Ladies, what would you feel if you are being denied the right to education?

Being denied the right to choose who to marry? Being denied the right to drive a car? If I was the one who had to faced this kind of situation I would certainly felt that I am being oppressed, that I am being denied the right to choose what to do with my life. That I am being denied a right to live. This is what I felt when I was reading a book about the life of a princess who lives in Saudi Arabia, a land ruled by man whom in my opinion thinks with their heart but not with their head. I have learn a lot about the injustices faced by the women of the desert after reading this book and since this book was written more than 20 years ago I decided to do a further research as to whether Arab women are still being subjected to injustices or not, as it intrigues me that Middle Eastern women are being badly treated by the men. So today I would like to inform you about the 3 injustices faced by Middle Eastern women. The three injustices are Middle Eastern women are being subjected to honour killing, they were not given the custody of their children in the event of a divorce and women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving cars. So what is honour killing exactly? According to UNICEF, honour killing is an ancient practice in which men kill their female relative in the name of protecting their family honour for suspected sexual activities outside marriage. The killing is known as honour killing due to the beliefs that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family and the community and because of that the victim has to be killed. Honour killing is a type of injustice to women because honour killing is a murder committed to woman and girls for the purpose of protecting the honour of the family. According to Imam Hashmi of the Kingston Islamic Centre of Canada, honour killing was not even stated in the Holy Quran or in any other Islamic religious text. The idea of killing a woman who is involved in something that brings shame to a family is a barbaric act based on the customs and traditions of the Arabs and not based on religion. Honour killing is being associated with Islam as the world is perpetuated by the fact that honour killing is mostly committed by Muslims. Honour killings occur with shocking regularity in the Middle Eastern countries as it has been apart of the culture of the Middle Eastern people. In addition to that, people in the Middle Eastern countries still commits honour killing as the law themselves allows for such killing to be carried out in the name of protecting the familys honour. In Jordan for example, families often get their minor sons to commits honour killing as the law allows convicted minors to serve time in juvenile detention centre and be released with a clean criminal record at the age of 18 years old. Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code for example, exempts a men who commits honour killing form any criminal penalty.Rana Hussein, a leading journalist on the topic of

honour killing states that in Jordan under the existing law, people found guilty of committing honour killing often received lighter sentence, as light as a six months imprisonment for the punishment of committing honour killing. In Saudi Arabia, honour killing is illegal. But people who commits honour killing will gets away with it, scout free as the judiciary body does not prosecute those who commits honour killing because in Saudi Arabia woman is being authorised by the man and it is up to the man to punish the woman in any way that he thinks is fit . Honour killing target women whose actions violate the honour of their family, an honour which is thought to depend on the sexual purity of its female members. Anything from speaking to an unrelated man, to rumoured pre-marital loss of virginity and to an extramarital affair can be a cause for honour killing. In some tragic instances, even women who have been raped are killed to remove the shame from the family honour. In August 2008, the al-Arabiya website reported that a young Saudi woman was murdered by her father for chatting on Facebook, The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot to death after she was discovered to be in the middle of an online conversation with a man. A Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki claims that the network is corrupting the youth as it is a door to lust and because of that Al-Maliki supports the fathers decision of murdering her daughter for chatting on Facebook. In June 2011, BBC UK reported that Libyan woman was raped by Muamamar Gadaffis supporters are being murdered by their own families as rape in Libya is considered as a dishonesty even if the woman are perfectly innocent of the act of rapping. If a family decides not to prosecute a woman who was a rape victim, the family will be assaulted by the community as what has happened to the family of Kainat Samooro from Pakistan. Kainat was 13 years old when she was raped by 4 man at her village. The tribal leader of her town calls for her to be killed but her family refused to do so and because of that her family was under constant threat by the villagers. In the end, Kainats brother was murder by the villagers as a punishment for her family for their refusal to kill Kainat. Transition 2: Enough about the brutality of honour killing. Let us now move to my second point, which is Middle Eastern women are being denied the right to custody of their children in the event of divorce.