A Family's Honor: 48 Hours Mystery to Highlight US Honor Killing

COMING UP ON 48 HOURS MYSTERY: PRIMETIME NETWORK BROADCAST TO SHED LIGHT ON UNITED STATES HONOR KILLING
 

“A FAMILY’S HONOR”
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 (10:00 P.M., ET/PT)

 

In October 2009 two women, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki and 43-year-old Amal Khalaf, were struck by an accelerating SUV while crossing a parking lot in suburban Phoenix. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 49-year-old Faleh Almaleki, Noor’s own father. He fled the scene and became the target of an international manhunt. He was finally apprehended by customs officials in London and extradited to Arizona.

Even more shocking than the callousness of the crime was what investigators believed was the motive.  

“In certain traditions and in certain cultures, if a father believes that a female has acted in a dishonorable or disrespectful way, the only way to restore that honor is to kill them,” said Detective Chris Boughey, who led the investigation.  

In 2011 Faleh Almaleki was tried for murder. His defense claimed this was a terrible accident, that Almaleki had never intended to hurt his daughter. But the State charged him with first-degree murder, making this one of the first cases in the United States prosecuted as an honor killing.

Although most common in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, honor violence and honor killings are now becoming more common in Europe, Canada and now the United States. According to the United Nations, an estimated 5,000+ women are murdered annually in the name of honor. “If it can happen in Peoria, Arizona,” Boughey tells 48 HOURS MYSTERY correspondent Troy Roberts, “it can happen anywhere.”

The primetime broadcast which explores the alleged honor killing of Noor Almaleki, entitled “A Family’s Honor,” will air on Saturday, April 7 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS network.

The producers are Lisa Freed and Jonathan Leach. The senior producer is Anthony Batson. Susan Zirinsky is the executive producer of 48 HOURS MYSTERY.

AHA Foundation Supporter Update

Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head of the UK's Forced Marriage Unit; Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana and Sabatina James, founder of Sabatina EV attend the AHA Foundation's International Women's Day and HONOUR Launch cocktail reception.

AHA Foundation staff have been hard at work during the first months of 2012 and we are pleased to report on our recent projects and accomplishments.

On November 17th, the AHA Foundation was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. State Department for our support and guidance in assisting victims of forced marriage.  We continue to work with the State Department on forced marriage and keep in regular contact with them about their efforts to combat forced marriages and how we can work together on this issue.

Our legislative efforts are successfully gaining traction.  We continue to receive positive feedback from federal legislators on our Violence Against Women Act proposal and have met with the offices of interested senators and representatives.  On the State level, we are thrilled to report that New Jersey State Senator Weinberg introduced our Female Genital Multilation bill.  That bill has now been introduced in both houses of the New Jersey legislature and appears to be on a track to passage.  A state legislator in Louisiana has also recently introduced an FGM bill.

We have initiated a substantial research project with The John Jay College of Criminal Justice that seeks to quantify the incidence of honor killings in the US, and forced marriages and FGM in New York City - something that has never before been done.  The honor killing portion of the study is moving along well and we expect to have at least preliminary results by early summer.  Additionally, we met with the students working on the forced marriage and FGM studies and are very impressed with the team.

We have identified a number of opportunities to provide training to law enforcement and child protective service professionals on honor violence and forced marriages and are working to create training materials on these topics.  This program will be a primer on these issues and provide basic information and best practices for handling cases of honor violence and forced marriage.

In February and March, we made significant progress toward creating a pilot national forced marriage hotline.  We are in contact with non-profit organizations from both the US and the UK, with whom we are planning to partner.  We are hopeful that this pilot will be up and running later this year.

Our Research Director has completed a nearly final draft on a report on Sharia law.  The report describes why Sharia law is problematic from the perspective of women's rights, explains why there is cause to be concerned about Sharia in the United States and other European countries, and proposes legislative remedies to prevent a proliferation of Sharia law. The report also analyzes what exactly Sharia is and why it tends to be resistant to change.

We continue to connect girls that contact us for help to appropriate services.  We recently helped a girl connect with a pro bono lawyer to help her avoid a forced marriage.

