Nabila Rizq, director of coordination in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for the Palestinian Authority (PA), said that the number of Palestinian women being murdered by families in “honor killings” doubled in 2013. Rizq criticized PA President Mahmoud Abbas for not doing enough to address a PA law that protects the perpetrators of these crimes.
According to Rizq, last year the number of women murdered in PA-controlled territory in honor killings rose to 27 from 13 in 2012. A clause in the PA penal code acknowledges extenuating circumstances that would allow such murders, despite ongoing demands submitted to Abbas asking to remove that clause, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO executive committee, called for an end to granting allowances to murder women.
“Women are not a symbol of men’s or families’ honor, but are an equal member [of society], like all other individuals in society,” Ashrawi said, the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported.
