Iraqis Protest Against Honor Killings & Stonings
On Sunday in Erbil, Northern Iraq, Kurdish men and women came together to protest against honor killings after the brutal murder of a young woman earlier in the month.
On or around April 7, 2007... Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old Kurdish girl was murdered by public stoning after running away from home for a so-called honour crime. Du'a was a member of Iraq’s Yezidi religious minority from the village of Bahzan in northern Iraq. She was killed by a group of men and in the presence of a large noisy crowd in the town of Bashika, near the city of Mosul. Some of her relatives may have participated in her stoning.
Amnesty International reported that Du’a Khalil Aswad’s murder is said to have been committed by relatives and other Yezidi men because she had engaged in a relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy and had been absent from her home for one night. Some reports suggested that she had converted to Islam, but others deny this. Initially, she was reportedly given shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader in Bashika, but her killers stormed the house, took her outside and stoned her to death. Her death by stoning, lasted for some 30 minutes.
Today in Erbil... Capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq, women and men came together to protest the murder of Du'a Khalil Aswad. The demonstration was organised by 90 NGOs and attracted protestors from across the whole Kurdish region.
The video of the horrible stoning death of this young Kurdish woman was filmed and is posted on a Kurdish website.
It is absolutely barbaric!
(I will not link to the video. Publius did.)
Pictures from Stop Honour Killings website.
You can join the Kurdish activists, poets, and writers and sign the petition (HERE)they put together to send to Kurdish officials to outlaw the barbaric practices of public stonings and honor killings.
Update: Fausta has more on the Yazidi culture.
The Jawa Report says that the death of the girl resulted in the slaughter of 23 Yazidis by outraged Muslims.
posted by Gateway Pundit at 4/29/2007 09:43:00 PM
19 Comments:
This is the most barbaric thing I have ever, ever seen. I watched a bit of it to stay informed but now I feel sick. One of the most disturbing things about it (and there are so many) is that they kept covering up the poor girl's behind, I guess so her panties wouldn't show. After all, seeing the body of a woman is likely to cause even more of a rabid frenzy, though who knows how much worse these "people" could get?
There were plenty of cries of "allah akbhar". So their God is great? This is what he rejoices in? The murderers were muslims. Islam is nothing more than a death cult which celebrates and promotes ancient barbaric practices and more and more people need to become aware of this fact.
God rest the soul of that poor, poor innocent and helpless young girl. My heart aches for her suffering.
Hi. Just one comment to clarify for the poster above, the murderers were Yezidi, not Muslim and their cries refer to their own diety, not the god of Islam. Honour killings are not restricted to Muslims, although it is worth noting that the UN has recorded 40 honour kililngs in Iraqi Kurdistan between January and March of this year.
Joanne - tell me why they were calling out "allah akbhar"? As far as I am aware, that is the god of islam, it means god is good/greatest and it is only muslims I have ever heard use this phrase.
The young girl was Yezidi, but I truly believe the murderers were muslims.
And you cannot tell me that there are no muslims in Iraqi Kurdistan.
++
sign the petition..
To: Kurdistan Regional Government
==
I am the co-ordinator of the International Campaign Against Honour Crimes site and since this event, I have been in constant contact with my sources in Kurdistan, and with the latest news from the Kurdish language press. There are indeed many Muslim Kurds in Kurdsitan, but there are very few in Bashika which is a Yezidi enclave (to which Yezidis in the rest of Kurdistan are now fleeing to escape reprisal attacks from Islamists who have now declared a fatwa upon the whole faith).
The fact that the murders were committed by the Yezidis is agreed on by Amnesty International and by the Austrian charity WADI which runs women's shelters throughout the Kurdish region. Even the Yezidi organisations are in no way alleging that the killers were Muslim. I have asked my Kurdish colleagues for translation of the crowd's shouting; none have any doubts about this murder.
Joanne, I certainly don't want to argue with you over this. We are both horrified and appalled at the barbarity of it, whoever the murderers were.
I look forward to hearing your friend's translation - and should I be wrong, then accept my apologies.
I commend you on your difficult work
izzie, "Allah" is simply "God" in arabic. Arabic-speaking christians and jews use the word, too.
do Yezidi people yell allah akbhar?
their religion is not Christian and not muslim.
There is something very strange about this, particularly since they're maligning a group that Saddam used to malign. Something is not ringing true here.
Words fail and only sorrow and wonder remain, I can not speak to those who's culture does such a thing but I can wish those who did this a warm place in hell.
argosfalcon, sorry... there IS no hell. But, organized religion has ironically made a nice hell on earth for us all whether we believe in childish superstitions or not (that too often guide people towards brutality on small and large scales.. see Bush admin aggression). I hope those people go to jail and their children's children are raised without religious dogma... wishing "hell" on them is fruitless in every sense of the word and only helps to spread dogma that's the root of the problem in the first place.
God, please protect me from your followers. - Cowicide
Cowicide...
