2000 demonstrate against ’honour’ killings in Iran
On 14 August, in a village called Kani Dinar in the Mariwan region of Iran a "father" stabbed her 18 years old, daughter, Fereshteh Nejati, and slit her throat, almost severing her head in the street because she sought a divorce. Fereshteh had been forced into a marriage when she was 14 years old.
She fled to her uncle's house to seek refuge after her father threatened to kill her but her father forced them to hand her over and brutally murdered her on the same day.
More than 2000 people in Mariwan came to the street and held a demonstration against "honour" killings; they went to hospital and collected for Fereshte's body, and buried her with respect.
They demanded the perpetrator be arrested and face justice for committing the crime for killing his daughte; they was enormous anger in the crowd against the murderer. They asked the change in the legislation of Iran in fervor of women and especially against so-called 'honour' killings.
Photographs of the demonstrations here: WARNING! The 25th and last photograph is very disturbing.
he Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a remote area of Balochistan province, that five women were buried alive, allegedly by the younger brother of Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister and a prominent leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the ruling party. However, police have still not arrested the perpetrators after one month of the incident. CASE DETAILS:
The Umrani tribe is mainly concentrated in the Jafarabad and Naseerabad districts of Balochistan provice that are about 300 kilometers from Quetta city, the provincial capital. Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister for housing and construction, was elected to the Balochistan Assembly in the February 18, 2008 elections from Dera the Murad Jamali constituency of district Naseerabad. The incident of the women being buried alive occurred in a remote village, the Baba Kot, 80 kilometers away from Usta Mohammad city of Jafferabad district. It is believed that due to the influence of the minister and his brother the incident was not reported in the media.
According to the information received, five women were Ms. Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two other girls, aged between 16 to 18 years. They were at the house of Mr. Chandio at Baba Kot village and to leave for a civil court at Usta Mohammad, district Jafarabad, so that three of the girls could marry the men of their choice. Their decision to have marriage in court was the result of several days of discussions with the elders of the tribe who refused them permission to marry. The names of two younger girls were not ascertained because of strong control of tribal leaders in the area.
As the news of their plans leaked out, Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, a brother of the minister, came with more than six persons and abducted them at gun points. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, bearing a registration number plate of the Balochistan government, to another remote area, Nau Abadi, in the vicinity of Baba Kot. After reaching the deserted area of Nau Abadi, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six companions took the three younger women out of the jeep and beat them before allegedly opening fire with their guns. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive at that moment. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. The two older women were an aunt of Fauzia and the other, the mother of one minor. When they protested and tried to stop the burial of the minors that were plainly alive, the attackers were so angry that they also pushed them into the ditch and buried all alive. After completing the burial, they fired several shots into to the air so that no one would come close.
The minors were educated and were studying in classes from 10 to 12. They were punished for trying to decide about their marriages.
After one month the police have still not registered the case and it is difficult to get more detailed information. The provincial minister is so powerful that police are reluctant to provide details on the murder. When the AHRC contacted Mr. Sadiq Umrani, provincial minister, he confirmed the incident by saying that only three women had been killed by unknown persons. He denied his or his brother's involvement. He went on to say that the police will not disclose any information about the case as to do so now would be implicate themselves. However, concerned officers of two different police stations have confirmed the incident and explained that no one is providing any information. Also as they could not find the graves of the victims it is difficult to register the case. The victim's family members have since left the place and their whereabouts are unknown.
The alleged perpetrator, Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, the brother of the provincial minister, was also involved in murder of three persons, including one young woman, in January 2006. That case was similar in that a school teacher, Mr. Mohammad Aslam, was going with his lover in a taxi to a civil court to court marry. The perpetrators stopped them at Manjo Shori, sub district Tumboo, District Naseerabad and killed all three persons by gun fire. The dead included the taxi driver, Mr. Jabal Aidee. The police were unable to institute a murder case for five months until the intervention of Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry, the deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and also the deputy speaker of Senate. But only one person was arrested and the perpetrator Abdul Sattar Umrani remained at large.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Every year in Pakistan hundreds of women, of all ages and in all parts of the country, are reported killed in the name of honour. Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished. The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions, which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men many of whom impose their virtually proprietarily control over women with violence. For the most part, women bear the traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behaviour with stoicism, as part of their kismat (fate), but exposure to media, the work of women's rights groups and the greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women.
But if women begin to exert these rights, however tentatively, they often face more repression and punishment: the curve of honour killings has increased parallel to the rise in the awareness in rights. State indifference, discriminatory laws and the gender bias of much of the country's police force and judiciary have ensured virtual impunity for perpetuators of honour killings. It is paradoxical that women who enjoy such a poor status in society and have no standing in family should become a focal point of a false and primitive concept of family honour, which they are accepted to uphold at the expense of their inclinations and preference in the matters of marriage. [Honour Killings in Pakistan by Neshay Najam]
Originally a Baluch and Pashtun tribal custom, honour killings are founded in the twin concepts of honour and commodity of women. Women are married off for a bride price paid to the father. There is no concept for girls to get marriage on their own choice and if it is found then, they are killed in the name of honour. (Please also refer to LESSON Series 35 May 2004 of Human Rights Correspondence School) SUGGESTED ACTION: Please write letters to the following mentioned authorities demanding to file the case of murder of five women by burial alive by the perpetrators.
Please be informed that the AHRC has also written letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for an intervention in this case.
Equality Now is urgently concerned about Kobra Najjar, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery who lost her final appeal for amnesty. Iranian women's rights activists working on her case report that Kobra has exhausted all domestic legal remedies and that her execution by stoning could happen any time.
Kobra is a victim of domestic violence who was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroine addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra's "clients" who sympathized with her plight. Kobra has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband's murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and is now free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery - the prostitution her husband forced upon her.
Equality Now is also concerned about recent reports of seven other women and one man, all accused of adultery sentenced to death by stoning, whose executions are also reported to be possible at any time. In Iran, adultery is the only crime punishable by stoning.
Stoning violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iran is a state party. The ICCPR clearly prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. It also limits the imposition of the death penalty "only for the most serious crimes." No criminal or other act warrants violent and inhumane punishments such as flogging and stoning. Moreover, adultery is a private act and should not incur criminal punishment. Protection from arbitrary or unlawful interference under the ICCPR has been found by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to include consensual sexual activity between adults in private. Recommended Actions
Please write to the Iranian officials below, calling for Kobra's immediate release, the commutation of all sentences of death by stoning and the prohibition by law of all cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments in accordance with Iran's obligations under the ICCPR. Urge the officials also to initiate a comprehensive review of the Civil and Penal Codes of Iran to remove all provisions that discriminate and perpetuate discrimination against women, including those regarding adultery and fornication, in accordance with Iran's own constitutional provision for equality before the law.
