Re: [Marxism] Comments from directors

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
> One of the best things about writing movie reviews on the Internet is 
> that it allows you to hear from the directors, even when their comments 
> are unsolicited:
> 
> This is from the director of "Forbidden Lie$", the Australian movie 
> about the Jordanian-American con artist who wrote a book about an honor 
> killing that did not happen:
> 
> Hi Louis - thanks for the insights and for opening the film up to a 
> fascinating and much needed debate. I hope everyone above goes to see 
> the film! I also hope it gives pause to those in America who continue to 
> push for an interventionist approach to Middle Eastern affairs. We have 
> our own crimes of passion to worry about. The stinking hypocrisy of the 
> West is one of the reasons I made the film.
> 
> anna
> 

By coincidence, there was a report on a *real* honor killing in Jordan 
this morning:

April 12, 2009
Jordanian Man Accused of Stabbing Pregnant Sister
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:27 a.m. ET

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- A Jordanian man confessed to stabbing to death his 
pregnant sister and mutilating her body to protect the family honor, 
said Jordanian authorities on Sunday.

Prosecutor Mohammed al-Tarawneh said the man turned himself into police 
and has been charged with murder.

The 28-year-old married woman was five months pregnant and stabbed 
repeatedly in the face, neck, abdomen and back as well as being hacked 
up with a meat cleaver, according to government pathologist Awad 
al-Tarawneh.

Police familiar with the case said the woman had moved back in with her 
family after an argument with her husband six months earlier. The 
brother believed that she had then started seeing other men.

The names of those involved have not been released.

The incident, the ninth such case this year and the second this month, 
took place in the village of Basira, in the conservative Bedouin 
heartland of southern Jordan.

Strict tribal and religious values are enforced in these villages, 
including the belief that women carry the family's honor.

Around two dozen women are killed each year in these conservative areas 
of Jordan by male relatives who typically accuse them of besmirching the 
family honor through adultery or having sex outside of marriage.

International human rights organizations have condemned honor killings 
in Jordan and appealed to King Abdullah II to put an end to the practice.

But attempts to introduce harsher sentences have been blocked in 
Jordan's parliament, where the predominantly conservative Bedouin 
lawmakers argue that tougher penalties would lead to adultery.

Some members of government have also urged judges to consider honor 
killings equal to other homicides and punishable by up to 15 years in 
prison. But many in the judiciary still hand down lenient punishments of 
half of that or less.

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu