Laws of the land

*Jordan's Penal Code states that "he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, is exempted from any penalty." It goes on to say that "he who discovers his wife, or one of his female relatives with another in an adulterous situation, and he kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, benefits from a reduction of penalty."

Similar laws can be found in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.

"In Saudi Arabia and Qatar, rules of sharia (Islamic law) apply, stipulating that the killer of an adulterer cannot be penalized."

Source: "The Price of Honour: Violence against women in Jordan," by Fadia Faqir, coordinator of the Centre for Middle Eastern Women's Studies, Durham University in England.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society