ONE of the civilized behaviors many people in our societies often lack is the virtue of admitting mistakes. Instead, there is an insistence on stubbornness under the belief that the inevitable can be ignored and a resistance to personal development. However, correcting a mistake late is always better than never correcting it at all !
Before and after 2010, I wrote several articles on the topic of honor crimes, particularly focusing on Article 153 of the Penal Code, which permits lenient sentences for those who commit what are deemed “honor crimes”, a term that is far from honorable. Except for a few exceptions, Islamic countries handle honor crimes with a disturbing level of leniency. In these cases, a woman or girl is killed by a brother, husband, father, or sometimes an uncle or cousin, often due to suspicions about her relationship with a man, or even just a rumor that tarnishes the family’s honor.
This concept of honor is tied to certain areas of the human body, influenced by educational, cultural, and ideological factors. The accusation, however, has little to do with the true virtues of honesty, integrity, patriotism, and morality. It is deeply troubling to think that someone would be willing to kill their own child based solely on suspicion.
In the name of “honor,” thousands of murders have been and continue to be committed. This is made easier by the tolerance of certain laws toward the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, even when investigations often reveal the victim’s innocence in any wrongdoing. As long as society remains backward and its laws allow leniency toward the perpetrators, these killings will continue. Spending only a few months in prison or paying a small fine of 3,000 rupees (or KD 225) guarantees the criminal a false sense of honor in the form of a permanent reputation of masculinity in the eyes of some.
To avoid the damaging effects of this tolerance for heinous and inhumane crimes, Minister of Justice Nasser Al-Sumait revealed a government move to abolish Article 153 of the Penal Code. Under this proposed change, a man who kills a woman in an honor killing would be treated the same as anyone accused of murder. The current text of Article 153 creates discrimination between men and women, and its harms far outweigh its benefits. While we know that some may argue there is a religious legal basis for this punishment, it is enough to cancel it because it violates human rights.
For 65 years, Article 153 granted special treatment to the murderer in honor killing cases. We have repeatedly called for the cancellation of this article, but it seems as though our calls had been falling on deaf ears or with responses such as “To whom do you read your psalms, Ahmed,” and “To whom do you write when the majority either do not read or do not care about what they read?” It would have been ideal if we had taken the initiative years ago to abolish this article, rather than waiting for signals or external pressure to “humanize” our laws and make them more consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We should not have waited for criticisms from international organizations regarding Kuwait, as highlighted in the statement by the Minister of Justice. With the cancellation of this article, a man who kills a woman will be treated the same as anyone accused of murder, and the provisions of the Penal Code will apply to him. It may be surprising to note that the cancellation of Article 153 was in line with the Constitution, which in Article 29 guarantees equality among people in human dignity, as well as in public rights and duties. The Constitution also prohibits discrimination based on gender, origin, language, or religion.
I am puzzled as to how the minister did not notice that both Article 135 of the Penal Code and Article 29 of the Constitution have been clearly visible to all the lawmakers and officials for the past 60 years. Why did no one pay attention to them or care about what we have repeatedly written? Despite the past inaction, we can only express our gratitude to the Justice Minister and the Council of Ministers for this important humanitarian step. We hope this marks the beginning of more reforms in this new era. Better late than never ... The truth is finally here, even if it took 60 years!
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