SubscribeFive Stories Of “Honor” From The Muslim World
Some heart-warming stories for St. Valentine’s day.
From the Feb 13, 2007 issue of the Turkish Daily News:
Sister talked brother out of honor killing:
The brother of a 17-year-old girl rejected to apply a decision by his family’s elders to kill his sister by listening to her story and applied to the prosecutor’s office seeking protection, Sabah wrote yesterday.
The 25-year-old brother, whose name was not revealed by the newspaper, was sent to Istanbul to kill his sister, who is reported to have been raped and kidnapped by her cousin. The elders of the family decided that the sister was guilty for seducing her cousin and therefore had to be killed. When the young man reached Istanbul and found her sister, instead of shooting her dead he listened to her. According to the paper, the brother changed his mind after talking with his sister and they began living together. Later, he applied for protection claiming that they were receiving threats. “I could not control my tears when I listened to [my sister] and understood that I had been deceived [by the family elders],” said the brother.
The girl was sent to a state-run dormitory after her brother’s application.
And from the same page:
Husband arrested on suspicion of honor killing:
Sabah covered yet another honor killing story yesterday about a man named Murat Kızılkan, who was arrested along with his brother on suspicion of killing Kızılkan’s wife. Dilber Özel, 17, was reported to have committed suicide a month ago, but her husband was arrested after an autopsy report found that left-handed Özel was shot in her right temple.The young woman’s mother’s testimony also said that Kızılkan frequently beat Özel and threatened her with death if she told her family about the beatings, the daily reported. The autopsy report showed that her hymen was still intact, meaning it was not torn by penetrative sex, which might have caused Kızılkan to conclude that the young woman was not a virgin before he married her, the daily speculated.
Kızılkan and Özel were not officially married but had a religious wedding ceremony.
And from last month’s issue of the Turkish Daily News:
Somalian rape victim finds shelter in Turkey
Saturday, January 13, 2007
ISTANBUL - A Somali woman was given a new home in Konya six months ago when she fled her country in fear of falling victim to an “honor killing” at the hands of her own family after a traumatic rape incident led to her pregnancy.
Thirty-year-old Safiye Haji Osman, now staying at the Konya Pefkat-Der Women’s Shelter, told daily Hürriyet that her husband had been murdered by an armed group who burst into their house in Somalia eight months ago. Osman was raped by some of the attackers and later realized she was pregnant, however she tried to keep both facts secret, fearing that her relatives would notice and kill her.
“I had witnessed such events many times there. When I realized that the same thing was going to happen to me and my unborn baby I contacted the U.N. office in Somalia. Following arrangements between the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations I came to the Pefkat-Der Women’s Shelter six months ago with my 3 and 4-year-old boys.”
Osman gave birth to her baby girl, who she named Koowsar, at the Konya Faruk Sükan Birth and Pediatric Hospital nearly two months ago.
What if she had stayed in Somalia? “I wouldn’t be alive now if I had stayed there. Neither would Koowsar… they would never forgive me for what I experienced,” Osman explained.
Konya Pefkat-Der President Hayrettin Bulan noted that Osman was worn out when she came to them: “She was really scared. She thought she was going to be killed and her babies were going to be taken away from her. After she came here she gained self confidence. We try our best for her.”
Examples like Osman show that victims of tradition exist all over the world, not just in Turkey, added Bulan.
And from a couple of weeks ago, via France’s AFP:
Man shoots daughter in honour killing
January 26, 2007 12:43am
A father shot dead his 17-year-old daughter, having suspected her of having sex, and surrendered to the police in the latest of the "honour killings" that have brought international opprobrium on Jordan.
An autopsy found the girl to be a virgin.
Weeks earlier the girl had returned home from a family protection clinic after doctors had vouched for virginity and the father had signed a pledge not to harm her, a state forensic pathologist said.
The father shot her four times in the head, said the pathologist.
The authorities have not disclosed the names of the father or the daughter or even their town, saying only that they lived in a southern province.
And from the UK’s Telegraph:
Lovers Put To Death For Suspected Adultery
January 31, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani man and a woman were tied to a tree and stoned to death after they were suspected of committing adultery.
The couple, from the village of Donga Bonga in Bahawalnagar district in southern Punjab, apparently pleaded their innocence but died in an "honor killing" over the weekend in a hail of bricks.
A divorcee in her 40s, Elahi Hussain had angered her family by allegedly conducting an affair with a fellow villager, Hafiz Shah, 45.
On Sunday night, according to the local police chief, Hajji Mohammed, two of the woman’s brothers and two other relatives, tied ropes around the necks of the couple, fastened them to a tree, and stoned them for 10 minutes.
Mind you, St. Valentine’s Day is outlawed throughout the Islamic world because it is seen as too dangerous.
These killings go on each and every day.
It is estimated that in Syria alone there are more than 200 to 300 women murdered a year — for "honor."