In the Qur’an, a mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.” (18:80-81)
And according to Islamic law, “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2).
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.” In Iran, according to the New York Times, the legal system “treats parents who murder their children with relative leniency, as the maximum sentence for the crime is only ten years.”
“UP: Headless body found in Meerut identified, Shahid Qureshi arrested for killing own daughter and throwing her head away,” OpIndia, August 17, 2022:
Days after a headless dead body of a young woman was found in the Lakkhipura area of Meerut, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested a 50-year-old man named Shahid Qureshi in the case. The accused is the father of the woman whose body was found on August 12.
The woman has been identified as a young woman named Shaina, daughter of one Shahid Qureshi. Qureshi wanted his daughter to get married and so had fixed her Nikah, as shared by Dainik Bhaskar journalist Sachin Gupta. However, the proposal was not acceptable to Shaina. She strongly opposed the proposal after which her father got enraged and beheaded his daughter. He separated her head and wrapped her lower body in a bedsheet. The Meerut Police are still looking for the woman’s head….
