Every time I hear about a girl getting killed by her own family, it sends a chill down my spine. It seems inconceivable that anyone would put their loved ones in danger, and even more so that they would be their killers. Such is the reality of conservative Muslims in Jordan, where an average of 20 women a year are slain in ‘honor killings’. This week, it’s a 19 year old girl who was beaten to death by her father and brothers for simply talking to a stranger.

There’s a long tradition of honor killings that, unsurprisingly, date back to the Bronze Age. In powerful, patriarchal societies, the reputation of a family was its most valuable asset, and anyone who would threaten it was summarily executed. It’s now used as a way of threatening women into subservience. Each death is a cruel reminder there are some parts of the world that reject the idea of human rights.

The father and his sons are facing prosecution, but it isn’t for the reason you might think. The problem was there was no infidelity going on, but if it was, this law would have set them free:

he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty.”

Is your stomach turning yet?