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Head of the Judiciary c/o Ministry of Justice Park-e Shahr Teheran Islamic Republic of Iran Email: iripr@iranjudiciary.org, irjpr@iranjudiciary.com and info@dadgostary-tehran.ir Phone: +98 21 22741002, +98 21 22741003, +98 21 22741004, +98 21 22741005
Note: The contact information above may encounter delivery problems so please keep trying to send your message. Thank you for taking action!
Please also contact the Iranian embassy in your country. The following link may help you find the contact information: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Iran/Iran.html
Bahrain: Embassy of Iran in Manama Tel: 722400, 722660 Fax: 722101
Canada: Embassy of Iran in Ottawa http://www.salamiran.org/ Tel: 613 2354726 Ext 225 Fax: 613 2325712
Denmark: Embassy of Iran in Copenhagen http://www.iran-embassy.dk Tel: 39160071 Fax: 39160075
Finland: Embassy of Iran in Helsinki Tel: (9) 6869240 Fax: (9) 6869241
Germany: Embassy of Iran in Frankfurt Tel: (0) 695600070, (0) 695600730 Fax: (0) 6956000728
India: Embassy of Iran in New Delhi Tel: (011) 3329600, (011) 3329601, (011) 3329602, (011) 3320491 Fax: (011) 3325493 Jordan: Embassy of Iran in Amman Tel: (6) 4641281, (6) 4641282 Fax: (6) 4641383 Kenya: Embassy of Iran in Nairobi Tel: (2) 720343, (2) 720796 Fax: (2) 713966
Lebanon: Embassy of Iran in Beirut Tel: (1) 821224
Malaysia: Embassy of Iran in Kuala Lumpur Tel: (3) 4514830, (3) 4514824 Fax: (3) 4562904
Norway: Embassy of Iran in Oslo http://home.eunet.no/%7Eiranamb/ Tel: 23 27 29 60 Fax: 22 55 49 19
Russia: Embassy of Iran in Moscow Tel: (95) 9177282, (95) 9170039, (95) 9178440 Fax: (95) 2302897
Sweden: Embassy of Iran in Stockholm Tel: (80) 7650829, (80) 7653174 Fax: (80) 7653119
Switzerland: Embassy of Iran in Berne Tel: (31) 3510801, (31) 3510802 Fax: (31) 3515652
United Arab Emirates: Embassy of Iran in Abu Dhabi http://www.iranembassy.org.ae Tel: (12) 4447618 Fax: (12) 4448714
United Kingdom: Embassy of Iran in London http://www.iran-embassy.org.uk/ Tel: 02072253000 Fax: 02075894440
United States: Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Washington, D.C. http://www.daftar.org/ Tel: 202 9654990 Fax: 202 9651073
Please keep Equality Now updated on your efforts and send copies of any replies you receive to: Equality Now P.O. Box 20646, Columbus Circle Station, New York NY 10023, USA Equality Now Africa Regional Office, P.O. Box 2018, KNH 00202, Nairobi, KENYA Equality Now P.O. Box 48822, London WC2N 6ZW, UNITED KINGDOM info@equalitynow.org Equality Now
Farman Sadiq: "It went without saying that I controlled my sisters"
Today, Farman Sadiq, 22, is ashamed of the way of his former 'honor' crime way of thinking.
Farman Sadiq was brought up to control his sisters. And he did - until he was asked the question: "why?" and he couldn't give a reason. Now he helps other young men to take a stand against honor crimes.
"Firstly I was forced to change my life. It has taken several years," he says.
Farman Sadiq, controlled his older sister's mobile, forbid his younger sister to go to her school prom and thought that Fadime Sahindal (a honor crime victim that was killed by her father in January 2002) had only herself to blame. Until the moment he could no longer stand himself and what he had become.
"There are many that are lost. I was one of them," he says.
Farman came to Sweden from Iraq when he was 12 years old. As the only son, it became his mission to guard his sisters. It was the same for his friends in the suburb of Bergsjön (outside Gothenburg).
"We did not only guard our own sisters, but also the sisters of our friends. If I saw one of my friend's sisters out on town with other girls and boys, I would call my friend immediately and tell him: 'Be a man, control your sister!'" A right to beat your sister
The control was ever-present.
"One time when I chatted with a girl over the internet on MSN, I realized that it was my friend's cousin. I called him up and said that she flirted with men through the internet and that it was dishonorable."
It wasn't at all unusual that Farman informed upon her, in fact it was expected for him to do so. Nobody reacted negatively even though the call created consequences.
"If my friend assaulted his sister was of not my business. It was his right to do so. And it was his duty to defend the family honor."
"I remember clearly how I thought that Fadime Sahindal had herself to blame when her father murdered her. She had brought shame to the family."
Difficult to talk about.
Farman is uncomfortable in his chair in the café. Several times he grasps his water-glass and taps on the table to underscore certain points. It is difficult for him to speak about certain actions and opinions that he feels ashamed about today.
But he wants to tell about what honor crimes thinking is and was all about. How it inhibited him as a human being and killed his ability to feel empathy.
And how he almost got his sister married against her will because of an innocent SMS.
"I went through her mobile and found a message from a guy. It almost ended up in a disaster. We interrogated her, accused her . 'Maybe it's your boyfriend, maybe you've slept with him...'"
The sister was punished.
Farman trakced down the guy and threatened him. The sister lost the right to have a mobile and got grounded, despite the fact that she was 21 years of age.
"The family got upset. We started to call her things and my dad called the family in Germany in order to find a man to marry her off swiftly."
On another occasion it was Farman who got to decide whether his younger sister could got to the prom night of her high school. He said no.
"I could not picture that my sister could have the same right to meet friends as I did, socialize, fall in love. It just didn't exist!" he says.
Felt stupid
He says that those who grow up in an honor crime related culture and chastity way of thinking, have a very difficult time not to take part in the gender discrimination that is build into the system.
"It gets fed to you right from the first day. Moving to Sweden changes nothing, even though you only live with countrymen in segregated areas. The father made a point the other day that it wouldn't been the same thing if we had lived in a Swedish area where we didn't have to worry so much about family honor."
Farman's position on 'honor' started to disintegrate when he got in contact with counselor and attorney Nigar Ibrahim of the project "Sharaf Heroes", an organization that battles against honor crimes.
