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Video Journalist Yaara Bou Melhem meets Rita*, who has spent the past 14 years in Jordan's Al Jweidah jail. She also meets Sophia*, who's spent the past 15 years of her life behind bars.Both girls were ordered there by the state-to prevent their families from killing them.Every year, up to 20 Jordanian women are murdered in honour killings. In Rita’s* case, a close male relative attempted to kill her in a brutal attack. In response, the country’s 12 governors have been given the power to lock up the innocent victims, rather than go after the would-be perpetrators. Yet the girls are clear examples of previous long-term detention and thanks to Mizan, a women’s advocacy group, they’ve finally been released. When Bou Melhem meets them they’re in a half-way house, very soon to move into their own accommodation.It’s the only program of its type operating in the Middle East and under it, the women will assume new identities and re-locate far from their families.Find out more about the extraordinary plight of these women, tonight 8:30pm on SBS TV.
IN DEPTH: Dateline
BLOG: Inside Jordan
IN DEPTH: Dateline
BLOG: Inside Jordan
As in the days of Noah....
