We condemn the brutal killings of Amina and Shawbo
international |
gender and sexuality |
other press 
Thursday June 07, 2007 12:22
by Houzan Mahmoud - Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
houzan73 at yahoo dot co dot uk
079 56 88 3001
Victims of so called “honour killings” in Kurdistan
It is unbelievable to hear the news about a 12 years old girl, brutally killed by her father because he suspected her of having a relationship with their 24-year-old male neighbour. Amina was killed on the 5th May 2007 by her own father in their house opposite the Ministry of Human Rights in Erbil, Kurdistan.
Amina’s father is said to be a PUK military official who has not been charged or even punished for killing his daughter up until now. It is said that Amina begged her father not to kill her, and that she kissed her father’s feet twice for mercy. He was cruel enough to ignore his 12 years old daughter’s innocent plea and killed her in cold blood.
Shawbo Ali Rauf, aged 19 years old, is another victim of the so-called “honour killings”. According to her father, her in-laws killed her on 12th May 2007. She was married to Hemn Mawlod Ali (known as Namr Mhamada Ali in Britain). Hemn has refugee status in Britain.
Women in Kurdistan need our support and international solidarity to strengthen their struggle against violence and terror against women and to put pressure on the Kurdish government to enforce a law that guarantees equality and dignity to all women. Also the British government is responsible to bring to justice the killers of Shawbo Ali who was killed by her husband and other two men who have refugee status in Britain.
Houzan Mahmoud: Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq- Abroad Representative
Payze Ahmed: women’s rights activist
Dara Ahmed: Writer and activist
Kurdish Women's Community-Kirklees
Kurdish Cultural Community- Kirklees
Eastern Kurdish Community-Kirklees
Western Kurdish and British Friendship association - Kirklees
Kurdish Refugees Community-Kirklees
For more information please contact:
houzan73@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 079 56 88 3001
Full story at link.
Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Women are forced to be groomed and beautiful for the sexual gratification of men, women are turned into sexual objects and encouraged to be sexually available at all times. This shameless oppression of women the glorification of witless models and pornography and sexual explicit degradation of women in cinema, on television, in magazines, newspapers and other publications and over course on the internet. Western oppression is truly monstrous.
It's not "western oppression" that killed this girl. It was cold blooded murder. Stop being an aplogist for savagery
Life was supposed to get better for women in Iraq after the ousting of Saddam. The reality has been rocketing rates of rape, murder, domestic violence and infant mortality, reports leading US writer Katha Pollitt at the link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2082705,00.html
What the brutal 'honour killing' of a girl in Iraq's Kurdistan province shows about the country's headlong descent into sectarian violence
When 17-year-old Doa appealed to the men to stop their attack, she was completely ignored. Surrounded by an excited, baying crowd of dozens of mature, burly men, she was beaten to death. Slowly. Having thrown her to the ground, they surrounded her and began a barrage of stones and chunks of concrete, mostly aimed at her head, deliberate blow after deliberate blow. Periodically she was disdainfully kicked by some of her assailants. Her suffering was dragged out for half an hour, long enough for many of the killers to film her death throes on their mobile phone videocams.
Full story at link.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10910
Ahmed
What has Western TV, pornography etc in the West got to do with the brutal murder of a 12 year old girl by her own father in the name of honour. It seems to me, Ahmed is slightly confused. In the West ,women have the freedom to choose to be anything from an MP to a prostitute. We call that freedom of choice, something unknown to women in the Muslim world. In other words, women are not the property of the men. We call that equal rights, unknown in the Muslim world. In any event, this line of argument can hardly be used to justify the murder of a child to fulfill her Daddy's need for honour. This honour/shame idea is very primitive. If the poor men are not being honoured they are being shamed, kind of thing! The way the men control the sexuality of their women in order to deliver them as certified virgins to a member of their own tribe is akin to pimping. In fact,it amount to the trading in the sexuality of their own women. In effect, treating their own women as they do their goat herds. Sorry, but it is totally unacceptable for a father to murder his own child and in addition, contrary to the UN declaration of human rights which guarantees the basis fundamental rights of all including women. To attempt making a comparsion of this evil practice to that of any Western practice is nothing short of Gross!
I have just read about these poor girls who were killed in this horrible way. The people who are responsible for their killings are disgusting and depraved individuals. Those who stick up for them or deny the existence and extent of such crimes are almost as bad. We all need to make our voices heard to let people know where we stand on this.
Again well done for bringing this up, as confronting the phenomenon of honour killings can be controversial.
Ger
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