The "Hell on Earth" that you are referring to is created because of people's own actions. It's easy to blame such wrong-doings on organized religion, dogmas, etc, however, the people themselves must be the ones held accountable. In NO WAY is killing following God, in reference to when you said "God, please protect me from your followers." I'm so sick of our culture's inability to take responsibility on an individual's actions, instead of blaming them on circumstances, other people, religion, etc, etc.
Hi...Im a yezidi guy and im sickened as much as you all are of this barbaric act my people did. Youre question was that they all yell allahu akbar, well they are yezidis, because in that part of the country there are yezidis that speak only arabic(no kurdish)and I know that because my friend is married to one girl from the town of Bashika, same town the girl was murdered. I hope this things will stop, and trust me this mentality is none of the yezidi people. THis is a mentality of that arabs. Even the muslims arent supposed to be doing anything like this, but its the culture that arabs were brought up in, and i guess the kurdish yezidis and kurdish muslims have now adopted that same mentality as well. I have had a headache for more than a week just thinking of that girl I hoped that she will rest in gods holy place. And by the way the story was never true, there was no such thing as love between those two I talked to people from that town and said none of what said was true, it was all a rumor and she was also virgin after they had taken her to hospital. One day this thing will stop and that wont be soon..Trust me ...I thank you all.
I hear and read about murders everyday in the news. But this one truely made me very sad. I have no words to say about what happened to that seventeen yearold girl, it's beyond what words can describe. I'm depressed to know that my own species did this to one of it's own. One question that I really need answered is what kind of upbringing did the murderers have? Did their mothers and fathers teach them to kill people when they go "astray"? This is truely shameful.
Public "Honor Castrations" of the men who commit these barbaric crimes seems a fitting way to start.
The murder of this innocent and beautiful girl has deeply troubled me. No "forgiveness" or "mercy" should be found for her murderers. They must not escape severe punishment for their horrific crimes against her and all of humanity.
After watching the sickening video of her murder on CNN International from a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, I cried tears of agony. How can such evil exist in the hearts of men?
I have read the debate posted on this site over God and religion, but truely this affair goes deeper. For a moment, let us move past that which divides us and unite on a greater good. We must not let her death pass without some positive result.
What can we do my friends?
kodisan, you wrote:
"How can such evil exist in the hearts of men?"
I used to wonder this all the time too. I hear people say that human beings are "good" people. Then I wonder why we as humans can be capable of such things. And what I have realized is this. Human beings are not good people. No one is good, although it seems like all religions believe otherwise. Well, except for one. In the Bible it says that no one is good or righteous (Romans 3:10) and that out of the heart of Man comes all sorts of evil things (Mark 7:20-23).
Knowing the status of mankind from Jesus perspective - it makes sense. And it is sad.
These people are barbaric, if it is their culture, it is barbaric and inferior...
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
fathers may kill their daughters
if they feel dishonored
like when she dates the wrong boy
.
I don't think this has anything to do with religion. I think someone came up with this phrase "It's the yezidi, because they are devil worshippers" Being the devil worshipers came from Muslims, and christians also. I think in middle east, if your not Jewish, Muslim, or Christain, people assume you worship the devil. I mean, the yezidi live in a muslim world. Honour killing came from the Muslims, not just for converting into a different religion, but for not marrying what who your parents wanted you to marry. Almost 90% of marriages in Iraq, or in middle east in general are arrange marriages. My point is Women, Girls the opposite sex has no rights, no freedom. The men who killed this girl, killed her because they felt impowered that women are making their own decision without needing them to do it. They used her virginity and regilion just so they can get away with murder...
I've seen the video, (it's horrible, I didn't sleep for days) But what really got to me was that it was men who are killing this girl...you don't see a single women in there. I'm sure her mother and sister were held back from stoping, other wise they would be dead just like Dou'a.
What pissed me off, is that the police were right there...were is the law when it need it. Or should I point out that because the police officers were, were also yezidi? I don't think so, I don't think the yezidi did this. What are we blaming the yezidi for this...about last weeks bombing, which killed over 800 innocent Yezidi men, women and children. The terrosit behind this horrifying plan were kurdish muslim, kurdish fucking men!
Do you see the point i'm making...it's men who are feeling dominent now. I'm sure the muslims are tried of being called terrosit. How can they be tried, when they wear a T-shirt, that says: Be head those who say Islam is a terrosit religion"
I don't believe it's the religion...it's the people, who use religion to seperate people from people.
I hope justice is served and those who were involved with Dou'as murder should be punished. It shouldn't be about religion. It should about humanity.
I want to say how disgusted i am with this murder. I also want to say Joanne, you need to get your facts straight. Islam in no way sanctions the practice of honor killings. People tend to blame the religion, and fail to see that this is a poor country with very little invested in the education system. Honor killings are not only taking place in muslim countries, but also countries around the world, even Britian, Canada and the United States. Don't go pointing fingers if you do not know the facts.
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