"The most overwhelming point came was when she asked us the following question: 'Why are you thinking that way?'"
"We didn't know. So I asked my father. He didn't know either, it became silent and then he finally said, 'I was brought up that way and so was your grandfather.'"
"We all were victims of the honor crime way of thinking. I felt enormously stupid. And fooled."
On his little sisters side
Farman joined the organization "Sharaf Heroes" and trained to become to a counselor within the organization. He now organizes his own courses with young boys to help them to question the honor crime way of thinking.
But the biggest challenge was to change himself. And to organize his family into thinking differently.
"It was difficult in the beginning, but now I think that my choice was correct. Today my younger sister knows that we are all on her side when it comes to deciding how she wants to live and with whom she wants to live with."
Friends cut off contact
It has had its price.
"I developed a bad reputation amongst others. Some of my friends have broken off contact with me. Maybe they haven't understood that I not only wanted to change our whole culture, but just the part that collides with human rights," Farman Sadiq says.Farman responds to questions:
Carina: What is the worst thing you ever have done against your sisters? Farman: In my eyes: of everything that I did, the worst thing that was when I controlled my sister's mobile - to take her rights away was the worst.
Lena: Hello! When you were younger, did you think that you had more value that your sisters? Or was it about something else? Farman: I got brought up with that thought that I was more worth - that I was a man.
Sophie: I just wanted to say that I think it's strong and courageous of you to take a stand against your former behaviour and inform other people. Do you miss your sister today? Farman: I have contact with my sister today, she lives and is married with a man of her choice and I'm happy for her. But sometimes I'm ashamed and can't look into her eyes with the thought of my what kind of behaviour I had towards her.
Anna: What does your parents think about you taking a distance against the honor culture today? Farman: They like the work I do today, but they are still worried and concerned of what people will say and think. But I talk with them on a regular basis and am trying to make them change their minds.
Aida: Why do you think that parents marry off their daughters or sons? Farman: To show their family and others that they still have control. And they do so because it is easier to get them married away before they bring shame on the family.
Rolf B: Does the honor culture crime related thinking becomes bigger when families from the east are forced to protect their girls from the liberated way of life, like for an example Swedish girls have here in Sweden? Farman: Unfortunately, the thought process around the 'honor' are enforced here more, and this depends on several factors such as: 1. Segregation 2. Unemployment 3. Language problems 4. Isolation 5. Fear - of that is strange and unfamiliar And this is not only a problem concerning the Middle East.
Bosse: Hello Farman. What did your old friends say when you took the distance from the honor culture? Did you loose friends? Farman: I've lost quite a lot of friends and have been bullied for it by them. But to me they are not real friends.
Arian: My girlfriend can't be with me because of her family. It's because I'm from Iran and she's a Catholic. I am not a Muslim. What are the ways to go about this issue, besides that she has to be cut off from her family? Farman: Arian, I can't answer your question right here and now. To be able to do so, I would have to investigate the whole situation and how it looks for you and for her, and what kind of family relations and relatives contact you and she have. So if you want to contact me at farman.sediq@fryshuset.se then we can talk about it more if you feel like it.
Liiza: What do you think of the fact that it is called "honor culture"? I my eyes, the control of family members has nothing to do with honor. What do you think about that? Farman: I think this shouldn't be called "honor culture", because it has nothing to do with culture at all, it's a gender hierarchy and not all families are like that.
Simba: If you were a girl, would you like to be treated in the same manner? Farman: In what manner do you mean? Simba: I mean, to be in constant control by your family, without any freedom at all? Farman: I am not a girl, but I can imagine how difficult it is. My sisters have lived in that sort of life, to be controlled and not have any rights whatsoever, so it is difficult and that was the imperative thing that helped me to change: NO TO OPPRESSION!
Ahmad: Hello Farman. Was it difficult to overcome the honor culture-way of thinking? Farman:It is the most difficult thing I have ever experienced, to change myself, to put myself in front of a mirror and ask "I am thinking wrongly...am I really much more worth than my sister?" It was very difficult...a struggle that I took on, and thank God with the help of others and with the help by the new knowledge gained and my new role models, I could change.
Magnus: I think that you are doing something very strong... quite fantastic! Farman: Thank you Magnus!
Erik: Hello Farman! How do you separate "honor" and respect to a persons individual view on religion? I'm thinking in the terms of school and with swimming lessons and such, or is it a religious concept for women not to show themselves in for an example by a pool with other men in bathing suits? Farman: There is nothing that says in the religion about that. Misinterpretations of different religions and the lack of the parents' knowledge about religion leads to even greater oppressions, but we should also respect the choice it is the individual who doesn't want to show and be on the premises as the opposite gender, as long as nobody already has taken that decision for her or him.
Filip: Hello Farman. Honor culture, does that has something to do with Islam? Farman: NO, honor culture has nothing to do with Islam, nor with any other religion what so ever, but they are enforced amongstt religious groups caused by misinterpretations and the lack of knowledge.
Dystop: How is you relationship with your sister now these days? Farman: They are proud of me and I'm proud of them and I would die for their sakes. It wasn't my fault that I got brought up in this way, nor is it my fathers, because he in his turn was also brought up this way, etc;
MO3: Could you marry a girl who is not a virgin? Could you marry with someone from another culture? Farman: It's a an absolute certainty today and there is no question about it that I would do so. Because, the female-membrane does not exist, so there isn't anything called virginity. It's a myth and I would marry any girl as long as we love each other and we can trust each other.
Merjam: What can we do to minimize honor related crimes? Farman: 1. Change the attitude amongst young men, because they are the future fathers, husbands and the tomorrow days new generation. 2.One should be courageous to talk about it more, one should be courageous to be "racist" and point out the ones that are oppressing. To raise the knowledge about this subject. 3. To have a new immigrant laws and boost the integration plans for the already established immigrants.
Chachamed: What do you think about the movie "Jalla Jalla", that brings up just this problem? Farman: A very funny movie and a good one too. There is another movie called "When the darkness falls", a cruel film that shows clearly and explicitly how a honor thinking family is acting and looks like. Erika: Was it your parents who told you to look after your sisters? or was it you who just did it? Farman: It was something I did, as other expected me to do so, both from the family and from friends. etc.
