Women in Jordan are beginning to organize against "honor" killings, an equally appallingly violent practice against women in the Middle East. (Although I'm not sure I easily agree that these practices are purely tribal and pre-Islamic. Certainly fundamentalist Islam provides easy cover for these sorts of crime to occur.)

Or alternatively in today's NYT check out this article about Shiites in Saudi Arabia.

I'm not disputing the severity of what Katzman calls the cognitive dissonance of feminists on the issue you raised regarding rape. Your post just came at the end of an hour of surfing some blogs and those positive examples were still fresh in my mind.

Thanks, Jeff. The CSM article particularly interests me.

So-called "honor" killings - the murder of a woman who is accused of tainting family honor - account for one-third of all violent deaths in Jordan, a country which otherwise has low crime rates. Until recently, honor killings received little or no attention. Most Jordanians preferred not to speak of the brutal killings - which are illegal though often prosecuted leniently. Often, the slayings gain no attention, and the women who are killed simply become Jordan's forgotten victims

It is barbaric, beyond acceptance that women's lives should be valued so little. Fortunately, some of the women in Jordan are speaking out and acting:

The Jordanian Women's Union is run by Nadia Shamroukh, an outspoken and determined activist who believes that empowering women through education and legal awareness are the best ways to fight discrimination and social oppression. "You can't separate social, political, and economic issues for women, because we believe women's rights are part of human rights," says Ms. Shamroukh, speaking from her main office in Amman.

The young women who is the central figure in the CSM article is a few years younger than my daughter. It's not myself I imagine in these horrible circumstances when I read about honor killings -- it's my own daughter, whose life is mostly ahead of her. I cannot easily put into words the rage I would feel if she were treated this way -- cold, deep and lasting rage. I feel a little of that for Mona and the other young women of Jordan and elsewhere who face this threat from those who should be supporting and protecting them. Fortunately, women like Ms. Shamroukh go past that rage and are taking actions to improve things there.