Italy: Standing up for Hina

Demonstrators at Hina's Trial

From: Stop Honour Killings.

Taking it to the streets.

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.

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?

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.

UK: Another honor killing?

Sana Ali: Before

Sana Ali: After

In my own backyard...

And I had to go over to Eye on the World to find out about it. Sheesh. Thanks EOTW!

A Bucks County father was accused of going to extremes to break-up his daughter's romance.Police said the father and his son tried to kidnap her fiancé by beating him up and tossing him into a sport utility vehicle.Robert Webber, of Middletown Township police, said he thought he was being dispatched to a Bucks County diner Friday night for a fight but once he got there he was in the middle of a family disagreement turned violent."The victim advised me that his fiancée's family was trying to kill him, drag him into a car and take him somewhere, where he believed he was going to be killed," Webber said.Webber said the alleged victim told him his fiancée's family was upset the two had moved in together.He said there were cultural differences and that's why 48-year-old Mohd Nasher and his son 20-year-old Mohammed Nasher were allegedly gunning for the fiancé.

Check out the pictures at Eye On The World.

Afghan woman radio boss shot dead.

Where's the outrage? From the Beeb.

Zakia Zaki was shot seven times, including in the chest and head, as she slept with her 20-month-old son at her home north of Kabul, officials say. The governor of Parvan province, where the attack took place, told the BBC he did not know who killed her. No one has admitted carrying out the attack.

Her murder came just days after a woman newsreader was killed for reasons which were described as "family-related". (see below for details of her HONOR KILLING)

The Parvan governor, Abdul Jabbar Taqwa, visited the scene of the killing in the town of Jabal as Siraj, about 70km (40 miles) north of the capital. He said the attackers were three men armed with pistols and rifles, who broke into Ms Zaki's house and got into the bedroom.

The killing comes six days after the shooting dead of another Afghan woman working in journalism, a 22-year-old newsreader from a private television station, Shokiba Sanga Amaaj. According to senior police sources in Kabul, her father has blamed two male relatives and one person has been arrested.

There's more about this brave woman's career at the link.

Honor killing: It's not just for Muslims anymore.

From Arabisto: Her stoning took place over 30 minutes, police authorities were present and did nothing to stop it. Before her burial in an unmarked grave, her post-mortem examination revealed that she was a virgin. The Sunni response to her murder? 23 Yezidi workers were killed. Now that's what I call a peaceful religion.

Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year old Kurdish girl from the Yezidi religion, was stoned to death on 7 April 2007 in an honor killing in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. Her murder was carried out by Du’a’s relatives and men from the Yezidi faith, Amnesty International reported in late April.

In response to Du'a’s murder, 23 Yezidi workers were killed by men from the Sunni Muslim faith.

Her stoning continued for 30 minutes and was captured on several cell phones. The video was then posted on the Internet, receiving widespread viewership from one video sharing website, YouTube.com. However, recently, YouTube.com took down the video. A 10-minute clip can be seen on Jebar.info. I must warn the viewer that this video clip is very graphic and contains disturbing images. (Sorry team, I couldn't bring myself to watch it.)

In this troubling video, one can see a large crowd of men, reported to be from the Yezidi sect, participating in the stoning and capturing it on video. Amnesty International also reported that, “The film reportedly shows that members of local security forces were present but failed to intervene to prevent the stoning or arrest those responsible.”

Kurdish women's rights campaigner Diana Nammi, according to The Daily Mail in the UK, explained that Du'a's body thereafter had been dispatched to the Medico-legal Institute in Mosul, Iraq for an assessment of her virginity prior to revisiting her “unmarked grave” in the Sheikh Shams cemetery. The test revealed she was still a virgin and innocent of her alleged crime.

Her crime? Forbidden love. Although there have been conflicting reports, it had been reported that Du’a had converted to Islam after having married a Sunni Muslim boy, which is prohibited by the Yezidi faith. While other news outlets have stated that she had been away from home one night, raising suspicion from her relatives.

The Yezidi religion forbids one from marrying outside of the religion and do not allow any converts. It is pre-Islamic and is dated before the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The estimated population is 500,000 although the exact amount is not known as the Yezidis practice a religious tradition of privacy. They believe to be descendants of Adam, not Eve. (I guess Adam was getting busy on the side.)

Oh, really? Honor killing should not be attributed solely to any faith? Well then, the Yezidi religion must be the exception that proves the rule: Muslims invented the honor killing.

