ABU QASH, West Bank -- Rofayda Qaoud -- raped and impregnated by her brothers -- refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the teenager a razor with which to slit her wrists. So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what any good Palestinian parent would: restored her family's honor through murder.
Armed with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, Qaoud entered her sleeping daughter's room Jan. 27. "Tonight you die, Rofayda," she told the girl, before wrapping the bag tightly around her head. Next, Qaoud sliced Rofayda's wrists, ignoring her muffled pleas of "No, mother, no!" After her daughter went limp, Qaoud struck her in the head with the stick.
Killing her sixth-born child took 20 minutes, Qaoud told a visitor through a stream of tears and cigarettes that she smoked in rapid succession. "She killed me before I killed her," said the 43-year-old mother of nine. "I had to protect my children. This is the only way I could protect my family's honor."
Two of her sons are in a West Bank jail, serving minimum 10-year sentences for statutory rape.
UPDATE Wednesday: Kinda funny, this week's Torah portion has also to do with honor.
"... a full life can heal and restore all lost honor."
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