Israel supporting Arab women

UN commission on women accused of ignoring 'honor' killings
By MELISSA RADLER
NEW YORK
JPost.com

"Honor killings,"an age-old phenomenon that causes the deaths of thousands of women and girls every year, were ignored by all Middle Eastern delegations to the United Nations' 47th Commission on the Status of Women except Israel, said the founder of Israel's first shelter for Arab women, Sahar Daood.

The UN's annual conference, which brings together female government representatives and women's organizations from around the world, this year examined the access of women to the media, information, and communications technologies, and the elimination of violence against women and girls.

A draft resolution lamenting the plight of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation was being considered by delegates this week.

While pressing the Palestinian cause, Arab and Muslim representatives failed to mention "honor killings,"the murder often with official sanction of women and girls who are believed to have tarnished their families' honor, said Daood.

The lone delegate to speak out on the issue was the head of Israel's delegation to the conference, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a lecturer at the faculty of law at Bar-Ilan University and head of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women, at a panel discussion on violence.

"Arab women live in a society where social and religious norms legitimate violence,"Daood said at a briefing earlier this week with Israeli delegates. "Unfortunately, those awful incidents are not isolated and are continuing to occur with frequency."

According to reports by journalists and human rights groups, honor killings number up to several thousand per year in the Arab and Muslim world and among Muslim communities in the West.

The chairwoman of the public affairs and NGO department of WIZO, Brenda Katten, said two European nations brought up the subject of "honor killings"in what they termed "minority communities,"but none identified the communities as Muslim.

Daood said she was surprised that no representatives other than Israel's mentioned the phenomenon outright. "I thought it's an important issue,"she said. The killings are still widespread in many areas of the Middle East, and she noted that the silence may be related to "traditional norms."

In addition to pressing for justice for Arab women, Daood also sought to build bridges between Israel and its Arab neighbors at the conference, which began on March 5 and runs until the end of the week. She met with women from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco.

The Syrian delegation, she noted, refused an invitation to meet with her.