Yes, it was an honor killing

Kudos to my colleagues at the Dallas Morning News, who have a front-page story out today on the background to the murders in Dallas of Muslim teenagers Amina and Sarah Said by their father, an Egyptian immigrant. Yaser Abdel Said is still wanted by police, and he's innocent until proven guilty. But all signs indicate that yes, it was an honor killing:

Almost immediately, police issued an arrest warrant for the girls' father, 50-year-old Yaser Said, an Egyptian-born cab driver who family members said was given to fits of violence, threats and gun-waving rants about how Western culture was corrupting the chastity of his daughters.

But it was more complicated than that. Said had been investigated before on accusations that he sexually abused his girls. When the kids were 8 and 9, they told police their father molested them. Their mother signed an affidavit attesting to the truth of the accusations. But they later recanted.

The story goes on to frame honor killing like this:

Mr. Said often espoused his version of traditional Middle Eastern values, prompting speculation the murders were "honor killings," an ancient Arab tribal custom in which the man of the family kills women he believes have shamed the family. The practice is now widely repudiated.

That's not true, that it's "now widely repudiated." As the United Nations reported last year about how difficult it is to fight the practice in Jordan (one of the more liberalized Arab countries):

“There is no political will to fight so-called honour crimes. The tribal mentality is the main driving force that makes this phenomenon spin out of control,” said Reem Abu Hassan, a leading women’s rights activist in the kingdom.

Though the girls' great aunt told the News a couple of days ago that it was, in fact, an "honor killing," that's disputed now by their mother and brother:

In a brief phone call in which she declined to comment further, his wife, Patricia, angrily rejected the notion that Mr. Said's Muslim religion or culture had anything to do with the murders.

Her son, Islam, 19, agreed.

"Why is it every time an Arab father kills a daughter, it's an honor killing?" Islam said. "It didn't have anything to do with that." He declined to answer other questions.

Reza Aslan made the same point yesterday in our Bloggingheads.tv segment, which I think will be up later today. He was pretty upset with me for even suggesting that this might have been an honor killing, saying that I only use that term as a way of drawing attention to the alleged killer's Muslim religion. My contention, though, is that it's vital to understand the cultural context in which a murder took place. Obviously men who are not Muslim or Arab kill their daughters. But however much it embarrasses contemporary Muslims, traditional Arab Muslim culture (and not only Arab Muslim culture) has certain views of women, of honor, of sexuality and of violence that, taken together, weakens or removes the taboo we in the West observe against violence against women. Understand what I'm saying: violence, even deadly violence, against women is (sadly, outrageously) a universal phenomenon. But it's far more acceptable in traditional Arab Muslim culture.

Yaser Said doesn't seem to have been faithful to his mosque or his prayers. And yet, according to the girls' aunt:

"I remember [Sarah] telling me that her dad told her he would take her back to Egypt and have her killed," she said. "He said it's OK to do that over there if you dishonor your family."

The mother, Patricia Said, will carry a heavy burden of guilt the rest of her life, and should. She knew what kind of a brute her husband was over the abuse he heaped on his girls. In late December, she took the girls and ran away to get away from him, because he'd started making death threats against them. Rented an apartment in another state and everything. But, according to the story, she went back to him because she felt guilty over leaving her monster husband. And now her daughters are dead.