A sobering article about the Arab practice of honor killings: Anything But Shame. (Hat tip: Banagor.)

The women of Jebal Manara, clad in traditional Palestinian embroidered dresses harking back to their native Jaffa, sheer headscarves wrapped loosely around their faces, cluck disapprovingly of a local honor killing a few years back when a teenage girl’s mother and brother shot her to death for running away from extreme physical and emotional abuse. But a girl who elopes? Or gets pregnant out of wedlock?

“She deserves it,” says Um Khalid, an older woman with crackling brown eyes and a bright yellow jalabiya, without pausing to consider otherwise.

“Her behavior affects the entire family. In this case, she has to die,” says another woman in her 30s, leaning against a pillow. In the eyes of this traditional, close-knit and socially conservative society, bringing shame on the family could lead to ostracism. That in itself is a virtual death sentence for the generations remaining in the same houses within the same social circles.

“Women are harsher than men on this issue,” explains Asha, the social worker. They have to distance themselves publicly from the shameful behavior “to avoid being associated with it.”

Otherwise “no one would marry any girls in the family,” says one girl, as she serves more sweet tea laden with mint. Killing the deviant, the women argue, redeems the family’s honor, allowing it to return to the social circle, reputation intact or even enhanced.

Um Khalid, the most vocal of the group, is quick to point out that a girl’s scandalous behavior does not necessarily merit death. The problem arises, she says, when other people begin to find out.