One must note that the murder of women in the name of honor in Kurdistan, Iraq, and elsewhere is not unique and should not be attributed solely to any faith. Amnesty International stated, “While the Kurdish authorities introduced legal reforms to address “honour killings” they have, however, failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for such crimes.”

Four men, two of whom are relatives, have been arrested for her murder and the chief of police will be substituted, CNN reported on 21 May 2007.

Divorce: Arabian Style

High Divorce Rates Alarm Gulf States.

Yet to attain the heights of industrialized countries, divorce rates have been climbing in every Arab Gulf state. In Saudi Arabia, a divorce rate of some 20 percent was reported in the last couple of years. Translated into real numbers, this means that 33 Saudi women get divorced daily. The high court in Jeddah reported last year divorce rates in the Red Sea city had jumped by 60 percent over the previous two years while it reached 39 percent in the capital Riyadh. In a symposium held late last year in Kuwait, a study presented by Dr. Abdulaziz Alahmed estimates the divorce rate in Kuwait at over 25% while in Qatar at 38%. In the UAE, the rate amounted to 46%. The statistics have created intense debates over the issue with experts cite many reasons for the staggering figures which alarmed local government officials and religious leaders.

Those newfangled career gals...
The rapid technological development the GCC states witnessed in the past decades is one of the major reasons for the rise in divorce rates, according to social experts. The "oil boom" gave a boost to women's education, but this has not been accompanied by a parallel change in traditions and attitudes. Thus, many men, experts claim, don't know how to cope with educated women.

The most telling paragraph at all...
Experts also claim that the strict rules segregating the sexes are blocking the couples from creating "normal" relations after they get married. In a conservative country like Saudi Arabia couples simply can't go out before they get married, and some don't see their spouses until their wedding night. Even after they get married, it is difficult for couples to go out together.

I wonder if they get my favorite soap, The Young and The Restless?
In a recent seminar held in Riyadh, many specialists claimed the proliferation of TV shows which do not reflect traditional and local values as a principle culprit. One study even indicated that 78 percent of Saudi youth rely on mass media for their sex education.

The second most telling paragraph. New fatwas from the He-Man-Woman-Haters-Club.:
Other types of marriages with less economic responsibilities for the husbands also damaged the tradition. Among these are “summer marriages” and “Mesyar marriage” whereby they relieve men of financial responsibilities and other obligations, including having to reveal them to family or other wives. The popularity of these arrangments have grown in the Gulf after new fatwas (Islamic edicts) supported them.

As things seem at this stage, it is likely to assume that divorce rate in the Gulf region will continue to rise unless authorities take serious steps to curb it.

Look for a rash of honor killings, stonings, floggings and hangings.

What DOES give with Western Feminists?

Dymphna of The Gates of Vienna has a new piece up at The Global Politician today and boy oh boy, she packs a wallop with it.

What gives with Western feminism? Families of Muslim women rape, torture, behead, crucify, and hang them in public squares - all because they have committted the truly mortal sin of being female - yet the silence here on the behalf of these victims is deafening.

Compared to the suffering of their Islamic sisters, the indignant chatter about 'oppression' emanating from women in the West is obscene.

Feminists in the U.S. claim that girls in school do less well than boys, and this happens because "America today is a girl-destroying place. Everywhere girls are encouraged to sacrifice their true selves...girls come of age in a misogynistic culture in which men have most of the political and economic power, and girls sense their lack of power." Misogynistic? Girl-destroying? Is America, the destroying place for girls, a recognizable country?

For contrast, try these cautionary tales:
In Sudan women who refuse to convert to Islam from Christianity are gang-raped, their breasts are cut off. Then they are left to die.

In Pakistan laws are structurally biased against women, especially since the advent of the Hadood Ordinances in 1979. Now when coerced sexual assaults cannot be proved, the victim becomes an offender, one who enjoyed illicit sexual activity. She is therefore liable to punishment. Safia Bibi, a blind eighteen year old was raped, subsequently becoming pregnant. Since there was insufficient evidence to prove rape ("sufficient" evidence being eye-witness testimony of four adult Muslim men), the pregnancy itself was evidence of her immoral behavior. Thus she was sentenced to three years in jail and fifteen lashes for having sex outside marriage.

In Yemen on learning that his daughter had eloped with a man from another clan, a father gathered sons, brothers, uncles and cousins, and headed a convoy of twenty cars to storm the bride's new home. Upon retrieving her, she was thrown into one of the cars. As the convoy returned, and reached the edge of her village, her father hurled her to the asphalt and had every car drive over her.

