Child Killed in Honour Killing

Honour Killing is generally defined as the murder of a female member of a family by the family, when they (and maybe the wider community) believe her to have brought dishonor upon them. A woman can be targeted commonly for: refusing an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or committing adultery. Basically, these killings result from the perception that defense of the "family honor" justifies killing a woman whose behavior "dishonors” that family.

Recently, in Riyadh, a young woman was killed by her father, a Saudi man working with the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or Religious Police, because she converted to Christianity. The girl, who used several nicknames, including, Rania, wrote several blog posts regarding her religious conversion, and indicating her life had become an ordeal after her other family members had grown suspicious following a religious discussion with them. Sources close to the victim indicated that Rania’s father apparently cut the tongue of the girl and burned her to death following a heated debate on religion.The death of the girl sent shockwaves through the internet community, and the websites where the victim used to write her posts have allocated special space to mourn her, “While some others closed temporarily in protest.”

It has been common practice for Saudi religious scholars to warn against the dangers of Christian websites and satellite TV channels, which they claim, attract Muslim youngsters to change their religion. Muslim leaders have determined partaking of such dangerous multi-media is against the teachings of Islam.

The “Free Copts” website published a message which it received from a friend of the victim, revealing that the killer, her Father, is in police custody and that he is being investigated for an honour related crime.
http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi ... 36558.html