Last week, we attended the Women in the World Summit in New York City.  The AHA Foundation has been listed on the Women in the World Foundation website as a Solutions partner, which is a great spotlight for us.  As part of the conference, we hosted a cocktail party last Thursday evening to celebrate International Women's Day and launch our new HONOUR products.  To date, we have an HONOUR tote bag, tie, pink and white candles.  The cocktail reception was a major success, particularly in the caliber of guests who attended.  We were thrilled to host Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana; Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head of the UK's Forced Marriage Unit; Phyllis Chesler, honor violence scholar; and Sabatina James, forced marriage survivor and founder of Sabatina EV.

We have begun planning our Annual AHA Foundation Conference, which will be held in New York City at the end of September.  Last year's conference was a huge success and we are looking forward to an even bigger and better event this year!

We couldn't do all of our important work without your support.  To help us continue in our fight against the oppression of women and girls, please consider making a donation or purchasing one of our HONOUR products today.

NJ Senator Weinberg Introduces AHA Foundation Bill Against Female Genital Mutilation

The AHA Foundation applauds New Jersey Senator Loretta Weinberg for introducing our bill to prohibit female genital mutilation in New Jersey.  New Jersey Senate Bill No. 1171 sends an important message that female genital mutilation is a serious crime and will not be tolerated in the state.

Currently, only 19 states have passed laws criminalizing female genital mutilation ("FGM").  Yet studies suggest that approximately 228,000 girls and women in the U.S. have either suffered FGM or are at risk. FGM has significant and lasting medical consequences for victims. Immediately following the procedure, girls are at risk for severe pain, shock, bleeding, bacterial infection, and injury to nearby tissue.  In the long term, girls and women who have suffered this procedure are at risk for recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, and complications during intercourse and childbirth.

The AHA Foundation is committed to working with legislators in the remaining 30 states to enact laws banning FGM.  For more information about FGM and our work on this issue, please visit our website:  www.theahafoundation.org.

The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World - Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Newsweek

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's article in Newsweek discusses that "From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.

The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.

From blasphemy laws to brutal murders to bombings to mutilations and the burning of holy sites, Christians in so many nations live in fear. In Nigeria many have suffered all of these forms of persecution. The nation has the largest Christian minority (40 percent) in proportion to its population (160 million) of any majority-Muslim country. For years, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have lived on the edge of civil war. Islamist radicals provoke much if not most of the tension. The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege.” Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.

In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens. They have attacked churches, a Christmas Day gathering (killing 42 Catholics), beer parlors, a town hall, beauty salons, and banks. They have so far focused on killing Christian clerics, politicians, students, policemen, and soldiers, as well as Muslim clerics who condemn their mayhem. While they started out by using crude methods like hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes in 2009, the latest AP reports indicate that the group’s recent attacks show a new level of potency and sophistication.

The Christophobia that has plagued Sudan for years takes a very different form. The authoritarian government of the Sunni Muslim north of the country has for decades tormented Christian and animist minorities in the south. What has often been described as a civil war is in practice the Sudanese government’s sustained persecution of religious minorities. This persecution culminated in the infamous genocide in Darfur that began in 2003. Even though Sudan’s Muslim president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which charged him with three counts of genocide, and despite the euphoria that greeted the semi-independence he grant-ed to South Sudan in July of last year, the violence has not ended. In South Kordofan, Christians are still subject-ed to aerial bombardment, targeted killings, the kidnap-ping of children, and other atrocities. Reports from the United Nations indicate that between 53,000 and 75,000 innocent civilians have been displaced from their resi-dences and that houses and buildings have been looted and destroyed.

Both kinds of persecution—undertaken by extragovernmental groups as well as by agents of the state—have come together in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. On Oct. 9 of last year in the Maspero area of Cairo, Coptic Christians (who make up roughly 11 percent of Egypt’s population of 81 million) marched in protest against a wave of attacks by Islamists—including church burnings, rapes, mutilations, and murders—that followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. During the protest, Egyptian security forces drove their trucks into the crowd and fired on protesters, crushing and killing at least 24 and wounding more than 300 people. By the end of the year more than 200,000 Copts had fled their homes in anticipation of more attacks. With Islamists poised to gain much greater power in the wake of recent elections, their fears appear to be justified.

