Many reports provide the following text for Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code No.16 of 1960: "He who discovers his wife or a female relative committing adultery and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them is exempted from any penalty" (The Plain Dealer 8 Sept. 1999; The Middle East Nov. 1999; The Guardian 7 Sept. 1999). According to The Jordan Times, Article 340 states that "He who discovers his wife, or one of his female relatives with another in an adulterous situation, and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, benefits from a reduction in penalty" (21 Aug. 1999). The Jordan Times of 21 February 2000 summarizes Article 340 as follows:

Article 340 exempts from penalty males who murder their wives or female relatives discovered committing adultery. The second clause of the article reduces the penalty if the victim was found in an "adulterous situation."

Several reports also point to Article 98 of the Penal Code as having an impact on the sentencing of those who commit a violent act against a woman. The Middle East of November 1999 translates Article 98 as "He who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unlawful or dangerous act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction of penalty."

In a letter sent to the Jordanian Prime Minister, Human Rights Watch indicated that

the Jordanian Penal Code treats this form of violence against women as a lesser crime and even, in some cases, as justified behavior. Articles 340 and 98 of the Jordanian Penal Code exempt or reduce the punishment of individuals convicted of murdering women in the name of honor. Article 340(a) exempts from punishment a perpetrator who discovers his wife, or one of his female relatives, committing adultery with another person, and kills, injures, or harms one or both of them. Article 340(b) reduces the sentence for the perpetrator of a murder, injury, or harm, if he discovers his wife, one of his sisters, or other relatives, with another man in an illegitimate bed. And, article 98 reduces the sentence for the perpetrator of a fit of fury crime committed in response to a wrongful and serious act on the part of the victim. None of these laws specifies what an illegitimate or wrongful act might be, yet all three have been invoked to justify minimizing the punishment for honor crimes (9 Aug. 1999).

In another article, The Jordan Times provided the following description of Article 340:

According to the law, the killer must have been "surprised," by the act, which means that he cannot benefit from the exemption or reduction in penalty if he knew beforehand that the victim was committing adultery.

He should also have caught the victim in the act, or in a situation that indicates, beyond reasonable doubt, that she was committing adultery.

The killer must also be directly related to the victim (father, husband, son or brother), and he must have committed the crime immediately to prove that he acted in a fit of fury. (17 Nov. 1999)

The issue as to whether Article 340 of the Penal Code should be changed or abolished has been part of the political debate within Jordan's civil society for a number of years. First begun under the late King Hussein and Queen Noor, the debate has been intensified since the arrival of King Abdullah who supports, as well as other members of the Jordanian Royal family, the legislative changes. Rejected twice by Jordanian MPs, the changes to Article 340 have been approved by the Senate.

The Middle East indicates that honour crimes are most common in "poor, uneducated families, living in over-crowded shanty towns or impoverished rural villages. Consevartive and often excluded from Jordan's slowly emerging consumer culture, these families place the burden of family honour squarely on the shoulders of their women." (Nov. 1999). "Honour killings occur in both Muslim and Christian families", according to the same source (ibid.). "It is a tradition with no basis in the Koran even though killers often claim otherwise. Scholars say that a phenomenon from pre-Islamic tribal societies has meshed with the Arabic concept of Ird, or family honour." (ibid.).

Commenting on state protection available to women victims of violence, including those of honour crimes, The Middle East indicated that;

Women fleeing violence, rape or family retribution who seeks state protection are jailed alongside convicted criminals as Jordan has, up to now, had no women's refuges. Up to 50 poor, uneducated Jordanian women who have no job prospects and nobody to bail them out are currently in jail indefinitely. Jordan is to open its first refuge for battered women later this year in Amman, under a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) (ibid.).

In the 9 August 1999 letter sent by Human Rights Watch to Jordanian Prime Minister it is stated that

Jordanian women's rights activists observe that, in general, law enforcement authorities compound this legal bias with inadequate investigations and lenient sentences. For example, police investigations into honor crimes typically focus only on the assailant and overlook the involvement of family members in arranging the crime. Articles 340 and 98 of the Jordanian Penal Code allow for leniency in punishment according to judges' discretion. Judges have given unduly lenient sentences, influenced by inadequate collection of evidence by the police and by social acceptance of killing as a salve for violated honor.