In Jordan, a man received a six-month prison term for stabbing his younger divorced sister thirty times. The murder, termed a misdemeanor by the tribunal, was minimized because the father of both brother and sister dropped charges against his son. The defendant was also sentenced to one week for intoxication and to two months for carrying a knife.

In Palestine a sixteen year-old was raped by her younger brother. Once her pregnant condition became known in the wider community it fell to her older brother to kill her in order to avenge the family honor. "She made a mistake," said one of her male cousins. "She had to pay for it."

Ah, the absolute power of Muslim women, holding Islamic men by the short hairs; indeed the old Arab saying is true: "a man's honor lies between a woman's legs."

Another Ramadan Ritual - this one from down under

There's nothing quite like soothing holiday rituals, is there?

Ritual Muslim killing

11Oct06

A PLANNED conversion to Christianity from Islam is understood to have triggered a frenzied domestic dispute that led to the death of a Muslim mother on Monday night.
Bangladeshi-born Dr Muh-ammad Hussain, 49, remains under police guard in a critical condition in the Gold Coast Hospital as police piece together the circumstances leading to the death of his 41-year-old wife, Yasmine.

Mrs Hussain, who had arrived on the Gold Coast with her 17-year-old daughter at the weekend from Adelaide, died at her upmarket Southport apartment after receiving stab wounds to the chest.

A Muslim source told The Gold Coast Bulletin last night that Dr Hussain arrived a month ago to take up a position as a GP and prepare for his family to join him.

"From what we understand the daughter decided to tell her father of her radical plan to convert to Christianity which, in the eyes of most Muslims, is totally unacceptable and to be honest, sadly, many would react as he has done," said the source.

"It is the Islamic way that if a son or daughter does or plans to do something that is unacceptable or wrong for a Muslim then it is the mother who is automatically at fault and will bear the brunt of the blame."

Gold Coast police last night refused to deny or support the religious conversion motive, but are understood to be investigating it.

They said they had spent more than eight hours speaking to the traumatised 17-year-old daughter and because of her distressed state they still do not have a full picture of what happened.

"It has ended up in the death of a person so it has been a violent argument and a very tragic set of circumstances," said Surfers Paradise CIB Detective Inspector John Hartwell.

Residents of the Smith Street, Albatross Park, complex where the family lived told The Bulletin yesterday they heard screams for half an hour.

"It was very quiet then there was a blood-curdling scream. It was terrible," said Colin Currie.

Neighbour Caitlin Dalton was taking out the rubbish when she heard terrifying screams.

"She (the teenager) was yelling 'help me, help me, they're trying to kill me'," said Ms Dalton.

"Everybody heard the screams but we couldn't work out which unit they were coming from.

"Then this girl emerged in the stairwell hysterical and crying.

"Her clothes had been ripped off, she was just in her underwear, and she had quite severe scratches down her arm and across her back."

Ms Dalton said as residents tried to comfort the girl, she told how she had wanted to 'convert from the Islam religion ... and obviously her father didn't handle it very well'.

"She said her parents were really strict."

Photographs taken by The Bulletin yesterday showed blood splattered throughout the three-bedroom luxury apartment which had a turkish carpet on the floor and leather upholstered chairs.

Clothing could be seen through the doorway, scattered across the floor near what appeared to be bloodstains. A large amount of blood had dried on the wall and on the carpet inside the front door, and there was blood on and around the doorknob.

"We saw one stretcher come out, then another one and another one," said resident Rory Williams.

Det-Insp Hartwell said the Hussains had no family members living on the Gold Coast and police were looking after their daughter, who had turned 17 only a week ago.

"She is assisting police with our inquiries. She is not a suspect, merely a witness to what has transpired," he said.

"Arrangements are being made through Crisis Care for accommodation for her at this stage, pending the contact of the next of kin and relatives.

"At this stage we've been unable to locate the relatives, they're all overseas."

Det-Insp Hartwell said it was too early to say if any charges would be laid against Dr Hussain.

"This matter may end up in a criminal trial or may end up in a coroners court. Before we know the full facts I'm not willing to speculate," he said.

"The outcome of the investigation will determine whether any charges are laid or a report is forwarded to the coroner."

Dr Hussain completed his medical training at the Chittagong Medical College in Bangladesh in 1982.

In 2001, he completed a masters in family medicine in Australia and four years later was granted a fellowship by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

But in the country with a population of more than 130 million, there are less than one million Christians.

It is understood Dr Hussain is a Sunni Muslim.

It should be understood that he is freaking nuts...