GUARDIAN--As Ibrahim Baradiya recounts the events surrounding the last moments of his daughter's life at the bottom of a dark well, the agony of grief is drawn across the face of his wife, Fatima. She says almost nothing. Her eyes are half-closed. She shakes her head with small, rapid movements. A deep frown furrows her forehead. When the story is finished, she fetches her daughter's trinkets – beads, bangles, a hair clasp, a key ring, a purple pom-pom – and spreads them over the table and she weeps.
The story of Aya Baradiya's murder is like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle whose full picture may never be known; a dark and disturbing tale of death, lies, rumour, ruptured family relations, shame, despair and anger.
But the killing went far beyond a family affair. After the discovery of Aya's body more than a year after the 20-year-old university student went missing, her uncle confessed to Palestinian police, claiming it was an "honour" killing. Widespread protests against such crimes, led by students and women's organisations, erupted. In response, the Palestinian president last month scrapped historic laws that permitted leniency for the perpetrators of so-called "honour" killings. . . .
Under a 1960 Jordanian penal code, part of which still applies in the West Bank, which Jordan ruled between 1948 and 1967, perpetrators of such crimes are treated with leniency as they are deemed to have mitigating circumstances. The maximum sentence is six months, according to police. A clause in a 1936 British Mandate law, still in effect in Gaza, also allows for leniency in the punishment of "honour" killings.
Reliable statistics are hard to come by, but it is thought there are around 20 such crimes in the West Bank and Gaza each year. Women who have been raped or molested, or are victims of incest, are considered to have stained a family's reputation. Such acts of violation are rarely admitted by the victim's family. . . . (Read more.)
Friday, July 1, 2011
Honor Killing of Aya Baradiya Leads to Law Changes in Palestine
Change takes time in the Muslim world, but it seems that more and more Muslims are calling for change.
5 comments:
I hope one day that muslims wake up and realise that their problem is ISLAM! That is what is holding them back from having a decent life with the freedoms they all crave.
I agree with you Koala Bear. Their own system is their own destruction; but, when they have such a religious/cultural foundation to stand on, it is easy for us to see the picture more realistically than they. In this case, the outsiders are more equipped to understand what overall result of what that Islamic system produces--failure to honor and respect basic human rights and freedom of individual conscience. But, to many of those who are a part of the system, it seems normal and has been justified by the 7th century religion that has been given legitimacy as a religion of peace and for humanity by a far less than perfect example--Mohammad, along with his sidekick Allah. As long as Muslims continue to believe this 7th century mythos, then what can we expect without efforts to reform that ideology, or at least, repeal such laws that allow things such as honor killings to get a pass.
How sad, and very upsetting.
A gallery of the "Islamic Hall Of Shame" (it will take a few moments for the pictures to load):
http://tinyurl.com/cgmeek
the problem is not a muslims is the people how they think the islam is good religion .
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