INCEST: Murder of the Soul: Chapter Sex unmarried girl at (16-21) years of age and classifies it as a felony between two parties (offender and victim). • Current legal provisions regarding incest are not in compliance with international agreements and conventions in general, and international agreements and conventions on violence against women in particular. They embody discrimination and inequality between men and women, considering women victims to be accomplices to the crime of incest. These legal provisions also contradict the functions of the law, which aims to promote and support community peace, reconciliation between conflicting interests and the achievement of justice. Furthermore, they contradict the objectives for which these laws were enacted, such as protection of values and social interests, the achievement of justice, and the achievement of legal security and stability. • The legal provisions regarding incest represent the nature of patriarchal society, which embodies men’s domination over women and their attempt to discipline within social and codified frames and stereotypes aimed at maintaining the patriarchal order. • It is not reasonable to consider the free will of women on equal footing with that of men in light of patriarchal societies, where women suffer discrimination and marginalization on different levels including custody, marriage, divorce, polygamy, inheritance, lack of control over their bodies and lives, connection of honor with their bodies only and imposition of punishment on who of them breaches the cultural system (honor killing). • It is not possible to ignore the fact that most of the sexual assaults committed against women by their guardians start at their early age and extend for a long time, changing the criminal classification of the act from an act of rape to an act of incest, whereby the right of the victim to punish the offender and hold him accountable is lost. • The law denies women the right to file a complaint of incest, and grants this right to her relatives of up to the fourth degree of blood ties in contradiction with the principles of human rights and the functions of the law, and so further allows male domination over women’s lives. • The crime of incest is classed as a misdemeanor crime, which cannot be pursued after a limitation period of three years. The victim, therefore, loses the right to file a complaint through one of her relatives after finding the ability to disclose the sexual assault committed against her by the person whose trust she has been in. • The law grants the complainant the right to abandon his personal right in the lawsuit on such grounds that it is a family sexual crime committed by consent. • The laws regarding incest are void of a provision of criminal pursuit of the abettor of and accessory to the crime of incest, particularly when compared to the crime of adultery and even though the physical element of both crimes is the same. • Incest is destructive to social life, creating an individual who cannot participate in public society activities. Furthermore, it prevents reproduction of new families and paralyzes the individual’s ability to build a family and causes adverse psychological effects to a girl, such as trauma, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, selfdenial and suicide. 47