Honor Killings Of Young Girls And Women In US

(Ryan Mauro’s article direct from the CLARION PROJECT on 10 May 2014.)

Victim Atiya Majah Perry.

'Honor' Leads to Fatal Outcome: Killing of Muslim Wife in Pennsylvania. This murder must be a rallying call against the abusive concept of “honor” in order to save potential victims in the future.

Roysce “Yusef” Haynes, a Muslim man in Pennsylvania who admitted to killing his pregnant wife, was recently found guilty of two counts of third-degree murder. Haynes says he did not mean to kill her and it happened due to tension over her not wearing proper Islamic dress.

The couple’s relationship issues started when Haynes’ wife, Atiya Majah Perry, rebuffed his requests to wear religious attire. He blamed her family for influencing her. He eventually kicked her out of the home, admonishing her as “disobedient.” A few days later, she came to the house and he killed her in a fight that ensued.

In the weeks before she died, Atiya Perry, 24, had applied for jobs at local food marts and visited doctors at Temple University Hospital for help with her first pregnancy. But Perry’s life was cut short on Sept. 9, 2012, when she was seven weeks pregnant. Roysce “Yusef” Haynes, 29, her husband under Islamic law, is on trial for Perry’s death by strangulation.

Haynes said that the death was accidental and that she first began punching him in the head.

“I saw her pull out the pepper spray. I knocked it away from her. I just grabbed her and choked her. I felt her go limp. I just blacked out. The next thing I knew she was dead,” he told detectives.

Her body was discovered inside his home when probation officers visited him.

Haynes’ fury over Perry’s dress is a reflection of the concept of “honor” that is common in Muslim societies. If a female behaves in a way that brings shame to her male partner or family, she is disciplined—often brutally. In this case, it led to a fight with a fatal outcome.

16-Yr Old Girl Killed by Her Own Muslim Parents

Victim Palestina Isa.

In another honor-related development, a female perpetrator of honor violence, Maria Isa, died in a Missouri prison where she lived since 1991. She assisted her husband, Zein Isa, in stabbing their 16-year old daughter to death on November 6, 1989. Zein died before he could be given the death penalty.

The murder was recorded by the FBI because it had Zein Isa under surveillance for his involvement in the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the U.S. government considered a terrorist organization at the time. He specifically belonged to a cell of the Abu Nidal Organization that was plotting to bomb the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

Zein Isa and his colleagues talked about killing his daughter, Palestina, since August of 1989. Her offense was dating a boy that they did not approve of and running away from home for three days. Her job at a fast-food restaurant was also a point of contention, as was her hobby of playing soccer and her attendance at the junior prom.

Like many teenagers, Tina Isa didn’t listen to her parents. They lived in different worlds, in effect. Her father, Zein Isa, was a Palestinian Muslim with Old World ideas about how his child should and should not behave. His wife, Maria, a Brazilian Catholic, was more a martinet than a mother.

She just wanted to be a normal American girl.

But Tina was a headstrong modern girl growing up in big-city St. Louis, not some medieval village. At age 16, she was a bright senior honors student at rugged Roosevelt High School. She dreamed of studying aeronautics in college. She wanted to learn to fly.

She liked hip hop music and giggled with girlfriends about cute boys. “She was so American,” a schoolmate said.

The FBI recorded Zein saying, “There is no way to cleanse her, except the red color that cleanses her” and she “should live under the ground.” Her sisters took part in similar conversations. Another recording shows two of Zein’s terror cell members discussing the need to kill her because “she knows many things,” presumably about their violent plans.

Zein began the attack on an unsuspecting Palestina by saying to her, “Here, listen, my dear daughter, do you know that this is the last day. Tonight, you’re going to die.” Maria grabbed hold of her hair to restrain her as she cried, “Mother, please help me!”

Maria’s response was, “Are you going to listen? Are you going to listen?” Zein then stabbed her six times, muffling her cries by placing his foot on her mouth. “Quiet, little one! Die my daughter, die!” Zein said in Arabic.

Her mother restrained her and her father stabbed her dead.

Zein and Maria claimed that Palestina was likely on drugs or drunk and used the knife to demand $5,000 from them. Zein claims he grabbed her arm holding the weapon and “directed the knife toward her to stab her until she fell down.”

The New York Times reported on October 28, 1991 that “an agitated family member” expressed disagreement with the guilty verdict for Zein and Maria Isa saying, “I feel it’s not right. We follow our religion.”

These two cases show how honor violence has already come to America. The same anger and perceived shame that triggered the death of Palestina Isa in 1989 triggered the death of Atiya Marrah Perry in 2012.

We must never forget the fate of these two innocent women. Their murders must be a rallying call against the abusive concept of “honor” in order to save potential victims in the future.

(Please watch this You tube Exclusive 11-minute version of award-winning film Honor Diaries about honor violence in the name of Islam against Muslim women in US and all over the world. Almost all Muslim organizations in the States are now trying to ban that film “Honor Diaries” in US and also the rest of the world.)