The Helsinki Court of Appeal has rejected two consecutive requests for further processing of restraining orders stemming from Islamic honor violence.

 

In both cases, the restraining order became final. In both cases, a man committed sexual and physical violence against his wife because of the woman’s demand for a divorce. Both women were also threatened with murder.

 

In the first case, the district court issued a restraining order in June. A Yemeni woman was married to a man, forced to marry at the age of 15 –  the victim was told to have suffered repeated acts of violence. According to the complainant, the man repeatedly forced her to have sex, restricted her freedom of movement and beat her.

 

She filed for divorce. The man became “crazy”, she told.

 

– [The man ] had told the complainant that he would rather kill the woman and bury her in the sand than agree to divorce, the court quotes.

 

– Every time the complainant had asked for a divorce, [the man ] had strangled her and said that “you are my property” and that the defendant would by no means consent.

 

Man: “It’s a Family Thing”

 

According to the wife, sexual violence also included assault if she did not consent to sex. The woman made at least two reports of a crime and fled to a shelter.

 

The man denied his violence and appealed to Islamic law.

 

According to – Sharia – law the divorce was not possible without the consent of their parents. This was a family affair. The man had promised the woman’s parents that he would take care of it, the man is said to have stated in court.

 

In another case, the district court issued a restraining order in July. Even now, a Muslim man pesters his wife violently: he threatened her with a knife, raped her so that the victim was leaking blood in the genital area, among other things followed her in the streets. The district court document does not disclose whether the sex offense has been reported to the police.

 

Again, the rage had risen from divorce intentions. The woman discovered drugs such as opium and cannabis from her husband. The man threatened her with a knife when she wanted to call the police.

 

– The defendant had always said proudly that he was not like other men. If the wife divorces, he first kills the wife, then the children and then himself, the district court will refer to the woman’s story.

“Then the judgment is death”

 

The man also threatened to poison his wife several times and injure her in a wheelchair. He also blamed his threats in consultation with outsiders. One came to testify in court.

 

– The defendant had said that as a man, he will not succeed if his wife wants a divorce, then the sentence is death, only a man can want a divorce, the witness said.

 

The couple has two children. The woman had to change the locks on a detached house due to his menacing behavior.

 

In both cases, the district court issued a basic injunction. The District Judge, who had dealt with the former, commented separately on the underlying phenomenon.

 

– Honor Violence aims to save the family’s reputation or honor, which is considered to be spoiled as a result of the abuse of a female family member’s community moral and chastity rules, the District Court writes.

 

– The circumstances that have arisen and, in particular, the demand for divorce is completely forbidden for women are all very typical motives for honor violence.