Egypt is not the only Arab country that seems bent on wiping out its Christian minority. Since 2003 more than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled as a result of violence directed specifically at them, reducing the number of Christians in the country to fewer than half a million from just over a million before 2003. AINA understandably describes this as an “incipient genocide or ethnic cleansing of Assyrians in Iraq.”

The 2.8 million Christians who live in Pakistan make up only about 1.6 percent of the population of more than 170 million. As members of such a tiny minority, they live in perpetual fear not only of Islamist terrorists but also of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws. There is, for example, the notorious case of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. When international pressure persuaded Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer to explore ways of freeing her, he was killed by his bodyguard. The bodyguard was then celebrated by prominent Muslim clerics as a hero—and though he was sentenced to death late last year, the judge who imposed the sentence now lives in hiding, fearing for his life.

Justice in Canadian Mass Honor Killing

Ayaan's take on the verdict of the Shafia trial, also seen in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ayaan-hirsi-ali/shafi-trial_b_1244322.html?ref=canada

After deliberating for only 15 hours, the jury in the Canadian Shafia "honor killing" trial returned a verdict: all three defendants guilty of first-degree murder. For the premeditated murder of teenage daughters Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti, and first wife Rona, Mohammad, Tooba Yahya, and Hamed Shafia will now begin serving life sentences.

The details of this quadruple homicide have been well documented. But Justice Robert Maranger, who presided over the 12-week trial, gave perhaps the best summary of the case as he imposed the sentence on the defendants:

"It's difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honourless crime. The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your twisted notion of honour, a notion of honour founded upon the domination and control of women, a sick notion of honour that has no place in any civilized society."

The verdict in the Shafia case exemplifies the ability of Western legal systems to provide justice to victims of honor violence. In other parts of the world, killing in the name of honor serves as a defense to murder charges. I applaud the Crown attorney in Ontario for having the courage to pursue an honor violence motive in this case. They are among a small group of prosecutors in North America willing to recognize honor killings for what they are: a shameful form of violence against women supported by insidious notions of honor.

I also commend the judge and jury for thoughtfully reviewing the evidence and coming to the only logical conclusion: that the defendants committed premeditated murder because of a deranged notion of familial honor. Other prosecutors presenting cases with similar motives to Western juries have not fared as well. Last year, the judge presiding over the trial of Faleh Almaleki in Phoenix, Arizona for the murder of his daughter, Noor, rejected the prosecutor's theory that the father was motivated by the same deranged notion of family honor despite ample evidence that Almaleki murdered his daughter because of his displeasure with her increasingly Western lifestyle. The jury in that case also missed the mark by failing to convict Almaleki of first-degree murder and instead finding him guilty of murder in the second degree. To be sure, this verdict ensures that Almaleki will spend the remainder of his life in prison; however, it falls short of recognizing the hateful, premeditated nature of his crime and the full extent of Noor's suffering.

There are undoubtedly other cases of honor violence and honor killings in the West that do not receive international media attention and, indeed, do not even receive adequate attention from local law enforcement and service providers. If anything positive can come from the Shafia verdict, let it be that law enforcement throughout North America takes the time to educate themselves about honor violence. Violence and murder justified by perverted notions of family honor are happening here and the victims are most often the young women who embrace Western culture with their entire hearts and souls. It seems little to ask in return that we protect them from suffering unspeakable harm, and even death, for doing so.

What's in a Name: the Importance of Correctly Labeling Honor Killings

Sahar Shafia, honor killing victim

In Kingston, Ontario, the Shafia murder trial has entered its final stage.  Dozens of witnesses have testified in support of the prosecutors’ theory: that a father, mother and son conspired to murder the four disobedient females who threatened to pollute the honor of their polygamous Afghan family.   

As the chilling details of this quadruple homicide have emerged, new attention has been directed at the phenomenon of honor killings in Canadian society.  This attention is long overdue.  Honor violence, a global blight that occurs with devastating frequency in developing countries like Pakistan and Jordan, has claimed an increasing number of North American victims in recent years.  

Unfortunately, despite increased awareness of the problem, little has been done to improve the circumstances of women at risk of honor crimes.  The true frequency of honor violence remains largely unknown, and most government agencies are poorly equipped to identify potential honor crimes and assist their victims.  Canada and the United States lag behind Great Britain, where social workers, law enforcement officials and prosecutors receive special training in the dynamics of honor-based culture and the warning signs that may foretell an impending crime of honor.