Suryoyo: Swedish society is a result of your thinking, youths that are hanging out in the streets, having sex left to right and with whomever they want, lots of single mothers who don't know who's the father of their child. Nobody respects their parents or traditions or culture and everybody is just living for the moment. The Swedish family doesn't exist and people are living in misery. Why should I belong to such a society? Farman: Create your own society, it's not your fault that the society looks the way it does, but it is your responsibility to change it and liberty doesn't mean you go out and sleep around with everybody you meet. You can still be a Kurd, an Arab, or Turk etc; but be to a certain extent extent Swedish as well. Take from both camps, for the sake of yourself and for the best for your children.
Tanten: I just wanted to say that you are fantastic guy and I wish you all the best of luck in you project. Farman: Thank you very much Tanten. Published in Aftonbladet 23/06/2008 Translated by Caroline Norbro Photos of Sharaf Heroes can be viewed here
A statement from the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation and the International Campaign Against Honour Killings
On April 7th 2007, a teenager called Du'a Khalil Aswad was stoned to death, in a brutal and savage attack by her uncle and cousins, watched by a crowd of hundreds of men and boys gleefully relishing the opportunity for male bonding as the girl was kicked and beaten, pelted with stones and finally killed by a concrete block which was dropped on her face, pulverizing it into a bleeding pulp as the crowd roared their approval. This was a so-called 'honour' killing, although a lynching might be a more accurate description.
Du'a was a Kurd from the Yezidi religion. Her crime had been to try and elope with a young man of her own choosing; for this she was brutally, publicly murdered in a scene which would not been out of place in Old Testament times, if it were not for the jostling observers recording the event on their mobile phones, trying to get a better angle as they recorded her death agonies. These gruesome home videos found their way onto the Internet where they aroused a wave of revulsion at the murder and sympathy for Du'a Khalil and the countless other victims of 'honour' killing and 'honour' violence in the world.
Within the ideology of 'honour', daughters are the possessions of their fathers and male relatives, and that their lives are conditional upon obeying the patriarchal order. This conception of women as possessions is a common feature of classical patriarchy, the patriarchy of agrarian tribes. It is this conception of women as possessions that cost Du'a her life; it is this same conception that may mean that justice may not be served in her case.
Tribal Kurdish culture is shown by the reliance of many Kurds on komelayati, a structure run by elderly, religious, political and tribal representatives who hear disputes to achieve reconciliation (solih). As their structure suggests, they are deeply patriarchal and although they often resolve issues by financial solutions, they may also order women and minor girls into forced marriage and call for 'honour' killings to be carried out.
In the Kurdish newspaper Aweena, it was announced that the Aswads, Du'a's parents, had accepted 40 million Iraqi Dinars as blood money in such a solih and had agreed to forgive the murderers. The Aswads have suffered enormously over the murder of their daughter, and no doubt they deserve 40 million dinars of compensation if not more; the Aswads still live in Bashiqa, and no doubt choosing to forgive the murderers is necessary for them if they wish to live peacefully in their community. In the aftermath of the murder, several Yezidi men were executed by members of Al Qaeda who have issued a fatwa declaring the murder of Yezidi as permissible. The Yezidi people have suffered a great deal of violence and prejudice since the stoning, and it is with this in mind that the solih was reached, with Christian, Yezidi and high-profile Muslim leaders working together to raise the money and to make the agreement to restore peace between Bashiqa's ethnic groups.
However, on the scales of justice, the forgiveness of the parents should weigh nothing. Children are not their parent's possessions, and a father or mother has no more right to forgive their killers on their behalf than they do to force them into marriage or kill them. The 'honour' killing of Du'a Khalil was not a crime against her family; it was a crime against her, and a crime against humanity. If the parents wish to forgive her murderers it is a private affair: this must have no bearing on the prosecution and pursuit of the guilty. Of the seventeen men who took an active role in her stoning, five are currently imprisoned, and of the remaining twelve, two are in hiding and cannot be found by the authorities. The guilty must be tried and sentenced, and the fugitives must be brought to justice, irrespective of this deal.
Kurdish authorities do not have a good reputation for seeking justice for murdered women. Take for example the case of Mohabad Abdullah, who was unfortunate enough to catch the eye of Saleh 'Machine Gun' Ahmed Sharif. In 2001, after she refused to marry him, he abducted, raped and murdered her. He was prosecuted for this crime and imprisoned: however with the active help of the PUK (of which group Sharif was a member) a deal was brokered to pay 'blood money' to the Abduallah tribe to release the murderer. Sharif is also suspected of murdering Mohabad's sister Jiwan, who testified against him, and yet walks free in Sulemaniya.
Take, for another example, the recent murder of Kurdistan Aziz, another teenager also stoned to death by her family for elopement. Both parties were appealed to for help; both refused to protect the young woman, and there does not seem to have been any attempt to serve justice upon her killers. 'Honour' killings and female suicides are at epidemic proportions (with 11 women dying from these two causes in just 7 days in the Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to doctors at Rizgari hospital).
Du'a's murder has become deeply meaningful for young Kurds, for Kurdish women's rights activists and across the global community, with excerpts of her brutal death aired on CNN and Al Jazeera attracting attention and sympathy from tens of thousands of people. The anniversary of her death was memorialized with seminars and events across the world. She will be continued to be remembered, as symbol of the power of love and the brutality of patriarchy, standing for the hundreds of Kurdish women and girls killed for 'honour' every year. Punitive justice against her murderers will send a clear message throughout the region and to the entire world that these patriarchal murders will not be tolerated.
Human life is priceless. No amount of money will cleanse the stones of Kurdistan from Du'a's blood. Only justice can do that. WE CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR DU'A KHALIL AND ALL OTHER VICTIMS OF 'HONOUR' KILLING!
You may have noticed that the site at www.stophonourkillings.com is currently parked and also that our graphics aren't displaying properly. This is due to a misunderstanding as to which of our organisers was supposed to be paying the hosting company: basically, there are two of us responsible for the financial side, and we each of us thought the other person had dealt with the invoice.
Please keep checking www.stophonourkillings.com and don't delete your graphics, if you have links to us on your pages. We hope to have this sorted out by Monday.
Few of ICAHK's members are unaware that in Kurdistan, even the stones on the ground carry the evidence of brutality and violence against women. Under the Kurdish and Iraqi government, power is ultimately ceded to the tribes, with their barbaric culture of 'honour' killing, despite the international attention given to these constant and repeated acts of terrorism against women.
