honor killings

It’s really nice to know the kinds of things that the Islamists do in their culture. It is no wonder the Nour, the woman that Steve Vincent met in Iraq, was so desperate for freedom. I can’t imagine living every day of my life in utter terror that someone might take a move I made or something I said as something worthy of getting killed for. The more I read about this, the more I am not only appalled that this is happening somewhere-anywhere-but the more I am grateful that I live in a country where this does not happen to women. I think about all the strong, independent, sexy and flirty women I know–we all celebrate each other, and so do our families, and husbands! I can’t imagine living in a family where I’d be afraid that a male family member would come and kill me.

Kit has a couple of interesting examples of it in Pakistan…from LGF a Pakistani man accused of killing two daughters for failing to serve him water.:

A farmer fatally shot two of his teenage daughters in a remote Pakistan village after one did not immediately serve him a glass of water when he returned from working in the fields, police said Friday.

The 47-year-old man shot his 18-year-old daughter for failing to give him water, and then killed his 16-year-old daughter when she tried to save her older sister, local police officer Mushtaq Warriach said.

The incident occurred Thursday evening near Sargodha, 300 kilometers (180 miles) northeast of Multan, a main city in the eastern province of Punjab.

Warriach said the man told police he “felt insulted” when his daughter remained seated after he asked her to get water.

Of course they say nothing about this being a muslim family. But at FaithFreedom.org, there’s an article up by Syed Kamran Mirza called “Honor Killings: Is it Islamic?”

Honor killing is the bone chilling horrific cruelty committed by the family members—father, mother, brothers, brother-in-laws, even in some cases own sisters also. In this terrible episode the victim is always the daughter/sister or other blood related young women who get killed. Perpetrators are always the family members stated above. Family honor is one of the core values of Arab society. Anything from speaking with an unrelated man, to rumored pre-marital loss of virginity, to an extra-marital affair, refuses forced marriages; marry according to their will; or even women and girls who have been raped—can stain or destroy the family honor. Therefore, family members (parents, brothers, or sisters) kill the victim in order to remove the stain or maintain, and protect the honor of the family. Killers are given light sentences, sometimes with little or no jail time at all. The killers mainly defend their act of murder by referring to the Koran and Islam. Family guardian will say that they are merely following the directives set down in their Islamic ethical beliefs.

These barbaric killings occur only to save the honor of the family, and not for any animosity or for wealth or gold. In 100% of cases—the killers have no animosity, rather they love the girl as their own daughter or sister, but they kill the girl anyway upon their ethical compulsion to save their family honor, or to erase family stigmas. The victims cry, beg for their life but the family members become merciless (out of their ethical prejudices and also religious burden of fear) and kill the victim. After killing family members usually mourn and cry for the victim (usually loving daughter or sister) but feel solace that they have done the right thing to save their family honor.

Then there’s this article that Kit has in the same post,

Pakistan court orders 12 men freed in gang rape.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani court on Friday ordered the release next week of 12 men connected to a notorious gang-rape case, including six convicted of the crime, court officials said.

But quite a few of us already know about these cases in the lands where sharia law rules….gang rapes and honor killings are common in feudalistic rural Pakistan and other backwards areas. In most cases, the perpetrators go free because of incompetent police investigations and flaws in the legal system…actually they’re not really interested in convicting men of crimes, they’d rather sentence the women to death for “dishonoring” their families rather than hold the men responsible for behaving in a disgusting manner. I guess this has something to do with the middle eastern idea that a man is like a bull, should have many women, and his women are dispensable–replaceable.

Bangladeshi women scarred in acid attacks.

