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Dying of shame: Jordan's honour killings

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A Jordanian court charged a man on Monday with the premeditated murder of his sister after he confessed to stabbing her thirty-five times with a knife. He claims to have killed her to "cleanse the family's honour".

Reuters/Ali Jarekji
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The 26-year-old man turned himself in to the authorities. He says he killed his older sister because she was pregnant eighteen months after becoming a widow.

In Jordan, premediated murder is punishable by death, but the courts often grant reduced sentences in cases of so-called honour killings.

Pro-democracy demonstrators in Jordan have brought down the government and, as an unintended consequence, put on hold discussion of a law that would punish any man who kills a female relative with a minimum twelve years in prison.

Rana Husseini, a Jordanian journalist and author of a book on the subject, discusses the ongoing battle to criminalise these murders.

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