Few are punished for murdering a woman in Kurdistan, or for aiding and abetting the murder of a woman. Dozens of other girls and women are killed every month because the Kurdish government and politicians in power do not care about the lives and deaths of girls and women, perpetuating the culture of 'honour' killings and failing to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
In the latest killing, or at least the latest to come to public attention, Kurdistan Aziz was 16 years old when she escaped her family with a man she knew they would not accept, and courageously following the ancient tradition of radu kauten they eloped together to Arbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan. They planned to start a life together. But her father had other ideas for her; not of love, happiness or choice but that she must die for this rebellion against the patriarchal order.
The girl was well aware of the risk so she asked the police for help in the KDP controlled city. They referred her to the Department to End Domestic Violence. This Department, pledged to protect girls like Kurdistan proved themselves corrupt in accepting a bribe from her father and turned her over to him knowing the consequences. No Kurd could claim to be unaware of the dangers of returning a young woman to her father in this situation, particularly not a professional within a Department of this nature. The person who accepted this bribe is an accessory to murder since that is what 'honour' killing is, controlled murder.
Kurdistan Aziz was taken back to her family; they chose to kill her by the method of stoning her to death on the Hawre Mountain. A local woman's organization alerted the authorities in the Governate of Sulemaniya, controlled by the PUK. The PUK refused to intervene in a 'tribal issue' and asked the women's organization to risk their own safety to provide a photograph of her. On 17-18th of May, at 16 years old, Kurdistan Aziz, the girl who fell in love, was killed by her relatives, her body crushed with rocks.
The death of Kurdistan Aziz is part of the brutal and common idea that death is necessary to reclaim the "honour" of the community from the "shame" supposedly brought upon them by women or girls who dare to try to make their own lives and their own decisions: but there is no shame in Kurdistan Aziz's love and courage. The shame is in the hearts and minds of the politicians, the men who are paid to protect women who in reality sell them by accepting bribes, knowing full well the outcome. The shame is in the hearts of men who could kill a child by stoning her, because she wanted to love and be loved according to her choice, and because her father wanted to protect his reputation as a man who treats women as a proprietal right, because in Kurdistan, this is where rightness lies.
The shame is upon murderers for murdering women in the name of their warped and degraded perception of 'honour'.
WE DEMAND:
National police must act immediately to apprehend the father of Kurdistan Aziz and all members of the Aziz family and prosecute them for murder.
National police must investigate the Department to End Domestic Violence and discover the individual responsible for accepting the bribe and prosecute him or her as an accessory to murder.
All employees working for the Department to End Domestic Violence must be investigated; anyone who had knowledge of the bribe must be dismissed from service and hold no role in public service in the future. Women cannot have confidence in an organization that has been proven to accept bribes and this must be addressed.
No public official should accept the assurance of a father, or any other community member that a person released to them will not be harmed. These assurances provide no protection to the potential victim; they should provide none to any other person.
The PUK in Sulemaniya are grossly negligent. Whoever made the decision to ignore the stoning of this young girl is unfit to hold public office and must be dismissed and face criminal charges.
All members of the Department must be trained and taught about their responsibilities; and the consequences of betraying the trust of vulnerable women.
Public officials should never release a vulnerable girl or woman to any relative or other community figure even if that person gives assurances of her safety. These assurances provide no protection. It should go without saying that they should provide no protection for corrupt and collusive officials.
There must be a full enquiry into all the failures and an analysis of how the system of protection can be improved; it must include extreme professional and criminal repercussions to any individual in public life who ignore or betray women at risk of violence.
Public awareness needs to be organised through the media
Please support our campaign: we are asking you to write to or fax the Kurdistan Regional Government the addresses below expressing your concern about the murder of Kurdistan Aziz and supporting our demands.
The Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil Phone: 873-156-2753 Fax: 001-651-846-6051 Email: Mhacerbil@aol.com
KRG Representation in the United States Office:202 776 7196 Fax: 202 887 9168 Email: KRG4USA@aol.com Kurdistan Regional Government-Erbil USA Representation 1050 Seventeenth Street, NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036
KRG Representation in the United Kingdom Phone: 020-7828-8616 Fax: 020-7828-8526 Email: krguk@aol.com 7 Belgrave Road London SW1V 1QB
KRG-European Union Mission Phone: +32-2-513 72 28 Fax: +32-2-513 36 79 Email: krg.eu@skynet.be rue le la Loi 221 1040 Brussels BELGIUM
KRG Representation in the Nordic Countries Phone: +46 8 442 0505 Fax: +46 8 442 0905 Email: krg.nordic@telia.com Box 7127 SE-170 07 Solna Sweden
KRG Representation in Germany Phone: +49 30 7974 8491 Fax: +49 30 7974 8492 Email: KrgInGermany@netscape.net Vertretung der Regionalregierung-Kurdistan Irak in Deutschland P.O. Box 150 101 D-10633 Berlin, Germany
KRG Office with UN & NGOs Phone: 0041- 22 732 1656 Fax: 0041- 22 732 1659 Email: unrep@krg.org 34 Rue du Moillelbeau 1209 Geneve, Switzerland
KRG Representation in France Phone: +33 1 42 65 18 45 Fax: +33 1 42 65 18 46 Email: krgfrance@wanadoo.fr
You can also: send an email via this link. You may also wish to send copies to the PUK and KDP (email link).
Honour killing victim wanted to live like other German girls
At age 16, all Morsal Obeidi wanted was to live the way other girls in Germany do. She paid dearly: Obeidi's brother stabbed her 20 times. Her murder has sparked a renewed debate in Germany about the failure of many immigrant families to integrate into Western society.
Morsal is buried one week after her death. In the morning, the women wash the body, cleansing it of its earthly sins, in keeping with tradition.
The teenage girl's thin body is covered with stab wounds, evidence of the knife that was plunged into her torso. The women wrap the body in linen and lay it into a coffin made of a light-colored wood. At noon, six men lift the coffin to their shoulders and begin walking, leading a procession of 200 men and women dressed in black. Ghulam-Mohammed Obeidi, the father -- who lost his daughter and now, more than likely, his son in a single night -- is at the center of the group. They walk along a path that leads to the new Muslim section at the back of a cemetery in Hamburg's Öjendorf neighborhood, to where a group of construction workers stand leaning against an excavating machine. The women stop as the men carry the coffin to the grave, which is lined with boards, a rectangular hole in the ground with pale sand piled up around its edges.
This is where the story ends, with the body of a stabbed girl being brought to her grave. Her name was Morsal Obeidi, and she was 16. Born in Afghanistan, she died a few days ago, in a parking lot in Hamburg.
In the years between her birth and her death, Morsal Obeidi tried to lead the kind of life she believed was correct, the kind of life other girls in her school led. Perhaps she was trying to do precisely what politicians and social workers are constantly encouraging immigrants to do: to become integrated.
