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Saturday, December 1, 2007

Women in the muslim world -[Chapter I] "Honor Killing".

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I like to watch news, beside American news I watch BBC world news,
and even though been living in the States for over twenty years I still like to watch Italian news.
I want to underline a story, which wasn't highlighted enough by Americans news media.
It's a murder which was reported by Italians media, It impressed me for it's barbaric and hideous murder of a young women, she was slain by her relatives, because she had "become too Westernized".

Hina saleem a 21-year-old girl which was murdered by her father "Mohammed Saleem", because she refused to conform to an Islamic lifestyle, while refusing an arranged marriage and instead wanted to integrate into Italian society.
Not only did she worked in a bar where alcoholic beverages were served but, worse of all, she had entered in a common law relationship with a 30-year-old Italian man.
For her family, the scandal was too much to bear.

For Hina's family, action was needed to restore their family "honor", by committing an "honor killing".
Mohammed Saleem with the help of relatives, slaughtered his young daughter by cutting her throat on August 11, than Hina's body was wrapped in bags, and afterward dumped in
a hole dug in the family's garden in the town of Sarezzo.
Hina Saleem was found by police on August 13, 2006.

Her mother, in Pakistan at the time of the murder, acknowledged to police that her husband had killed Saleem who "did not behave like a good Muslim girl."

So-called honor killings (murders, nearly exclusively of women, of persons who are perceived as having brought dishonor to their families) bare often identified with Islam.
In Pakistan, where "honor" killings are known as karo-kari, is probably the country where such atrocities are most pervasive.
In Jordan, "
honor" killings are sanctioned by law.
According to Article 3
40 of the criminal code, "A husband or a close blood relative who kills a woman caught in a situation highly suspicious of adultery will be totally exempt from sentence."
"Honor" killings are also regularly reported in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank an
d Gaza Strip.

An Italian court on this past Tuesday, convicted Mohammed Saleem and two of his brothers-in-law for the murdering his daughter.
The court in the northern city of Brescia sentenced each of the three to 30 years in prison for the slaying of Hina Saleem.
In addition, the girl's uncle was convicted of helping hide her body.
He was sentenced to two y
ears and eight months.
Hina Saleem is now buried in the area reserved for Muslims at Brescia's Vantiniano cemetery.
An earlier court hearing refused her family's request for her remains to be returned to Pakistan.

God, it's this sentence enough?
No, I believe wasn't enough, I don't believe in capital punishments, but in this case, I question my believes.
In the muslim world it's like, women are worth very little, they are valued as a things not human beings, just soulless things to own and dispose as they wish.

In a Italian interview with young Muslims from the Pakistan community, I felt horrified when listening to these youngsters (youth grown up there), they justified the Hina' father, saying he did the right thing, killing his daughter, because "she was giving him too many problems".
A part which I didn't see in this interview, was th
e Muslims girls speaking out, may be because they are kept close in their own homes.

Cases similar to Hina's have been reported in France and Denmark.
In Engl
and last September, a Kurdish father slit his daughter's throat because he disapproved of her Christian boyfriend and Westernized way of life.
And, recently, in the port town of Taranto in southern Italy, a Muslim man who suspected that his wife ha
d committed adultery decided, after consulting with members of his local Muslim community, that she should be stoned to death.
The traged
y was only averted thanks to the intervention of local police.
Another
Kurdish woman was killed by her father for having a romantic relationship with a Swedish man.

Continue....



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4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Red, thank you for blogging about this subject.

Actually, in Jordan, there are three penal code articles that offer leniency to the perpetrators of these crimes--Articles 97, 98, and 340. Article 340 is rarely, if ever, used. Usually, Article 98, having to do with crimes committed in a "fit of fury" is used as a defense.

Syria has comparable laws offering leniency to the killers.

And in countries like Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey, which have reformed their laws to effect stiffer penalties, female suicide rates have shot up. It's believed that now, instead of doing the killings themselves, the perpetrators are forcing girls and women to kill themselves, so they can avoid punishment. These are being called "honor" suicides.

Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"

Karen Tintori said...

busI was in Italy in August, 2006, and was horrified to read the news accounts when Hina's body was discovered and her family members charged with her murder. I was happy to see Italy use the fast-track system to bring them to justice and mete out sentences last week.

If we do not speak up for the victims of these vengeance murders, who will?

I echo the Italian slogan you have posted on your blog -- Enough Silence.

Karen Tintori, author
Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family
www.karentintori.com

Joanne said...

Actually, the Kurdish father arranged for three men to murder his daughter. It is beleived they raped and tortured her for two hours before killing her and stuffing her body in a suitcase. Her uncle carried this suitcase across the road, with her elbow and hair sticking out, and she was buried under a pile of trash. Much, much more information on so-called 'honour' killings can be found at www.stophonourkillings.com

Red.eVolution said...

Thanks for your comments, I added them in my post
"Women in the Muslim world -[Chapter II]"

Together, speaking up we'll give a hope for a better future to these unfortunate women.
Btw joanne, thanks for the link, I added their link "logo" in my blog.
I wish many more will do the same.

Red.

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Red.eVolution