Maria’sGrotto:

This film explores honor killing, a fate that many women in the Middle East are confronted with yet it is still hidden in the society and is considered a taboo subject to even speak about.  The typical sequence of events is that if an Arab woman chooses to have a romantic relationship with anyone without being married, or even if the men in her family just suspect that she might be having a relationship it may develop into a life or death situation for the woman accused.  On the other hand, if it is discovered that a woman may have had an intimate relationship with somebody and is at risk of becoming pregnant then it surely becomes detrimental. When Arab women reach the age of puberty, the eyes of all the members of the extended family become very watchful to any movement this young woman may make and all her actions become observed very carefully. 
 
An Arab woman may lose her life in some cases once she is considered to have dishonored her family.  In the Middle Eastern society, a woman who is even suspected of having had any intimate relationships with anyone prior to being married is defined as bringing dishonor and disgrace to her family as a whole.  A woman is allowed to fall in love but only if she does so from a distance and without having any kind of interaction between the individuals. 
 
Since the completion of my recent film entitled "Women in Struggle," which was about four Palestinian women ex-detainees and since I am a Palestinian woman who cares about Arab and Palestinian women issues, I felt that there is a need to explore the unspoken phenomenon of honor killings on screen.  Thus I have decided to focus my next film specifically on women in the Arab world. 

To understand the concept of dishonoring ones family we need to understand that the word itself is associated with the woman’s virginity in the Arab culture.  Thus to lose one's virginity without being married is shameful and disgraceful.  The woman who dares to carry out such behavior may face many problems within her family and social problems that stem from the society as a whole.  When the act of dishonor is perceived to have befallen a family it might mean the death sentence to the presumed culprit.  The most common method of correcting this dishonor of losing ones virginity is to have the youngest male member of the family kill her.  The reason it is usually a young male carrying out the crime is so that he may escape legal consequences and get away without any charges being brought against him or the family.

While the woman involved loses her life for making what is considered a non-forgivable mistake, her participating partner, the male, in most cases has no charges brought against him in the Arab culture.  Shame and retribution surround the woman involved in the intimate relationship while the male faces no consequences and no dishonor is brought upon him. 
 
Growing up in Palestine, My inspiration for this particular topic came from living in a small but unique town called Taybeh.  I was born, raised and continue to live in Taybeh which is a Christian village that is located near Ramallah between the hills of Jerusalem and Jericho. It is one of the most ancient places in Palestine and mentioned in the New Testament as Biblical Ephraim. It is the only all Christian village left in Palestine and growing up I often visited with my family the old ruins of a church called Saint George. This church is considered by the Taybeh people very holy.  They light candles and sacrifice lambs on the site to give the meat away to the poor. I always noticed a grotto in the left entrance of the church and it inspired me to know that it was named after a woman called Maria. 
Where the story begins as follows:

A beautiful young woman called Maria, who was killed after being accused by her stepmother of tarnishing her honor.  This particular woman was killed by the revolutionists( the only one who were allowed to have guns back then) shot to death when the stepmother along with the male members of her family decided to get rid of her and so used the excuse of honor killing.  Although the villagers believe Maria was innocent and she was falsely accused, she still paid her life for this false accusation. It is believed by the villagers that the whole family line was extinguished due to a curse that had been inflicted on them since Maria’s death. I will use this story  from my childhood as the back bone for the film.  Since Maria's death, many women in the Arab world, both Christian and Muslim had to face the same fate. 

From the old story of Maria’s grotto that took place in 1936 to the new story of Haiam that took place in 2005 which is detailed and intertwined with a few other women’s stories to describe the relationships these women had that led to their lives being threaten and even death. 

 
Since I have been researching this unspoken phenomenon of honor crimes, I have been faced with a story that recently took place in my village of Taybeh. A Christian married man in his 30’s had been accused of having a relationship with a single Muslim woman in her 30’s from the neighboring village. The woman was killed forced to drink poison by her own brothers. So as a result she was put to death on the spot with her unborn eight month baby.  The man who was accused of being her partner in the relationship was placed in custody after her body was exhumed for testing.  Fourteen homes that belonged to the man’s extended family were burned down to ashes. After spending eight months in custody where the police claim that they needed to protect his life, he was released according to the tribal law that rules often in Palestine.  With the last minute helpful interference of the Palestinian government office in Ramallah following all types of local and international pressure the man was released to return to his village but was forbidden from being able to enter or pass by the village of the Muslim woman. His life which was previously in danger was also saved by the peace treaty of the two villages. 

Through this detailed story we followed the legal aspects of dealing with such situations where for the first time the person involved with the relationship gets punished according to the tribal law where his blood was shed and family homes were totally burned.  Although according the Palestinian judicial system he had no legal accusations brought against him.  He was placed in custody of the Palestinian police to protect his own life.  However, it is rather common that the accused male partner doesn’t get any punishment whatsoever.  Although, the murderers of the woman in this case were her two brothers who were not legally accused of committing a crime and were freed.  According to the tribal law and the Palestinian Authority these men were allowed to defend their family honor so the woman deserved this fate with her unborn child. The man involved denies his relationship to this woman and asked to have a DNA medical test were under pressure of his family the test was done in Jordan because in Palestine such tests don’t exist.  The decision of the Palestinian Authority was not to reveal the results in order to control and prevent further blood shed in getting others involved. 

We followed the way this story was revealed to the public.  How the body was buried in the morning after announcing that the woman had died from a heart attack and how the brothers decided to ask the doctor from the accused man’s village for a death certificate.  However, the doctor refused without examining the body.  Thus, the woman’s body was later exhumed because the brothers buried her anyway without a death certificate.  An autopsy was performed were it was shown that the woman was eight months pregnant and was poisoned.  Therefore from the traditional story of Maria to the modern stories of other honor killings with Haiam’s story in depth, this vital topic of crimes against women was explored in the documentary. 
 
The reasons behind this kind of honor killing will be explored in this film by showing the feelings of the people who lost a daughter or a sister to this fate.  We will look into how the family was affected by this woman’s honor killing;  Are the family members sorry or proud of their actions?  Is the shame gone with the killing or wiped out in any way? Has it been washed away with the shedding of the woman’s blood?  Some other questions that can be answered by researching this topic will be whether these women are victims of their culture or criminals by their own act?  Did they decide or choose this path willingly looking for love?  What do other women think, and how do they evaluate the behavior of the women accused? 
 

This is a very sensitive topic to feature on film but very critical in dealing with women's issues in the Middle East.  The topic of honor killing is very important to explore in terms of its psychological and emotional side-affects and to also research its frequency in the Arab culture.  Honor killing has gone on for many generations without anyone exploring the aftermath of the family members or questioning if it is a valid practice in the new millennium.