A Life in Two Worlds
But her parents and her family -- especially Ahmad, her oldest brother -- were an obstacle to integration. In the end, Morsal Obeidi was torn apart by the need to live a life in two worlds, and by the daily struggle to be the kind of person she wanted to be.
Morsal met with Mohammed, her cousin, on the evening of May 15, a Thursday. They were sitting in a McDonald's restaurant. Morsal had only been back in the city for a few months, after a prolonged visit with relatives in Afghanistan. It was spring in Hamburg. As they ate, Mohammed thought about the plan that he was keeping a secret from Morsal. It seemed harmless enough. Mohammed said later that Ahmad, Morsal's brother, had asked him to bring his sister to the Berliner Tor train station. "He said to me: 'I want you to meet Morsal today. Then walk to the Berliner Tor with her. But don't tell her anything. I just want to talk to her."
It seemed harmless enough.
Morsal and Mohammed arrived at the suburban railway station shortly after 11 p.m. They walked around the corner to a small parking lot next to an apartment building, where they sat down to smoke a cigarette. At 11:20 p.m., Ahmad suddenly appeared out of the darkness. Morsal recognized him -- and froze. Ahmad approached his sister and then, without saying a word, began stabbing her. He stabbed her a few times. "I think he must've taken something first. Drugs. Or maybe he got drunk. I tried to stop him, but he pushed me away," says Mohammed.
Ahmad Obeidi, 23, is a strong, athletic young man. Morsal tried to run away, but she stumbled and fell. Ahmad stood over her and continued to stab her, five times, ten times, still silent as he swung his right arm up and down over his sister's body. He seemed intoxicated. The police counted 20 stab wounds, inflicted with such force that Ahmad would later wear a bandage on his right forearm.
Morsal screamed, waking up the residents of the apartment building. Passersby called the police. Ahmad fled to a nearby subway station, and Mohammed followed him. The two cousins boarded a train, where they sat silently across from each other, a killer and his accomplice.
Morsal died.
Mohammed spent a short time wandering through the night before going to a police station, where he was interrogated for six hours. It was Ahmad, he said, who had killed her.
At approximately noon on May 16, roughly 12 hours after the killing, police officers stood at the door of Ahmad Obeidi's apartment. He allowed them to take him into custody without resisting, and he confessed to the crime. To the officers, it seemed that Ahmad, the murderer of his own sister, had been waiting for them.
In the days following the crime, it was frequently referred to as an "honor killing." A murder for the sake of honor? Is this even possible? Doesn't a man who cold-bloodedly kills his own sister, a girl seven years his junior, little more than a child, in fact lose all honor?
A Criminal for Whom Germany Was Foreign
The family was certainly not without its problems. But there was a critical difference between Morsal, who wanted nothing more than to be free, and Ahmad, who was a criminal to whom Germany had always been a foreign place. He staggered through life, unstable, a failure in life. He killed his sister for having become too comfortable in the ways of the West. He resented her for her uncovered hair, her makeup and her short skirts.
By reconstructing Morsal's life, we realize that there are various ways to become integrated, to succeed in Germany, and that different people adjust to German society at different rates. Morsal was always a step ahead, while her brother Ahmad always lagged behind.
Morsal had a German passport, like her brother and the rest of the family. Ghulam-Mohammed Obeidi was the first to come to Germany. He arrived in 1992, when Helmut Kohl was still chancellor. The father was barely 30 years old, a good-looking young man who had been trained as a pilot in the Soviet Union. He had flown the legendary MiG-21 jet fighter, an aircraft capable of traveling at twice the speed of sound. Obeidi flew combat missions against the religious mujahedeen, and he was a member of the Communist Party, which soon fell from power when the Soviets withdrew and the mujahedeein took Kabul. Obeidi fled to Hamburg, where there was already a sizeable Afghan community. It seemed a good place for a new beginning, a place where he would not be alone.
An Afghan Enclave in Europe
Today, Hamburg is home to about 20,000 people of Afghan heritage, more than any other European city. Close to 7,000 have German passports. Before the murder of Morsal, Hamburg's Afghan community was relatively loose-knit and was rarely perceived as an ethnic group, partly because these immigrants had been so dhttp://www.stophonourkillings.com/admin.php?op=News&mode=add International Campaign Against Honour Killings › Administration Menu › Articles/Storieseeply divided at home that there was little left to unite them as a community abroad.
When the communists came into power in 1978, the supporters of the king were the first to leave Afghanistan. In 1989, the communists fled the victorious mujahedeen. After the Taliban was ousted in 1996, many of its supporters also went abroad. In other words, each group was fleeing from the next group that would follow it into exile.
Once they had arrived in Germany, the groups found that they had little in common. Old enemies were now neighbors, living together in the same city. To make life together more tolerable, these disparate immigrants focused on the one thing that could surmount all ideological differences: the family.
The family became their safe haven, and it was to be defended at all costs. The family, in this new, foreign world, could not be allowed to disintegrate.
This emphasis on the family created great pressure to conform, to obey the rules -- and it sealed the fate of Morsal Obeidi. Her father brought his family to Germany in 1994, when Ahmad was 10 and Morsal was only three. He could no longer work as a pilot in his adopted homeland. An Afghan elite soldier was not in high demand in Germany, and so he learned to drive a bus. He never learned enough German to truly fit in. Everyone here seemed to be overtaking him, even his own daughter.
Obeidi started a business selling used buses in Rothenburgsort, a Hamburg neighborhood. Today there are three dilapidated buses and an old Mazda on the lot at Obeidi Auto Export. Ahmad, the killer, ran his father's business, a business with almost no inventory worth selling. The family lived on another street in the same neighborhood in a new, five-story building adjacent to the motorway. It was neither a very good neighborhood nor a troubled ghetto.
Obeidi's family grew, and he soon had a wife and five children. Though relatively unsuccessful in the world outside, at home he was still in charge, still the man of the house. His family was the source of his pride, and he could not abide the thought of anyone complaining about them. He was determined that no one in the Afghan community should be able to say that his children had brought shame on the family. But this was far from his family's reality. Ahmad, the eldest son, became a criminal. Morsal, the pretty daughter, became too German. In his police file, Ahmad was soon listed as a violent criminal. Morsal, hoping to escape the blows from her father and brother, repeatedly sought the protection of a child and youth welfare agency.
In this new world, the proud men are the first to become losers. They lose their way of life, because in their world their only claim to authority is the fact that they are men and that, as men, they can resort to their one advantage over women, brute strength. They cling to old concepts like honor, because honor is something that even a loser can invoke.
