2. What is it About?
The story is about a young woman named Salma.
She grew up very sheltered in her home village
where she worked a goatherd and abided by the
customs. She seduces a local young man who she
gets pregnant by. Her family finds out about her
scandal and sets out to kill her. She is rushed into
hiding, and kept in ‘protective custody’ for 5 years.
Her baby daughter is born and immediately given to
her family to raise. Salma escapes to England to live
her life, hiding from her family who is tasked to
‘honor kill’ her.
3.
4. Jordanian Culture - Views on Women
• 80.9% of parents believe that protecting the female equates
to protecting the family’s honor.
• 55% believed that a woman should be accompanied by her
brother when she is outside the house.
• 66% are opposed to women having the same rights as a men
of the same age with regard to being unaccompanied outside
the house.
• 49% are opposed to a female child playing outside the house.
• 29% say that all women should get married regardless of their
education.
• Almost half of boys and one in five girls in Jordan's capital city,
Amman, believe that killing a woman who has "dishonored,"
or shamed, her family is justifiable.
5. Environment
• Salma’s homeland is never named except for
referring to Jordan.
• Jordan – views on women's status vary based on
the legal, traditional, cultural and religious values.
• When a society’s view on women relies on traits
that tend to have a universal agreement that
women are a lesser class, it leaves little to no
room for women to grow on the societal ladder
or gain respect.
6. Interview
• Interviewee - Dima Kakish
• When asked about the commonality of honor killings: “My
family is Greek Orthodox, so it’s not common in our culture as
it is in Muslim religions. Living in the same area, it is very
common to hear about it in other families. The same thing
tags along with arranged marriages – the families feel
‘shamed’ if their arrangement is not lived out and disown
their child. It’s not as severe as when a woman becomes
pregnant…”
7. Interview Continued
• When asked about society’s view of women in Jordan: “Men
in particular choose to validate and justify their own
conservative, traditional, and sexist attitudes towards women
by referring to tradition and religion. Society views women as
a completely different social class than men. Women are
raised to obey strict cultural customs such as simple daily
attire. If one alters even their clothing, their family could be
shamed. Not necessarily to the extremity of an honor killing,
but it goes to show that one doesn’t need to get pregnant to
be rejected by society. You can see that men have a much
easier life in this type of society. They are not discriminated
on a daily basis, nor constantly watched to see what rule
could possibly be broken.”
8. Our View
After reading the book, listening to the interview,
and plenty of research, we have been able to see a
whole new world of struggle that women face. We
have always been aware of hardships in other
countries, but when you take the time to look into
just one area of weakness, it really allows you to
see how extreme (yet so common) these struggles
really are. Now that we have been filled with all of
this information, we really want to help in any way
possible to raise the social status and respect for
women in the Middle East.
9. Bibliography
• "Jordan's 'Honor' Killings Persist Despite Reform
Efforts - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East."
Al-Monitor. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
• "The Cry of the Dove." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 19
Mar. 2014.
