family – but also others who share his beliefs. This was an attempt at an honor killing.
The defendant tries to hide behind his moral convictions, and yet he also fled. The state has serious concerns that this defendant would attempt to flee if he were to be released and that he does have the resources and others that would be willing to help him, as they obviously did.
If the prosecutor keeps talking about culture and the “cultural aspect” to the case this could get sensationalized into headlines like “Culture of honor killing goes on trial in Arizona” or some such thing.
Noor Almaleki’s friends and other who knew her have been communicating at this thread here at Talk Islam.
mirelle 6:51 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
Well, in defense of the prosecutor, Faleh Almaleki has shown he’ll go to great lengths to get away. I was under the impression that he’d driven to Atlanta, where he was picked up. That’s not the case. He went into Mexico and took a plane to London, where he was deported to Atlanta. I’m thinking high bail, ankle bracelet and take away his travel documents (don’t know if he’s a citizen or not) at the very minimum.
mirelle 6:56 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
About the “cultural aspect,” I think the prosecutor is falling all over himself to try and keep away from the landmine that is allegedly “religiously-motivated honor killing.” He’s trying to keep it “cultural.” Not sure if it’s going to work.
johnpi 7:02 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
So far, I think they’ve done a good job of staying away from religion, even in the media reports.
aziz 7:37 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
to answer your question on your own post on this below, Mirelle, I think that the right response here is for the muslim community to actually acknowledge that this was an honor killing by the father’s own admission.
from there, a condemnation of honor killings by the muslim community is on stronger ground.
mirelle 9:25 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
Thanks, aziz. As you can imagine, it’s something of a hot topic here in the Phx area right now.
razib, murtad fitri 7:23 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
well, those who justify this sort of stuff in the civilized world do tend to use the term “culture” or “cultural” more than “religion” or “religious.” they prolly know that if they used religion they’d get a huge chorus of disagreement. OTOH, there’s not much “this isn’t true iraqi culture” (fill-in-the-blank) as rejoinders, perhaps because people don’t “own” cultural identities in the same way (and religionists have a tendency to offloading the negative things done in the name of religion as cultural corruption too)….
Samia Dodin 6:19 pm on November 3, 2009 Permalink |
When a tragedy such as this occurs, it is incumbent upon all Muslims in the US to unequivocally condemn this barbaric act. The community must take a stand and can no longer be in denial about this primitive, indefensible brutality. This cannot be white-washed; it cannot be labeled “domestic violence”; it cannot be rationalized or justified in any manner. Let’s call this what it is: an “honor killing”; an expression of immature, violent impluses (toward women in particular) which find acceptance and/or tolerance in some circles in the Islamic world. This is old fashioned tribal bull which associates the honor of an entire family (tribe actually) to the sexual chastity of the females in the family. The men in the tribe can be losers, thieves, liars, or any number of reprehensbile things but by God, as long as the women are pure, then all is well with the world. It angers me as an Arab woman that I have to experience such events as they occur to sisters and they get discussed in western media. How can one defend such acts: one cannot and one SHOULD NOT!!
Samia Dodin 6:25 pm on November 3, 2009 Permalink |
I would like to add that the Islamic view on punishment for fornication / adultery seems much more nuanced and egalitarian (men and women are both punished if their sin is proven beyond doubt) than the cultural imperatives of honor killing. I am no muslim scholar, but I know of an anecdote in which the prophet Mohammad (pbuh) discouraged a woman from her repeated confessions to the sin of adultry. One would hope that the western media would be sophisticated enough to differentiate and delineate all the attendant subtleties; but that would be like hoping that a lot of men in the middle east would do the same in their own minds.