Book Discussion of Murder in the Name of Honour by Rana Husseini (Winter 2009/2010, at the Soros Foundation in New York City). Rana Husseini is a senior reporter at the Jordan Times.

Honor killing is an international phenomena happening mainly in impoverished and uneducated areas. In most of the cases, the crime of honor killing is committed by close relatives of the victim, who is found guilty of tarnishing the family image or reputation by her behavior. Most killers, based on Rana’s experience, are not in peace with themselves after committing such a crime because they were themselves victims of social pressures leading them to do such acts.

According to official figures, 31 women are victims of honor killing every day in the world. But Rana stated that based on her experience, the number is much higher as in many instances these crimes are not investigated by the authorities due to the taboo attached to it.

When Rana started working as a reporter for the Jordan Times in the 1980s, she realized that the crime of honor killing was a taboo subject in Jordanian society and was not reported in the media. In addition, she noticed that the perpetrators of such crimes were mostly never brought to a court or if so, faced minor prison sentences ranging from three months to a year. Therefore, Rana used her position at the Jordan Times to publish on a regular basis stories of women subject to “honor killing.” Her aim was to raise public awareness on the issue by reaching out intellectuals, officials and general public trough the Jordan Times. The newspaper received numerous letters to the editor from Jordanian citizens supporting her work and officials started to look at the issue more closely.

In 1989, she started a grass-roots movement to collect 150,000 signatures, the minimum number required by the Jordanian law to propose a change in law. Her aim was to increase the minimum prison sentence penalty for perpetrators of honor killing. Thanks to her dedication, the grass-roots movement was able to collect the required number of signatures by reaching out remote areas of Jordan. Thus, she presented to the government her proposed change in law regarding honor killing. Despite the fact that the law was not changed due to a strong resistance from religious leaders, Rana is proud to say today that her initiative broke the taboo of speaking about honor killing in Jordanian society and brought awareness to the general public. As of 2008, there were 8 reported victims of honor killings in Jordan, which is a clear victory of Rana’s awareness campaign.

In addition, Rana’s work has been and is still supported by the Royal Family of Jordan, who never stood on her way while conducted her research and work.

Jordan is currently examining the option of a special court dealing only with honor killings, as studies show that different courts in different parts of the country were interpreting the law in a non coherent manner.

According to Rana, changing the law is a first step to decrease the number of honor killings in a given country. She also highlighted the need to improve the educational system and the image of women. In addition, she is advocating for religious leaders to speak out on the issue of honor killings and to condemn such crimes which are against any religion. Furthermore, she indicated that awareness campaigns should be broader to include domestic violence against women and should be conducted in every country regardless of religion.

Finally, Rana pointed out the necessity to tackle difficulties faced by gays and lesbians in the Muslim world, which is a taboo in the Muslim religion.

Rana’s book Murder in the name of Honor is today available worldwide in English and Arabic.

It appears that the Marjah offensive is working militarily, and that is good news. Whenever the U.S. military is successful, I’m usually happy and relieved. However, it looks like the military victory was the easy part and that managing and governing the area looks to be the long slog.

The news just seems to uncover bad after good — according to this
MSNBC article, the man chosen “to be the fresh face of good Afghan governance” has a criminal record. A CRIMINAL RECORD! Is there no one in the ENTIRE country available who doesn’t have a rap sheet? How is this possible? How can the best option be a criminal? The crime: a 1998 conviction for stabbing his own son. And this is the person handpicked to show Afghanis that corruption, cronyism and government dysfunction is on the outs.

I guess it just goes to show that Afghanistan is simply even more complicated than most people can possibly imagine. Allowing former convicts back into society is one thing; however, I don’t believe that during the rebuilding of a country this is acceptable in any way, shape or form. Don’t the Afghanis deserve better after over three decades of war and violence? Have they not had enough by now?

Iran is trying to become the indispensable power in the region,1 but has not been able to translate its geopolitical assets — from being at crossroads between the Caspian, the Gulf, the Arab world and the subcontinent2 — into political advantages leading to regional hegemony. The Iranian nuclear program unites most countries in the region and beyond, who share a common interest in regional security and stability.3 Consequently, this causes a partial isolation of Iran.4 However, nuclear power would demonstrate Iran as a regional power,5 but will empower her far less than potentially expected, as nuclear weapons can only accomplish a limited set of objectives and could trigger an Israeli preventive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.6 Moreover, countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would seek to access nuclear weapons too,7 making this approach only a short- to mid-term solution. In addition, Iran would suffer from tougher sanctions, which she could try to counterbalance by deepening its economic, diplomatic and military ties with China and Russia, which could prove very helpful given their veto power at the United Nations Security Council. Iran could also continue to engage into deeper economic and diplomatic ties with Turkey, given the country’s desire to become an energy corridor, thus ensuring close ties with a strong NATO allies currently reluctant to support U.S. sanctions against Iran. Moreover, Iran may find a potential ally in Syria, which is seeking to regain international stature (as evidenced by the recent reappointment of a U.S. ambassador to Damascus). Such a strategy may enable Iran to deliver economically, thus ensuring the legitimacy of the regime, while affirming its rise as a regional power. However, economic diversification may prove difficult as already unsuccessfully attempted in the past.