Recently, a number of Canadian Muslim organizations issued public statements denouncing honor killings as violations of Islam.  Yet other advocacy groups have objected to the term “honor killing” itself, claiming that it stigmatizes Muslims and perpetuates misunderstandings about the nature of Islam. These individuals argue that honor violence is simply one manifestation of domestic violence, and that it is discriminatory to distinguish honor killings from the broader category of domestic violence, which takes place within all cultures. 

Respectfully, these arguments miss the point.  Although honor violence shares certain traits with domestic violence, its unique features necessitate a distinct name and approach.  In the West, domestic violence is viewed as a crime and the perpetrator’s behavior is typically condemned by his family and community.  In contrast, honor killings are justified in the name of culture and/or religion, and support for honor violence may be found in Shariah law.  Additionally, honor crimes are rarely planned and committed by the individual alone; rather, the perpetrator’s behavior is often condoned and facilitated by the family (including the females) and the community at large.  Whereas a victim of domestic violence may have an extensive support network of family and friends, a victim of honor violence is likely to be shunned by family and community because she is perceived to have caused the violence through her own behavior.

For these reasons, the domestic violence model employed by service providers and law enforcement is ill-suited for effectively investigating and intervening in honor violence cases.  Moreover, casting honor crimes under the generalized category of domestic violence prevents the collection of reliable data as to the nature and frequency of honor violence, which, in turn, prevents government from allocating resources to this distinct problem.  Perhaps most importantly, the failure to identify honor crimes as such avoids confronting the misogynistic beliefs that pervade certain communities. 

For those dedicated to the fair and equal treatment of women, the recent spate of North American honor killings demands both denunciation from the communities in which such crimes occur, and the identification of strategies to prevent them from recurring.  But before this can take place, honor crimes must be called what they are: a shameful form of violence against women supported by insidious notions of honor.  To shy away from this label imperils the lives of women for the sake of political correctness. 

Human Trafficking and Forced Marriage Are Closely Related Evils

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  At the AHA Foundation, we believe that human trafficking and forced marriage are closely related evils.  Have you ever thought about it?

Both crimes are essentially the sale of a person (in many cases, little girls) in exchange for some sort of profit. The profit can come in many shapes.  It can be actual currency as with a dowry, family alliances or even payment for some wrong that has been committed.  Visas and promises of citizenship are also often used as currency.

Another similarity with these two abuses of human rights is that both happen in the West, and yes, they happen in the United States.  In a survey completed in 2011, the Tahirih Justice Center found as many as 3,000 known or suspected cases of forced marriage in the US within the two year period preceeding the study.  We believe the number is actually much higher in that the survey was directed towards service providers and other professionals.  Many more existing cases are likely hidden from the view of officials. 

The same is true for human trafficking.  According to the Somaly Mam Foundation, "Although modern-day slavery looks different in North America than it does in Africa or Asia, the industry is nevertheless alive and thriving in all its forms."

A major hurdle in combatting forced marriage and human trafficking in the West is the perception that it does not happen here.  Help stop the sale of little girls by learning about it, tweeting about it and making your friends aware that these abuses happen here and must stop.

The AHA Foundation 2011 Annual Report

 

New York, New York

December 2011 

Dear AHA Supporter:

We are pleased to present the AHA Foundation 2011 Annual Report.  We are very proud of our accomplishments this year and are delighted to share our ongoing initiatives with you. 

Over the past year, the AHA Foundation has continued its crucial work defending women in the West from oppression and violence perpetrated in the name of religion and culture.  Some highlights from our 2011 activities are as follows: 

• In June, we hosted the first-ever U.S. conference on the topics of honor violence and forced marriages. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, joined by experts from around the world, discussed these important issues before an audience that included representatives from the NYPD, FBI, District Attorney’s Offices, Mayor Bloomberg’s office, and various advocacy organizations.  The conference was widely publicized and participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

• The AHA Foundation has intensified its efforts to expand and strengthen federal and state legislation on issues such as female genital mutilation and domestic violence. We have drafted model legislation for states that have yet to specifically criminalize female genital mutilation and have also proposed an amendment to the federal Violence Against Women Act that would address honor violence.

