How many more Palestinian women have to be murdered?
Excerpt:
Two of the seven women died in Gaza in circumstances that could otherwise be seen as an accident or suicide. One fell from the third floor and the other drowned in a pool. But years of documenting the unnatural deaths of women and talking to victims' relatives and acquaintances – those who were willing to talk – have taught the center's field workers that sometimes relatives force women to end their lives.
The death of two of the seven made special headlines. One, a mentally impaired 20-year-old from Yatta, had been sexually assaulted. Her mother is suspected of murdering her. The second victim, identified as Thamar Zeidan, 33, was a mother of two from the village of Dir al Ghusun, near Tulkarm. Her family married her off before she was 15, and she divorced about four years ago.
Last month neighbors caught a man, apparently drunk, breaking into her house and gave him a thorough beating. Then rumors spread about her conduct. On September 20 a few dozen members of the Zeidan extended family signed a statement accusing her of shameful behavior flouting religious edicts. The statement said the signatories were severing all ties with her father, because he failed to call his family to order.
A day after the statement had been hung on the mosque door and on the wall of houses in the village – so Palesinian media reported – Zeidan's father garrotted her in her sleep.
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