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NOW calls it an honor killing; when will the rest of us?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Feb 22, 2009

A light-hearted moment with

New York City Councilwoman Helen Sears

A few days ago, I shared a stage in New York with a group of gutsy dames. We received the 2009 Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Despite the laughs you see in the photo above, I unexpectedly wept during my acceptance speech. My tears expressed shame over the honor killing of Aasiya Hassan. A young Muslim mother who lived in Orchard Park, New York, she helped her husband launch Bridges TV, the channel dedicated to promoting positive images of Muslim Americans.

Her headless body lay on the floor of the TV station only days after she filed for divorce. Police have arrested Mr. Positive Image. Or should I call him Brother Bridges-Builder?

NOW is among the few progressive groups anywhere in the U.S. to describe this gruesome act as an “honor killing,” rooted in cultural customs that assume women bring shame not just upon themselves, but upon their entire families. Frankly, NOW deserves an award of its own for having the gonads to tell the truth.

Even conservative Muslim voices are hinting that we can’t ignore the tribal tradition of honor in this case. Read the rambling statement issued by the Islamic Society of North America. ISNA is a lobby group that’s educating all of us about the diversity within Islam (which, I suppose, is why every woman on its masthead wears the headscarf. Hooray for Muslim diversity!)

Unable to neglect the sickening nature of Aasiya Hassan’s murder, ISNA pussyfooted around the H-bomb — never using the phrase “honor crime” — but we get the point:

“Women who seek divorce from their spouses… should not be viewed as someone who has brought shame to herself or her family… Therefore, to our sisters, we say: your honor is to live a dignified life, not to put on the face that others want to see.”

Will the U.S. media finally begin naming crimes like these, with or without fear of offending?

In future searches for culprits, will the FBI restore the words “honor crime” to Wanted posters instead of caving to the weapons-grade whininess of Muslim lobbyists, as has happened in the recent past?

(Take a look at the FBI’s bulletin about Yaser Abdel Said, an Egyptian who allegedly killed his two daughters in Texas. Like tampering with the evidence at a crime scene, the FBI has cleansed this poster of the word “honor.” As for the link to the original poster? Here’s how far it gets you.)

Finally, will people who define their values as progressive emulate the moral courage shown by NOW?

Let’s all draw a lesson from Susan B. Anthony. In 1872, she dared to vote on behalf of American women, and she justified doing so under the U.S. Constitution itself. The judge reached his verdict before the trial — then fined her $100. Susan B. flipped him the feminist finger:

“May it please your honor, I shall not pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a $10,000 debt, incurred by publishing my paper – The Revolution – four years ago, the sole object of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms of law that tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while denying them the right of representation in the Government; and I shall work on with might and main to pay every dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

To learn more about “honor killings,” click here.