The only official effort to protect women threatened by their families for perceived violations of family honor has consisted of placing these women into the protective custody of prisons or corrections facilities. They are officially referred to as 'administrative detainees.' A woman victim is thus imprisoned while her attacker goes free. Reportedly, official statistics indicate that fifty to sixty women threatened by their families on the basis of honor are placed every year in administrative detention for periods ranging from a few months to over three years. In addition, corrections officials treat women as minors by not allowing them to leave the facility at their own discretion. A woman thus is allowed to leave the facility only with the approval of a male guardian, usually a father, husband or brother, who himself may have threatened her.

Rana Husseini of The Jordan Times also wrote that

Many women are forced to spend indefinite terms in the country's correctional facilities under what the state terms "administrative detention," but what is actually a system of protection so that they will not be killed by relatives for having "dishonoured" the family (17 Dec. 1998).

In the 21 February 2000 article from The Jordan Times, the authors, Rana Husseini and Dima Hamdan questioned the deputies' vote against abolishing Article 340:

When deputies claimed that cancelling the article was "legalising obscenity and is detrimental to the morals of women," several of them contended that they represent the opinion of a tribally-dominated and conservative society.

However, according to participants in the march, all but one tribal leader joined the march in condemnation of the Lower House's decision.

The bill was submitted by the government last September and coincided with a campaign led by a group of Jordanian youths who managed to collect more than 15,000 signatures in favour of cancelling the article (ibid.).

On 22 February 2000, The JordanTimes stated that

The Senate on Monday [21 Feb. 2000]upheld a recent decision to cancel the article, and now a joint session by the two Houses will determine the fate of the disputed article, since it has been rejected twice by the Lower House.

Meanwhile, Al Azhar Ifta Council, one of the most respected Ifta institutions in the Sunni Muslim world, was quoted in an Arabic daily on Sunday as issuing a fatwa stating that no individual has the right to take the life of a female relative caught committing adultery or found in an adulterous situation.

The fatwa added that if an individual tells the reason he killed, then he isslandering his victim, and by that violating the Islamic Sharia which ordered people to keep these issues hidden to protect the dignity and honour of families.

However, the newspaper article points to another fatwa issued the same day by the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, stating that "cancelling Article 340 contradicts Islamic Sharia." (ibid.).

According to The Star of Amman,

Statistics released by the Public Security Dept. Show that 19 women were killed in "Honour Crime" cases in 1995, it was the same for 1996. In 1997, the figure increased to 20 murders but declined in 1998 (17 Feb. 2000).

The Jordan Times indicated that

Officials and medical examiners have confirmed a large number of "honour crime" victims examined after they were murdered had not engaged in any sexual activity. Annually around 20 women are reportedly killed in Jordan in the name of "family honour." (6 Feb. 2000).

The 17 November 1999 edition of The Jordan Times indicated that in 1998, 22 women were killed in the name of family honour, while 14 had been reported in 1999.

In an interview with The Star of Amman, a female lawyer in Jordan and former senator Na'ela Al-Rashdan, provided the following explanation regarding Art. 340:

She reiterated that according to the Penal Code, the article is put for men who kill or injure "immediately", and without the slightest inclination of premeditation, their wives or unmanageable female relatives after they find them in the act of illegal copulation. The article, said Al Rashdan, contrary to what many believe, has nothing to do with honor crimes committed out of mere suspicion. Honor crimes, which have been simmering in Jordan and have much infuriated human rights activists and feminists in and outside the Kingdom, have been committed out of suspicion that a female relative or a wife was having an affair with someone. These incidents have raised more than an eye brow, especially after discovering that most victims of these crimes were found innocent. Hence, Al Rashdan pointed out that the National Jordanian Campaign to abolish honor crimes, has targeted the wrong article. "Article 340 gives men only, who commit crimes under the circumstances mentioned above the right to be exempted, " she explained. "If we really want to solve the problem, I think it would be through applying the same article on women, because they also are apt to lose their temper when faced with a situation where they find their husbands or male relatives in the act of illegal sexual relation. We should amend the article, not abolish it, simply because it is put to exempt people who fall into a state of complete shock, losing their sanity," she added. Another article, which is being wrongfully associated with honor crimes, is Article 98. The article reduces prison sentence on anyone that kills or injures another person who constitutes a threat on his/her (the assailant) life. "However, many believe that men who commit honor crimes out of suspicion take advantage of this article, but they can't, because according to the Jordanian Constitution, killing under suspicion is a crime," Al Rashdan noted. "Nobody whosoever has the right to end a human life just because he suspects or hears a rumor in relation to his wife or a female relative. I support the increase of punishment on people who kill others out of suspicion. I am with the amendment of Article 340, as to include women as men. I also call for more rigid punishments on the act of adultery and illegitimate sexual relation (punishment on this act in Jordan is between 6 months to 2 years in prison)," Al Rashdan told The Star. She stressed the importance of the role of the media in explaining that men committing honor crimes out of suspicion are "not" exempted and their acts are crimes of murder that entail no decrease of prison sentence. (9 Dec. 1999).

