Italy: Standing up for Hina
Demonstrators at Hina's TrialFrom: Stop Honour Killings.
Hundreds of immigrant Muslim and Italian women on Thursday protested outside a courthouse in the northern city of Brescia, where a preliminary hearing was held in the case involving Hina Saleem, a 20 year old Pakistani woman allegedly murdered by her father Mohammed and three other male relatives.
Hina, who dressed in western clothes, worked in a pizzeria in the northern town of Sarezzo and lived with Tempini was found with her throat slit buried in the garden of her family home, her head facing Mecca. Prosecutors allege she was murdered by Mohammed with the aid of other male relatives after they had decided to kill her for having 'dishonoured' the family.
It seems her murder had been lovingly planned (and executed) by her family:
The wound to Hina Saleem's throat was a sole gash, inflicted by a meat knife. The murder had been long prepared: the grave in the back garden, in which Hina's body was sepulchred - and from where it was recovered, wrapped in rubbish bags - was already dug a metre-and-a-half deep, awaiting her.
Hina, who dressed in western clothes, worked in a pizzeria in the northern town of Sarezzo and lived with Tempini was found with her throat slit buried in the garden of her family home, her head facing Mecca. Prosecutors allege she was murdered by Mohammed with the aid of other male relatives after they had decided to kill her for having 'dishonoured' the family.
It seems her murder had been lovingly planned (and executed) by her family:
The wound to Hina Saleem's throat was a sole gash, inflicted by a meat knife. The murder had been long prepared: the grave in the back garden, in which Hina's body was sepulchred - and from where it was recovered, wrapped in rubbish bags - was already dug a metre-and-a-half deep, awaiting her.
I think Souad might be delusional when she says it has nothing to do with religion.
"Religion has nothing to do with our struggle. We just want to say no to violence - that which Italian women also endure. We completely oppose Islamic law," said ACMID president Souad Sbai in a statement ahead of Thursday's hearing."We have no political axe to grind. Our members come from across the political spectrum," Sbai added. Hina is the fifith Muslim woman to be the victim of an 'honour killing' in Italy.
More about Hina's murder and about Brescia can be found here. Some of the choice bits:
The province of Brescia is home to Italy's highest immigrant population - 14 per cent (and much higher in the city centre), increasing by 1 per cent annually. That accounts for legally documented regolari, for each of whom, say rightwingers (and others concur), there is an illegal clandestino to double that percentage - those who slip the net, maybe surviving the perilous sea crossings from Africa for employment in what Italians call lavoro nero (undeclared labour). The workforce in the engineering industry is 34 per cent legal immigrant (plus those unregistered) - mostly Pakistani, North African and Senegalese - while nearly 100 per cent of those tending animals on farms are immigrants, mostly Sikh. Almost all of those working as domestic servants in 30,000 of Brescia's homes are from Asia or Africa, and invariably clandestini.
Sounds like a charming spot, doesn't it?
"Religion has nothing to do with our struggle. We just want to say no to violence - that which Italian women also endure. We completely oppose Islamic law," said ACMID president Souad Sbai in a statement ahead of Thursday's hearing."We have no political axe to grind. Our members come from across the political spectrum," Sbai added. Hina is the fifith Muslim woman to be the victim of an 'honour killing' in Italy.
More about Hina's murder and about Brescia can be found here. Some of the choice bits:
The province of Brescia is home to Italy's highest immigrant population - 14 per cent (and much higher in the city centre), increasing by 1 per cent annually. That accounts for legally documented regolari, for each of whom, say rightwingers (and others concur), there is an illegal clandestino to double that percentage - those who slip the net, maybe surviving the perilous sea crossings from Africa for employment in what Italians call lavoro nero (undeclared labour). The workforce in the engineering industry is 34 per cent legal immigrant (plus those unregistered) - mostly Pakistani, North African and Senegalese - while nearly 100 per cent of those tending animals on farms are immigrants, mostly Sikh. Almost all of those working as domestic servants in 30,000 of Brescia's homes are from Asia or Africa, and invariably clandestini.
Sounds like a charming spot, doesn't it?
Within 17 days (of Hina Saleem's murder) another six people had been killed across the city, some murders so savage as to defy the imagination. A 23-year-old woman was strangled to death in a church by the sacristan, from Sri Lanka, while trying to light a candle to the Madonna - her corpse hidden behind a pulpit while Mass continued over two days. Next day, a renowned Lombard painter was stabbed to death by a youth from Morocco, whom he had admitted into his home. A Pakistani man was knifed to death in the street and an entire family - father, mother and son - was ritually tortured and executed, the woman and child having their throats cut in front of the father who was left to die slowly from a slash to his own throat.
Labels:
honor killing,
italy
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