• This fall, we initiated a substantial research project with The John Jay College of Criminal Justice that seeks to quantify the incidence of honor violence, forced marriages and female genital mutilation in the United States – something that has never before been done. Armed with the results of this study, the Foundation will be in a much stronger position to persuade government leaders to direct attention and resources to these issues. 

• The AHA Foundation has improved its public presence by introducing a new website and logo and further employing social media to attract and engage supporters. We have worked to promote the Foundation through media spots and public appearances, and developed several exciting new fundraising initiatives, including the sale of HONOUR branded products. 

As you can see, the AHA Foundation has had a busy and productive year.  I would like to thank you for your support and encourage you to visit the AHA Foundation website for more information about our ongoing initiatives.

Sincerely,

THE AHA FOUNDATION

 

MISSION STATEMENT

The AHA Foundation works to protect and defend the rights of women and girls in the West from violence and oppression justified by religion and culture.  We focus on issues such as honor killings, honor violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and child marriage, and the acceptance of Sharia law into Western legal systems.

PROGRAM UPDATES

The AHA Foundation has had a very busy and exciting year continuing our crucial efforts to protect and defend women and girls in the West from oppression and violence committed in the name of religion and culture.  We continue to divide our work into four categories:  inform, influence, investigate, and intervene. 

1. Inform

The AHA Foundation developed a number of projects and initiatives in 2011 to inform the public about violence and oppression of women in the U.S. justified by religion and culture.  On June 6^th, the AHA Foundation hosted the first-ever interdisciplinary conference on honor violence and forced marriages in the U.S.   More than 100 people attended the conference, which was held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, including representatives from the NYPD, FBI, District Attorney’s Offices, NYC Mayor’s Office, advocacy organizations, domestic violence shelters and direct services organizations.  In addition to a keynote address by Ayaan, we brought in experts from around the world to educate our audience about these issues.   Nazir Afzal OBE, Director of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, traveled from London to give the keynote at our conference.  He discussed the UK’s response to honor crime, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.   The next speaker was Laura Reckart, lead prosecutor in Arizona v. Almaleki, the first case in the U.S. where an honor violence theory was successfully used to obtain a conviction of a father who murdered his daughter, along with Detective Chris Boughey, who led the investigation into the murder. They spoke in detail about the challenges they experienced throughout the investigation and the trial, including their disappointment with the verdict.  Finally, Sabatina James, a victim of forced marriage and founder of Sabatina EV, an award-winning German foundation set up to protect Muslim women from violence and oppression, told her story, including the problems she encountered when seeking help from shelters, police and government agencies.   A short video of conference highlights is available online.

The resounding success of the conference was exemplified by one attendee, who stood up to say that she would do her job at the DA’s office differently the next day, thanks to the information and awareness she gained at the conference. 

This is precisely the reason that we organized this conference and we are thrilled to have had such an impact on the law enforcement community in New York City.  We have been contacted by the Basildon Women’s Aid, a leader on Honor Violence in the UK, and asked to help replicate this conference in 2012 on the west coast of the U.S.

We have also focused attention on informing the general public about our key issues.  In July, we launched a new website showcasing the AHA Foundation’s updated logo and offering a more visually interesting and user-friendly destination for individuals to learn about our work and get involved. We have further increased our Internet presence though the use of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Our followers on these sites have increased by 33% and 286%, respectively, over the last year.  We also continue to regularly send our email newsletter to subscribers, whose number increased 42% in 2011. 

We have directed particular attention to raising awareness among college students and energizing them to get involved.  This year, we created an AHA Foundation campus handbook, which provides details on how to start a campus chapter of the Foundation.  We have spoken with interested students at several colleges and expect to build a small network of college chapters over the next year. 

2. Influence

One of the most important elements of our work is to educate government officials about the fact that human rights violations such as honor violence, forced marriages, and female genital mutilation are taking place in the U.S.  We also work to persuade elected representatives and policymakers to prioritize the enforcement of existing laws that protect women’s rights and, where necessary, to create specific legislation to protect women from this violence. 