A 26 March 1999 United Nations document to the Secretary General entitled Elimination of Violence Against Women stated that

In Jordan, the Penal Code provided for gender equality in all provisions and aspects with the exception of those having to do with adultery; the latter were under examination. The Legal Committee of the National Committee for Women had proposed modifications to the Penal Code to remove gender discriminatory provisions. Laws provided specific protections for women and ensured their safety. Anyone who intentionally beat, injured or harmed another person, by any effective act of violence or assault whatsoever, was subject to punishment of imprisonment for a period of from three months to three years. The Penal Code provided for imprisonment of those who sold or acquired for the purpose of sale or distribution any obscene article in any form that implied immorality.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

The Guardian [London]. 7 September 1999. Karen Thomas. "Jordan's Women Fight to Repeal Honour Killing Law." lawysiwyg://70/httP;//www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,79920,00.html [Accessed on 25 Feb. 2000]

Human Rights Watch. 9 August 1999. "Letter to Jordanian Prime Minister." http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/aug/honorlet.htm [Accessed on 25 Feb. 2000]

The Jordan Times [Amman]. 22 February 2000. Rana Husseini. "Sabeel to Publish Survey on 'Crimes of Honour'." http://www.access2arabia.com/ [Accessed on 22 Feb. 2000]

_____. 22 February 2000. Rana Husseini and Dima Hamdan. "Senate Upholds Decision on Article 340, Reject Gun Draft Law." http://www.access2arabia.com/ [Accessed on 22 Feb. 2000]

_____. 6 February 2000. Rana Husseini. "March Against Honour Crimes Postponed." http://www.access2arabia.com/ [Accessed on 7 Feb. 2000]

_____. 17 November 1999. Dima Hamdan. "Amendment to Article 340 on Honour Crimes Faces Opposition in Parliament." http://www.access2arabia.com/ [Accessed on 17 Nov. 1999]

_____. 21 August 1999. Rana Husseini. "Activists to Launch Public Campaign Against Crimes of Honour." http://www.jordanembassyus.org/082199003.htm [Accessed on 25 Feb. 2000]

_____. 17 December 1998. Rana Husseini. "Govenment Urged to Release, Protect Women Threatened by Relatives." http://www.jordanembassyus.org/121798006.htm [Accessed on 25 Feb. 2000]

The Middle East [London]. November 1999. Karen Thomas. "The Deaths That Dishonour." http://www.africasia.com/icpubs/me/nov99/mems1102.htm [Accessed 25 Feb. 2000]

The Plain Dealer. Karen Thomas. "Punish Slayers of Female Kin; Jordanian Rights Groups Say." (NEXIS)

The Star [Amman]. 17 February 2000. Ibtisam Awadat. "Honour Crime Continue to Stir Controversy in Jordanian Society." http://star.arabia.com.html [Accessed on 21 Feb. 2000]

_____. 9 December 1999. Rasheed al-Roussan. "Misconceptions Over Article 340 Must End, Lawyer Says The Star." (NEXIS)

United Nations. 26 March 1999. (E/1999/8A/54/69). Elimination of Violence Against Women. New York: United Nations Publications. http://www.un.org/esa/ coordination/ecosoc/doc99-8.htm [Accessed on 25 Feb. 2000].