In 2004, men and women in Iraq took to the streets to demand gender equality. (Getty)
In the remote village of Shabaa in the Taez province of Yemen, a 15-year-old girl has reportedly been burned to death by her father. Her crime? Al Arabiya reports that the young girl allegedly met her fiance before their wedding.
“Honor killings,” as they’re called in the international community, occur when family members kill women or girls who are accused of bringing shame upon their family. The local police issued a statement saying:
The father committed this heinous crime on the pretext that his daughter had been keeping in contact with her fiance.
Because of the laws in Yemen, and much to the dismay of human rights organizations, perpetrators of honor killings are not charged with murder but face a six-month to one-year prison sentence if found guilty, according to BBC. The 35-year-old father was arrested on Tuesday morning.