Letter to Jordanian Prime Minister

I am writing to express Human Rights Watch's deep concern over the killing of eleven women in the name of so-called ‘family honor' in Jordan since the beginning of this year. Approximately twenty-five to thirty women are killed in Jordan each year in the name of honor, and crimes of honor constitute about one third of the number of the country's homicides. We are particularly concerned that the government's failures to abolish the laws allowing lenient treatment of such crimes and to punish appropriately those who commit them contribute to a climate of impunity for this form of violence against women.