'You Are Bringing Shame to the Family'
Morsal attended the Ernst-Henning-Strasse Schule, an elementary and junior high school in Hamburg's Bergedorf neighborhood with students from 18 different countries. In the same neighborhood, near a pedestrian zone, she would often get together with friends after school. It was not a very attractive place to meet but, being in a different neighborhood, it offered Morsal and her friends an opportunity to get away from their families. There they could hang out, smoke, listen to music and occasionally drink alcohol. Morsal liked hip-hop music and Afghan pop. She was 16 and not unattractive to the boys.
"She was outspoken and spirited," says Helmut Becker, the deputy principal at her school, "and she was never shy about contradicting people." Morsal took part in a project that involved students educating other students. She was even awarded a certificate that identified her as a "conflict mediator."
There are many files about Morsal Obeidi, filled with the sparse comments of the many Hamburg agencies with which she came into contact over the years: the youth welfare agency, the school authority, the police. The files describe Morsal as a relatively poor student. In January 2007, the principal of her school, Dorit Ehler, informed her that she would not be able to complete the requirements to graduate from the vocational-track high school she was attending. Ehler informed the parents that she planned to keep Morsal back a grade, but that perhaps something could be worked out. The parents, however, had made up their minds long before, and they withdrew their daughter from the school.
Morsal, unlike her older sister, was obstinate. She was 14 when she began to resist her parents' authority. She was tired of being complacent, of living according to the old Afghan rules, which seemed irrelevant to her life in Hamburg. She argued with her parents about her appearance and her behavior, her uncovered hair, her makeup, her tight jeans and about smoking and drinking. They argued about her friends and acquaintances. For former fighter pilot Ghulam-Mohammed Obeidi, the family's reputation was at stake. It was the only thing he had left to lose.
A Father and Son Turned Violent
The police say that he became violent, and so did his son Ahmad. They were losing control over Morsal, and losing their self-control in the process. "You are bringing shame to the family," they said to her.
Morsal fled repeatedly.
At 14, she was already a regular visitor to welfare agencies, especially the Children's and Youth Emergency Service (KNJD) on Hamburg's Feuerbergstrasse -- a three-story, red brick building, and not the sort of place people seek out unless they have no place else to go. The children and adolescents who came to the KJND were put up in single rooms, each with a bed, mirror and sink. The comments in Morsal's record reveal a pattern. Two sentences that appear frequently are: "Admitted to the KJND" and "Morsal checked out of the facility."
Morsal was most afraid of her brother Ahmad. While she began to feel at home in Germany, he lost the ability to strike a balance between his family's old and new worlds. He dropped out of school. His German was poor. He began drinking, and by 13 his name had appeared in police records for the first time. Since then, Ahmad has faced criminal charges roughly 30 times -- for offences like assault, harassment and burglary.
On Jan. 20, 2007, for example, he got into his car, drunk. He stopped at a light and attacked four men, beating one of them with a club and stabbing another in the thigh with his knife. When the police arrived at the scene, he faced them with a broken bottle in his hand.
A number of attacks on Morsal are also noted in his police file. But most of the attacks were never reported -- or documented. According to police records, Ahmad beat up his sister on Nov. 1, 2006. The older sister, the report reads, scratched Morsal in the face as she was lying on the ground. There were more blows on Nov. 8, 2006. This time Ahmad threatened her with a knife, but without using it. He shouted at Morsal, accusing her of violating the family honor. Morsal filed a complaint against her brother, and she was returned to the KNJD. On Jan. 19, 2007, Ahmad allegedly beat her up again, this time in the office of the family's used car and bus dealership. His sister dressed like a slut, Ahmad told the police.
Perhaps Ahmad already sensed that he was a failure, and that he had messed up his life. But according to a relative, he loved Morsal. The youth welfare agency's files refer to their relationship as "highly ambivalent." Morsal was afraid of Ahmad, but he was also a refuge, and sometimes she spent the night in his apartment. The two shared a common fear of their father. Morsal confided in a member of the KJND staff, telling her "she felt closest to her brother, even though she also had many disagreements with him."
In early March 2007, the family sent Morsal to stay with relatives in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. They wanted her to study the Koran and familiarize herself with prayer, and to shed everything that was German about her, the many bad influences and her supposedly dishonorable life. The parents, who had told their daughter that the trip was to be a vacation, soon returned to Germany. But Morsal was kept behind for nine months -- to be reeducated.
In Afghanistan she lived with her cousin, Yussuf Obeidi, a stately man in his mid-fifties. She attended a Koran school, filling her notebook with surahs, which she wrote down onomatopoeically using German letters. "Morsal was here because she wanted to be here," the cousin claims.
Defending Family Property
The Obeidis are not a noticeably conservative family. Nevertheless, it valued traditions, and one of them was to defend the family's property: zar (gold), zamin (property) and zan (women). In their traditional world, it was set in stone that these things are the property of the man.
Morsal was allowed to return home to Hamburg in January of this year. She later told the police that she had been taken to Afghanistan to be married there, and that she was only able to return to Germany by promising to obey the family.
These are the statements of a 16-year-old girl. The father, standing at the door of the family apartment in the Rothenburgsort neighborhood -- a pale, gaunt man -- has no comment.
A friend would later say that Morsal had a baby in Afghanistan. But the police say that they have no knowledge of a birth. The situation became more acute seven weeks before Morsal's death. The staff of the youth welfare agency tried to remove Morsal from her parents' apartment. On April 11, both Morsal and her parents agreed that she would move to a facility in another city, Flensburg. According to the youth welfare agency's files, "Hamburg was a dangerous place in every respect" for Morsal.
On April 25, Morsal decided to leave the Flensburg home. According to her record, she "wanted to live with her family again, but only if the parents did as she wished." The youth welfare office discussed the matter with the family. The father agreed to take in Morsal again, but only if she "obeyed the family rules."
The father was hoping for a new Morsal, and Morsal was hoping for a new father. Both were disappointed.
Morsal began staying out all night. The police have learned that when she returned to her parents on May 11, after being away for three days, her father immediately began beating her. Morsal fled to her room, where she tied together sheets and lowered herself from her window. But when she reached the ground, her 13-year-old brother tried to choke her and beat her, knocking out one of her teeth. Morsal returned to the youth welfare agency, where the staff tried to convince her to return to the home in Flensburg. An official at the youth welfare agency wrote in her file: "She should not be given any other opportunity than to return to the girls' facility." But Morsal was against the idea and was released.
