The "Honor Killing" of Sarah and Amina Said

Nine months ago, on New Years Day, Yaser Abdel Said, an Irving Texas cab driver, is alleged to have shot to death his two teenage daughters, Sarah, age 17, and Amina, age 18, to death. The FBI is now saying that the murder was an "honor killing."

Apparently Yaser Abdel Said, an Egyptian born Muslim, was offended by his daughters dating non Muslims and behaving "too western." High School friends of the girls report that they occasionally came to school with welts and bruises inflicted by their father. Yaser Abdel Said burst into one daughter's bedroom, waving a gun, threatening to kill her. The daughters fled with their mother, but apparently the mother turned back leading to an encounter with the father and the murders.

"Honor killing" is a particular custom in some Islamic societies in which male relatives of a female judged to have behaved "dishonorably" murder the female. This is because a woman's behavior is thought to reflect on her family and that any "dishonor" she brings on herself extends to her family as well. The "dishonor" can only be wiped out with the death of the offending female.

There is nothing in the Koran, the Islamic holy scripture, that mandates honor killing. The phenomenon appears to have more cultural rather than religious roots and may even predate the advent of Islam. Nevertheless, in some Islamic countries, "honor killing" is considered less serious than other forms of murder and is often not prosecuted or even investigated too vigorously.

In Western countries, honor killing among immigrant families occur from time to time, as it did with the Said girls. Children who grow up in western cultures often chaff at the moral code that their parents adhere to. In some cases, as with the Said sisters, it leads to tragedy. Western law enforcement agencies are sometimes reluctant to term such murders "honor killings" because of a desire to be culturally sensitive or politically correct, depending on one's point of view.