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Dateline meets the women of Jordan, who've been imprisoned under the guise of keeping them safe.
Video
Journalist Yaara Bou Melhem meets Rita*, who has spent the past 14
years in Jordan's Al Jweidah jail. She also meets Sophia*, who's spent
the past 15 years of her life behind bars. Both girls were ordered
there by the state – to prevent their families from killing them.
Every year, up to 20 Jordanian women are murdered in honour killings.
In
Rita’s* case, a close male relative attempted to kill her in a brutal
attack. In response, the country’s 12 governors have been given the
power to lock up the innocent victims, rather than go after the
would-be perpetrators.
Yet the girls are clear examples of
previous long-term detention and thanks to Mizan, a women’s advocacy
group, they’ve finally been released.
When Bou Melhem meets
them they’re in a half-way house, very soon to move into their own
accommodation. It’s the only program of its type operating in the
Middle East and under it, the women will assume new identities and
re-locate far from their families.
* Not their real names.
On air: 1st October 2008
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