But she didn't go home this time, and the parents reported her as missing. A friend told them that Morsal was staying in an apartment in the city's Billstedt neighborhood.
The Obeidis went to the apartment, where another argument broke out. The father, according to the youth welfare agency's file, beat the daughter relentlessly, and the argument "ended in the police being called to the scene."
Perhaps it was on that day that Ahmad, the brother, devised his murderous plan. On the evening of May 15, he made his way to the Berliner Tor train station. He should have been in prison at the time. In October 2007, Ahmad had been sentenced to one year and five months in prison without parole. He received a court order to begin serving his sentence on May 2, 2008. But on May 9, his attorney petitioned the court to postpone the sentence. The court denied the petition on May 15.
But by then it was too late for Morsal Obeidi.
It was the night she encountered Ahmad on the small parking lot across the street from the train tracks -- a fatal night for two siblings who no longer knew exactly where they belonged.
Traces of Morsal's blood remained behind on the concrete in front of the building's garage. Three days later, all that remained were a few dark spots, as black as motor oil.
In a gruesome act tipped as an 'honour killing', a father in Haryana's Karnal district strangulated his pregnant daughter and lover as the two had eloped to get married 6 months back.
The Jat family and villagers show no signs of remorse and have called it a "well deserved punishment", for the two belonged to the same 'gotra' - or sub-caste and were considered siblings by their community in the village of Balla, and marriage was thus taboo.
Honour killings in Haryana are not uncommon; however in a peculiar barbaric twist the bodies of the duo were put on display by the culprit outside in his front yard, as a befitting lesson for other young couples.
Sunita's father was reportedly upset when her marriage with a youth was annulled due to her affair with Jasbir. She then separated from her husband, eloped with Jasbir and was living with him. She was also pregnant. The couple had left the village to escape the wrath of the family and villagers, but were coaxed back by the girl's father Prakash Singh.
The father allegedly then strangulated his pregnant daughter and her husband in their sleep.
The police, which received the informtion about the crime this morning (May 10) arrested the accused father. However, the accused is being hailed by a majority of the villagers.
''If you belong to the same village, we consider you siblings. They have been killed to set an example, so that no one repeats the same mistake,'' said a neighbour of the family.
''Around thirty people came to Panipat and picked both of them up,'' said Jasbir's sister.
A case has been registered against 20 people and 12 have been detained. But Sunita's relatives are confident they will go scot free. Her uncle Jaideep said, ''Police and the government is with the society. The whole village is with them.''
This is not the first case of honour killing in Haryana. Thousands have been killed in the name of honour and tradition.
The largest number of cases of honour killings have been found to have occurred in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh - most of the incidents reported taking place in these three states.
One reason for the increased visibility of such crimes is the trend of more and more girls joining educational institutions, meeting others from different backgrounds and castes and establishing relationships beyond the confines of caste and community. Such individuals, both boys and girls, get targetted by the community to set an example for others.
In Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, at least 13 honour killings occurred within nine months in 2003. In 2002, while 10 such killings were reported, 35 couples were declared missing.
However no such category of crime exists in government records. Data for such incidents are seldom available and they would mostly be classified under the category of general crimes.
Jagdeesh Singh, brother of 'honour' killling victim Surjit Athwal, intends to deliver his petition to Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister on 7th May. So, if any of you have not yet signed this, please do: his petition calls for victims of 'honour' killing to recieve equal treatment to other UK citizens.
Despite receiving a lot of moral support for the campaign to help 'Sarah' escape her relatives who are threatening her with forced marriage at best, donations are still fairly low and Sarah's friends are concerned about her safety.
Sarah is a young woman from the Middle East. After undergoing horrific violence after the first marriage she was forced into, and confronted with the prospect of being forced into a second unwanted marriage, she decided that death was preferable to life on those terms. After a long period in a coma, she returned to consciousness, but she is still in hospital under intensive care. Naturally, she cannot depend on any support from her family, who have threatened to kill her on previous occasions. In fact, friends of Sarah arranged for her to be placed in a hospital in a place where her parents are unable to find her, force her into marriage or kill her in the name of family 'honour'.
With no rights or social security, Sarah depends on her friends to defray the expense incurred through her hospitalisation which has already reached several thousand Euros. Her friends are not rich and are unable to pay the price necessary to save her life and allow her to follow her desires and hopes. Therefore, her friends have launched this appeal to your goodwill to help Sarah receive the care she desperately needs.
"Who saves the life of one saves the life of all mankind," as they say. By helping Sarah, who is suffering both from the lack of accessible healthcare common in all third-world countries, and from the weight of 'family honour', we will also bring hope to all the others who suffer, and show that solidarity and humanity are stronger than oppression and despair.
(We have used a false name to protect Sarah's identity)
Sarah* est une jeune femme du Moyen-Orient. Après avoir subi les pires violences lors d'un premier mariage forcé, elle a, après la menace d'un second mariage forcé, préféré tenter de se donner la mort que de « vivre » encore une telle expérience. Après une longue période de coma, elle est revenue à la vie, mais doit toujours être hospitalisée en soins intensifs. Bien entendu, elle ne peut compter sur aucun soutien de sa famille. Suite à sa tentative de suicide, en effet, des amis ont permis à Sarah d'être hospitalisée dans un lieu sûr pour éviter que sa famille ne la retrouve, cherche à nouveau à la marier de force ou même ne la tue au nom de « l'honneur familial ». Sans droits à la sécurité sociale, Sarah ne peut compter que sur quelques ami(e)s pour subvenir aux frais d'hospitalisation qui s'élèvent à plusieurs milliers d'euros. Salariés modestes pour la plupart, ces amis ne peuvent supporter seuls cette charge élevée et pourtant nécessaire pour sauver la vie de Sarah et lui permettre ensuite de vivre enfin selon ses désirs et aspirations. Aussi nous faisons appel à votre solidarité pour permettre à Sarah de bénéficier des soins qui lui sont nécessaires.
« Qui sauve la vie d'un humain sauve toute l'humanité » dit-on… Aider Sarah., face à l'absence de soins accessibles pour tous dans les pays du tiers-monde et au poids de « l'honneur familial », c'est aussi continuer à donner espoir à toutes celles qui souffrent, à montrer que la solidarité et l'humanité peuvent être plus forte que l'oppression et le désespoir.
Pour d'évidentes raisons de sécurité, nous ne pouvons bien entendu pas donner plus de détail en public.
*Le prénom a été modifié pour des raisons de sécurité