Perveen’s husband stated in court that “What I did was wrong, but I am satisfied. I did it for my honour and prestige.” Often burning or scarring with acid are the preferred weapons of the men committing such crimes. “The Progressive Women’s Association, which assists attack victims, tracked 3,560 women who were hospitalized after being attacked at home with fire, gasoline or acid between 1994 and 1999,” according to Constable. About half the victims died. Lawyer and women’s activist Nahida Mahbooba Elahi states that “We deal with these cases every day, but I have seen very few convictions. The men say the wife didn’t obey their orders, or was having relations with someone else. The police often say it is a domestic matter and refuse to pursue the case. Some judges even justify it and do not consider it murder.” (Constable, “The Price of ‘Honour.’”) Such crimes are also rife in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, where some 2,200 women are disfigured every year in acid attacks by jealous or estranged men. (Ellen Goodman, “How Long Before We Take the Honor out of Killing?,” The Washington Post [in the Guardian Weekly, April 6-12, 2000.)

A poster condemning “honour” killings, produced by
Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing.

See again Gendercide Watch: Honour Killings and Blood Feuds

The murder of females in the Middle East is an ancient tradition. Prior to the arrival of Islam in AD 622, Arabs occasionally buried infant daughters to avoid the possibility that they would later bring shame to the family. This practice continued through the centuries. It may still occur today among Bedouins, who consider girls most likely to sully the family honor.

Several thousand women a year are victims of honor killings. Numerous murders are ruled an accident, suicide, or family dispute, if they’re reported at all. Police and government officials are often bribed to ignore crimes and hinder investigations. A woman beaten, burned, strangled, shot, or stabbed to death is often ruled a suicide, even when there are multiple wounds.

Many women are killed and buried in unmarked graves; their very existence is removed from community and clan records. The fact that so many murders go unreported is indicative of the status of women and the role of culture in fundamentalist Islamic countries. “It shows that women are still sometimes seen as commodities that are owned by men,” says Carolyn Hannan, director of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women.

See Reputation is Everything: Honor Killing Among Palestinians

Spotlight On: Honor Killings

The Whore Lived like a German

If anyone is excusing this abhorrent behavior because they’re entitled to it in their own countries, consider that it’s happening outside the Middle East, wherever Muslims settle. Because wherever they go, their Islamic sharia law goes with them.

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?

It’s reality for women in Islam, people.

The shots came from nowhere and within minutes the young Turkish mother standing at the Berlin bus stop was dead. A telephone call from a relative had brought her to this cold, unforgiving place. She thought she would only be gone for a few minutes and wore a light jacket in the freezing February wind. She had left her five-year-old son asleep in his bed. He awoke looking for his mother, who, like many Turkish women in Germany, harbored a secret life of fear, courage and, ultimately, grief. Now her little boy has his own tragedy to bear: His mother, Hatin Surucu, was not the victim of random violence, but likely died at the hands of her own family in what is known as an “honor killing.”

Hatin’s crime, it appears, was the desire to lead a normal life in her family’s adopted land. The vivacious 23-year-old beauty, who was raised in Berlin, divorced the Turkish cousin she was forced to marry at age 16. She also discarded her Islamic head scarf, enrolled in a technical school where she was training to become an electrician and began dating German men. For her family, such behavior represented the ultimate shame — the embrace of “corrupt” Western ways. Days after the crime, police arrested her three brothers, ages 25, 24 and 18. The youngest of the three allegedly bragged to his girlfriend about the Feb. 7 killing. At her funeral, Hakin’s Turkish-Kurdish parents draped their only daughter’s casket in verses from the Koran and buried her according to Muslim tradition. Absent of course, were the brothers, who were in jail.

Muslim wife burned to death in Chicago

Neighborhood windows rattled when the taxi cab exploded with Shahpara Sayeed in it, allegedly ignited by her angry husband on August 24, 2000.

The 33-year-old Chicago resident was trying to escape after reportedly being doused in gasoline by her husband, Mohammed Haroon, who then reportedly threw lit matches into the car.

By the time police officer William Clancy, who was in the area when he heard the horrific explosion, reached the scene of the crime, nothing but Shahpara’s burned body and the remains of the cab were left.

With the weird political correctness that’s going on all around us, and in other countries like Germany in the story of Hatin above, it seems as though the Islamists are being relatively successful in building that bridge back to the 7th century. The question is, are we going to continue to let them do it? And how soon before they start killing the infidel in our streets?