The AHA Foundation significantly expanded our presence in Washington D.C. this year.  In February, we had a table at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where we met many of Ayaan’s supporters, distributed materials about our signature issues, and networked with a number of young  activists.  We also held meetings in February with staff members from Senator Portman and Senator Kirk’s offices in which we introduced them to the Foundation and discussed our legislative priorities.   In May, we met with staff members from the House Judiciary Committee and presented our proposal to amend the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to include honor violence.  In July, we sent letters to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urging them to consider our VAWA proposal.  We received an immediate response from one senator’s office, and have been working with her staff over the past several months on this proposal. 

In addition developing relationships with elected officials, we have also made a connection with the Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs on the issue of forced marriages.  In November, we were one of a few NGOs invited to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Department of State on the topic of forced marriages of U.S. citizens. 

At this meeting, we were presented with a Certificate of Appreciation from the Department of State in recognition of our work to combat the forced marriage of girls and women in the West.

We are also working to influence lawmakers on the state level.  One of our most important legislative initiatives is a strategic plan to criminalize female genital mutilation in every state.  Given the importance of denouncing and deterring this horrific practice, we find it shameful and unacceptable that only 19 states have made female genital mutilation (FGM) a specific criminal offence.   We have drafted model FGM legislation and have identified the states with the highest number of girls at risk that do not currently have an FGM law.  We have begun to engage state legislators, other elected officials, and advocacy groups in those states – beginning with New Jersey – as part of our campaign to enact FGM legislation in every state.

Only these 19 states currenly have laws against FGM.

3. Investigate

Perhaps no facet of our work is more important than our efforts to investigate and document cases of honor violence, forced marriages, and female genital mutilation in the U.S.  Because these crimes are not identified or tracked by any law enforcement agency, is it nearly impossible to assess the scope of these issues in the U.S. 

We are therefore thrilled to report that we have partnered with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to conduct the first-ever study of the prevalence of honor violence, forced marriages, and female genital mutilation in the U.S. 

We anticipate that this study will definitively establish the presence of these human rights violations in the U.S.  With these results in hand, we will be in a much stronger position to persuade state and federal legislators to pass relevant legislation to protect women and girls and encourage government leaders to direct attention and resources to these issues.  We have also begun to receive data on these crimes from other sources, including the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the New York Asian Women’s Center, and the New York State Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance. 

We have also commenced an academic research project exploring the harmful effects of Shariah law on women’s rights and attempts to institutionalize Shariah in the U.S.  In early 2012, we will be publishing a report documenting this research and issuing recommendations on how to prevent the dissemination and use of Shariah law in the U.S.

4. Intervene

Although the AHA Foundation is primarily an advocacy organization, we recognize our responsibility to help victims of these forms of violence when they reach out to us for assistance.  To this end, we established a “help” email address and regularly advertise on social networking websites that we are available to guide at-risk women and girls to appropriate service providers.  We are building a network of safe houses, social workers, attorneys, and organizations with experience assisting victims of abuse in the religious and cultural contexts.

In 2011, we were able to provide assistance and support to 13 individuals who reached out to us for help.

Our assistance included making referrals to emergency housing and services, providing information about legal options for addressing a particular issue, making referrals to local legal services and connecting individuals to appropriate government or law enforcement agencies. 

This year we also enhanced our resource directory by including at least one direct service provider in every state and providing contact information for national law enforcement organizations.

HONOUR FUND

In November, the AHA Foundation launched the HONOUR Fund, a project designed to raise money and awareness for the AHA Foundation as well as other key non-profit organizations that defend and protect women’s rights, promote women’s education, and are defining honor for women around the world.  We are now selling the first HONOUR products – a series of Vineyard Vines ties and tote bags as well as a soy candle.  The HONOUR brand has the potential to raise a substantial amount of money to support both the Foundation and other organizations that work to protect women’s honor around the world, as well as to raise awareness about the continued oppression of women and girls.

AHA IN THE NEWS

This year, the AHA Foundation made considerable progress raising awareness of our issues and enhancing our public profile.  Our media contacts in 2011 indicate that the AHA Foundation is now a reputable and widely recognized player in the struggle to protect the rights of women and girls. 