1. Chubin S. “Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions” Carnegie Endowment, Washington DC, 2006, P.16
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Byman, D, Iran’s Security Policy in the Post Revolutionary Era, Rand Corp., Santa Monica, 2001, p.8
5. (Chubin, 2006, p.113)
6. James M. Lindsay, Ray Takeyh “After Iran Gets the Bomb” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2010, p.36-38
7. (James M. Lindsay and Ray Takeyh, 2010, p.38)

With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, India is a country where solar power can technically flourish. In an act of recognition and confirmation of this potential, the Government of India announced in November 2009 an ambitious nation-wide initiative to promote solar energy.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is a major initiative to “promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenge.” The objective of the scheme is to enable the rapid scale-up of capacity and technological innovation so that the cost of solar energy by 2022 would be comparable to the cost of conventional energy like coal or oil for electricity. The Clinton Climate Initiative is even more optimistic, stating that “Solar power in India will cost less than coal energy in five years.” The use of solar power will also help India to curb carbon emissions and ease its frustrating power shortage.

Dubbed “the most ambitious plan to develop solar energy over the next three or four decades,” its target is the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022. To see just how ambitious the plan is, consider that as of October 2009 there were only 6 MW1 of installed solar power capacity in India. The plan also seeks to deliver 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022, but as of October 2009 only 510,877 have been installed. Through this policy, the government has provided the market with a strong signal that is sure to attract many investors to reconsider the potential solar opportunities in India. Aided by generous incentives from the central government, that target might yet be met.

One of these incentives is concessional financing in the form of low interest loans and accelerated depreciation for up to 80% of the capital cost. Others include generation-based incentives which means that the central government will pay the power producer Rs 12 for every unit of electricity that is fed into the grid. Another part of the policy that is expected to be a key driver of solar generation is the fixed obligation of state utilities to purchase solar power from independent developers.

To be sure, the scaling-up of solar energy on such a massive scale is a risky undertaking. In this regard, India is arguably the global pioneer among developing countries. Critics argue that the money poured into this scheme could be better used to connect the rural poor to the existing grid infrastructure in order to connect them with a large-scale, conventional power source. But fossil fuel is quickly reaching its limits, both in terms of fuel availability and the environmental damage it causes. The Government of India has made the right move to place their bet on a cleaner, newer type of technology. Jeffrey Sachs argues in The End of Poverty that energy systems for remote rural areas are one of the essential elements for ending poverty. With the help of a forward-looking government and energy sector, Solar energy definitely has the potential to be such an element.

For more information on the JNNSM, visit: http://mnes.nic.in/pdf/mission-document-JNNSM.pdf

1. In addition to 2.4 MW of off-grid solar photovoltaic power plants and street lights

Turkey enjoys a privileged geographical position, at crossroads between South-East Asia, Europe and the Middle East, which she has been able over the past decade to translate into geopolitical advantages1.

In regards to her economy, Turkey is the world’s seventeenth largest economy, Europe’s sixth largest economy2, and from 2005 to 2008 she doubled her trade exchange with her eight nearest geographical neighbors, which encompasses countries such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Georgia3. Turkey is also growing as an energetic corridor, with the Baku-Ceyhan gas pipeline and the oil pipelines from Iraq and Iran, in addition to becoming an exporter of water to other regional states, such as Libya4. Moreover, Turkish tourism is booming and the number of Arab and Persian tourists to Turkey has multiplied over the past few years, while Arab television channel are buying in large number Turkish television series, which are very popular among Arab viewers5.

In regards to military capabilities, as commonly known Turkey has the second largest army in NATO6. However, what is less known is Turkey current military upgrade, such as already having the second largest inventory of F-16 fighters in the world and the recent acquisition of modern frigates and submarines to update its Navy traditionally viewed as poor7. Moreover, Turkey has been developing domestic military building capabilities that make her independent from foreign suppliers8, such as the United States or Israel.

Besides, Turkey started playing an instrumental role in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, by mediating direct talks between Syria and Israel, diffusing tensions between Lebanon and Israel and holding talks with Saudi-Arabia on the matter.

Turkish military recent upgrade trend, combined with strong economic ties to the Middle East region and her active participation in the Israel-Palestinian conflict clearly indicate a desire to become a regional hegemon.

Sources
1. Chubin S. “Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions” Carnegie Endowment, Washington DC, 2006, P.15
2. Ahmet Davutoglu “Turkish Foreign Policy and the EU in 2010” Turkish Policy Quarterly, Fall 2009, p.15
3. Yigal Schleifer “The Ottoman Revival” Foreign Policy May – June 2009
4. Edward J. Erickson “Turkey as Regional Hegemon – 2014: Strategic Implications for the United States” Turkish Studies, Vol.5, No.3 Autumn 2004, p.37
5. Sahin Alpay “Turkey’s EU membership and the Muslim world” Turkish Weekly 5 March 2007 24
6. (Erickson , 2004, p.34)
7.Ibid
8.Ibid

James Fallows has a highly relevant article about China’s new “cyber warrior” culture and leanings towards asymmetric warfare in this month’s Atlantic.

After that, be sure to check out Fallows’s blog entry on the same subject rounding up reactions to the imagery of a “digital Pearl Harbor” and whether or not that really is a valid concern (a topic about which I’ve previously expressed my own skepticism but is something well worth discussing).