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Teacher’s notes

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This clip presents two Jordanian experts on ‘honour’ killing presenting evidence that Norma Khouri’s book Forbidden Love, which claims to be the true story of an ‘honour’ killing in Jordan, is a fabrication. The clip begins with the voice of one of the experts, a journalist who campaigns against ‘honour’ killing, saying ‘this is not the truth’ as she holds up the book and, later, ‘this crime did not happen’. The two experts detail a series of factually incorrect statements from the book. Animation, re-enactment and interviews illustrate and reinforce their revelations.

Educational value points

• By highlighting a series of factual errors in the book Forbidden Love, this clip attempts to show not only that the book is a fabrication but also that it undermines the actual struggle against such crimes. The factual errors shown here are so prolific and so basic that they allow opponents of women’s rights to question the integrity of all others who struggle against the practice of ‘honour’ killing in Jordan, such as the two women shown in the clip.

• The two women in the clip face the enormous problem that so-called ‘honour’ killings are permitted by law in Jordan. The criminal code specifically states that a ‘husband or close blood relative’ who kills a woman suspected of adultery shall be ‘totally exempt’ from being punished. Another law even guarantees a lighter sentence for male killers of female relatives if the murderer believes that the woman has acted ‘illicitly’.

• By presenting two women’s rights activists prominent in the struggle against ‘honour’ killings in Jordan, the clip is able to give powerful authority to its attack on the book. Rana Husseini (1967–) has won international awards for reporting on honour killings in Jordan and Dr Amal al-Sabbagh (1949?–) is the former secretary-general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and a lecturer on women’s rights at Jordan University.

• The clip uses various techniques to comment ironically on the revelations it presents. The image of a woman disintegrating is a simile of lies collapsing. The sound of a cash register suggests Khouri’s motivation, and bells and other silvery sounds indicate Khouri’s imaginative flights of fancy. The sound effect of a camera shutter punctuates moments when Khouri’s deceit has been revealed, suggesting that she has been ‘caught in the act’.

• The book on which this clip comments, Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri (c2003), claimed to detail the ‘honour’ murder of a friend of the author in Jordan, but Sydney journalist Malcolm Knox showed that the book was riddled with inaccuracies and implied that it was a fraud. Knox’s Walkley Award-winning investigation, published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2004, showed that the book had been written by someone with little knowledge of Jordanian society.

• So-called ‘honour’ killings are murders by male family members of women who are claimed to have committed an ‘immoral’ act. Examples include marital infidelity, refusing to submit to an arranged marriage, demanding a divorce, flirting, receiving phone calls from men and even ‘allowing herself to be raped’. Though ‘honour’ killing occurs in a wide variety of cultures the majority of cases occur in Muslim countries. However, many Muslims say the Koran forbids it.