IRAQ — Many an American girl whose naked body has appeared in still or moving pictures has worried that her family might “kill” her if they find out. In Iraq, that isn’t an idle worry, as an increasing number of women who have posed for their boyfriends’ cell phone cameras have learned. While hell may hath no fury like a woman scorned, in Iraq and many other Middle Eastern countries, it’s the fury of boyfriends, husbands, fathers, and brothers that is most to be feared. As AlterNet.com reports, family members of women who have bared a little or a lot of their flesh are being burned alive, strangled, or shot by their own family as part of a tradition that embraces so-called “honor killings.”

Already able to be killed for merely being accused of moral impropriety, the availability of inexpensive camera equipped mobile telephones has made it even easier to entice women into objectionable behavior – and provide stark proof of their transgressions.

According to AlterNet, it is not uncommon for men who possess such devices to snap still photos or even shoot video footage of sexual behavior with their sweethearts – and then send them to their male friends along with boasts about the event. Unfortunately, when those images are seen by family members of the women, murder is the result.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting indicates that at least 350 women suffered violence during 2007 due to cell phone related evidence — a trend that officially began in 2004, when a young man recorded intercourse with his 17-year-old girlfriend. Two days later, the girl’s family murdered her. A week later, the boy’s family did the same to him.

Given that many of these murders are never reported, the IWPR believes that the true number is much higher, especially given that many women confronted by proof that they are less than virginal are pressured into suicide and are well aware that no one will come to their defense.

AlterNet indicates that a health ministry report claims that 600 women and girls committed suicide during 2007, primarily by burning or drowning.