Early in the year, the Foundation’s publicity efforts were focused around the paperback book tour for Nomad.  Highlights included mentions on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and In the Arena, as well as MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.  In the spring, we worked towards publicizing our conference on honor violence and forced marriage through a press release distributed to hundreds of journalists and media outlets.  Representatives from FOX, CBS and People magazine attended the conference.  CBS has asked to use our footage from the conference and to interview Ayaan for an upcoming episode of 48 Hours that discusses the topic of honor violence and we are working with a major news magazine on a story about forced marriage in the U.S.   

Increase in social networking

New media played an important role in the publicity of the Foundation and our efforts this year.  Nicholas Kristof ‘retweeted’ one of the Foundation’s tweets to his 1.1 million followers, which led to an almost immediate 5% increase in our Twitter following.  Sam Harris used his Twitter feed to promote our honor violence conference, and the FrumForum blog posted an interview with Ayaan highlighting the event.  Additionally, we have been given a great opportunity by The Huffington Post Canada to highlight our issues by submitting blogs written by Ayaan, the first of which was published this fall.

Ayaan was also able to promote the Foundation at numerous speaking engagements this year. Appearances of note include the CPAC panel on Sharia law, a panel on France’s ban of the burka at the Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit, and giving the opening address, “Honor Violence 101,” at the AHA Foundation’s conference on honor violence and forced marriages. Also this spring, Ayaan spoke at a Hearst Magazine management conference, which led to Ayaan being interviewed for an upcoming Redbook article on female genital mutilation.

AHA FINANCIALS

The AHA Foundation’s latest Form 990 is publicly available.  To review, please visit Guidestar.

Thank you for your support of the AHA Foundation and our important work.  We encourage you to visit our website to learn more about what we do and what you can do to help.

 

The AHA Foundation 2011 Annual Report is also available for download.

 

 

The AHA Foundation Launches HONOUR

The AHA Foundation is recognizing this year's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, starting with the International Day Against Violence Against Women, and continuing through December 10th, International Human Rights Day.  The choice of these two dates to bookend the 16 Days of Activism is meant to emphasize that violence against women is a violation of human rights.

We would like to take this opportunity of highlighting women's rights around the world to launch an exciting initiative: the HONOUR Fund of the AHA Foundation.

WHY HONOUR?

Around the world, people have created strict constructions of what defines a woman's honor. These definitions often suggest that by making her own decisions, educating herself and creating her own destiny, a woman or girl has dishonored herself and her family. We want to ensure that women are the ones who define their OWN honor.

WHAT IS HONOUR?

The HONOUR Fund of the AHA Foundation will raise money and awareness for The AHA Foundation as well as other key non-profits who defend and protect women's rights, promote women's education, and are defining honor for women around the world.

When you make a donation to the HONOUR Fund, we will send you products that carry the HONOUR Fund logo which indicates that all profits from your merchandise go towards organizations around the world that support women's rights.

HONOUR TOTE BAGS

With your $115 donation to the HONOUR Fund of the AHA Foundation, we will send you a li mited-edition, Vineyard Vines HONOUR tote bag in the color of your choice (pink or navy).

HONOUR TIE

With your $95 donation to the HONOUR Fund of the AHA Foundation, we will send you an elegant, limited-edition, Vineyard Vines tie that gives men a chance to show that they honor the women in their lives! The tie comes in your color of choice (pink or navy).

HONOUR CANDLE

With donations of $40 to the HONOUR Fund of the AHA Foundation, we will send you a limited-edition, white, lavender-scented, 11 ounce, soy votive candle and coordinated gift box, all made in the U.S.A.

 

 

Will Latest "Muhammad" Firebombing Cause More Self-Censorship?

See below for a blog by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the firebombings of the Charlie Hebdo offices, first published in Huffington Post.

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The Paris offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo were firebombed Wednesday, the same day the magazine released an issue caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad on its cover. The new issue, which previewed online on Monday, names the Prophet as its "guest editor" in a mock tribute to the Islamist Ennahda Party's victory in the Tunisian elections and the inclusion of Sharia law in Libya's new constitution. The cover drawing depicts Muhammad promising "100 lashes if you don't die from laughter."

Although no group has claimed responsibility, there are strong indications that the firebombing was the work of Islamic extremists. The magazine's website was hacked Tuesday night, with the welcome page replaced by an image of Mecca and the words: "No god but Allah."

