‘Honor Killings’

* After carefully reading “Paying a High Price for Honor” (March 12), it is very clear to me that condoning the murder of Palestinian women has nothing to do with “honor,” but a lot to do with Palestinian men keeping full control of Palestinian women. If these men truly felt that they couldn’t live with what “their” women may have done, they would be committing suicide, not murder.

The world’s oldest cop-out is for men to attach their “honor,” or lack of it, to a woman’s sexuality, real or imagined. They can then behave as they wish, while keeping their “honor” imprisoned--for the sake of their family, of course. No religion advocates murder; cultures run by and for the convenience of arrogant males do.

MIRIAM ALBERT

Thousand Oaks

* To claim that religion requires honor killings in order to maintain moral stability is simply absurd. What kind of society can have its moral underpinnings based on murder? What religion requires this abhorrent practice? Islam certainly does not. Once again religion is prostituted to allow the powerful to act as they desire with impunity. Moral stability in society cannot be achieved until those who practice honor killings are treated as the misogynist murderers that they are.

SUMMER HATHOUT, Board Member

Muslim Women’s League, Los Angeles