A Jordanian actor prepares backstage to take part in "Code of Honor," a play about honor killings.

The stories are often unspeakably bleak: An Indian boy is thrown under a train for writing a love letter. An Iraqi girl suspected of spending time with the wrong boy is stoned to death as police look on and men tape her killing.

They are known as honor killings, and the crime may claim as many as 5,000 women each year.

While some might think the crime is isolated to developing nations like Pakistan and Iraq, women in England, the United States, Germany and Canada have all been victims of such so-called "honor crimes."

In Jordan, Lina Attel is working to put the issue on center stage. Literally.

As the founder and general director of The Performing Arts Center at the Noor Al Hussein Center in Jordan, Attel is trying to press the issue and provoke a wider discussion of honor killings in hopes of convincing the government to impose tougher penalties on the men who commit such crimes.

Last week, Attel staged "Code of Honor," a 45-minute play about one man who is plagued by the ghosts of honor crime victims while he sits in a jail cell for killing his sister.

"These people have fanatic views not based on religion, but based on their values," said Attel.

The play is blunt in its condemnation of men who commit such crimes, as well as women relatives who acquiesce.

No one knows for sure how many honor crimes are committed each year. Probably the most notorious case in recent memory was the stoning death of the 17-year-old Yazidi girl in Iraq that was captured on a cell phone camera and broadcast around the world.

Despite repeated attempts to crack down on honor crimes in Jordan, including calls from King Abdullah for changes, critics say the Kingdom is "soft" on such killers. Local estimates place the number of such crimes at around 20 each year.

Attel and other critics of honor crimes say the killers can get off with as little as a six-month-sentence.

Basically, Jordanian law allows such killers to get off by arguing they they killed in the irrational heat of passion.

More often, says Attel, the killings are premeditated.

"Code of Honor" was performed to a full-house last week and Attel plans to take the play on the road to other parts of Jordan.

"We need to change the law," says Attel. "There should be a minimum of 10 years for such crimes. This is the way to deter honor crimes."