This is not the first time that Charlie Hebdo's content has angered Muslims. In 2006, as the Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy was escalating into an international drama complete with riots, flag-burnings and embassy bombings, Charlie Hebdo reprinted the Danish drawings of Muhammad, along with a cover image of the Prophet saying, "It's hard to be loved by imbeciles." Several Muslim groups sued the magazine for "racial insults." Although Charlie Hebdo successfully defended against the lawsuit, magazine staff required police protection for several months.

At the time, French president Jacques Chirac condemned the decision to reprint the Jyllands-Posten images as "overt provocation" -- a statement that implicitly blamed Jyllands-Posten and Charlie Hebdo for inciting Islamic radicals to violence.

Now, as the charred remnants of its former offices begin to cool, some commentators are rationalizing the destruction of Charlie Hebdo's headquarters on the grounds that its "offensive" issue provoked a predictably violent response from extremists.

Bruce Crumley, the Paris bureau chief for Time magazine, recently posted an article titled "Firebombed French Paper Is No Free Speech Martyr." The opening paragraph reads as follows:

Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by "majority sections" of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that "they" aren't going to tell "us" what can and can't be done in free societies? Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction?

Of course, Charlie Hebdo has employed similarly "childish" and "petulant" satire to mock figures from all political and religious orientations, without ever being accused of "begging for" a violent reaction. Previous issues of the magazine have featured scatological cartoons of world leaders and caricatures of Jesus and the Pope. Time magazine itself, like all media, also delights in caricaturing religious and secular icons. Individuals offended by these images, however, have never reacted with violence, and therein lies the inescapable upshot of Mr. Crumley's piece: In a free society, a newspaper can ridicule and stigmatize whomever it chooses, except those who demonstrate a willingness to respond with violence. Extremist groups must be exempt from satire and criticism -- or the blame for the ensuing carnage falls squarely on the shoulders of the offending publication.

In the six years since the Danish cartoon controversy first erupted, this message of self-censorship has been internalized by numerous Western individuals and institutions fearful of attracting the wrath of militant Islamic factions. Examples of this phenomenon abound in the United States: Yale University Press declined to reproduce the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in a book about the controversy, Random House cancelled the publication of a historical romance novel about Muhammad's youngest wife Aisha, and Comedy Central censored an episode of the television program South Park that featured Muhammad wearing a bear suit.

This self-censorship goes beyond a reticence to display representations of the Islamic prophet. Fear of Islamist violence has curtailed critical discussions of the Quran, and silenced those who would decry the treatment of women in some Islamic communities. I expect that Mr. Crumley would distinguish between persons who print satirical depictions of Muhammad, and those who raise sober concerns about abuses perpetrated in the name of Islam. But let's be clear. In the minds of those who would destroy the Charlie Hebdo offices, these individuals would be equally deserving of violent retaliation. For militant Islamists, there is no ideological distinction between firebombing a newspaper's headquarters and murdering a filmmaker like Theo Van Gogh.

Crumley's article makes a point of stating that the firebombing was an "illegitimate" response to the magazine's "Islamophobic antics." But it's more of an afterthought -- like a man postulating that rape is inexcusable, after castigating a rape victim for wearing a miniskirt to dinner.

A measure of the acceptance of a minority religion is to include them in the realm of public humour. As long as the majority is uncomfortable with that the minority remains outsiders. So in between the lines of Crumley's piece is the message that Muslims, in general, are violent, so it is better not to provoke them; for they will never be part of the majority so let's give them special treatment. What sounds like a well-intentioned and honorable message is, if you think about it, in fact denigrating and racist.

The Arab Spring in Tunisia has resulted in free and fair elections that have given victory to a party (Ennahda) that purports to find their inspiration to govern in Muhammad. In this context, Muslims are not a minority. Given that fact, it is inevitable that the press question and satirize not only the party leadership's pretensions but also their political ideologies. That is democracy. All Christian democratic parties in Europe have in their history faced the mocking of Jesus and other Christian icons each time they bring their faith into government affairs.

Finally, let's not overlook that though there are Muslims who may react with violence, many more are non-militants who may not like Muhammad satirized but who have accepted free speech. Why should we presume that Muslims will be provoked to violence by childish drawings?