"Women Are Being Beheaded for Taking Their Veil Off": Honor Killings On Rise in Iraq
Pastor Dale Morgan
"Women Are Being Beheaded for Taking Their Veil Off": Honor Killings On
Rise in Iraq*
By Terri Judd, Independent UK
Posted on April 30, 2008, Printed on May 2, 2008
At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass,
her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about
her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood
reveal the true horror of the scene.
The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own
in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven
times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her
"honor killing" is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq,
where activists speak of a "genocide" against women in the name of religion.
In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old
girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father
for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq.
In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a month are murdered
for breaching Islamic dress codes. Campaigners insist it is a
conservative figure.
Violence against women is rampant, rising every day with the power of
the militias. Beheadings, rapes, beatings, suicides through
self-immolation, genital mutilation, trafficking and child abuse
masquerading as marriage of girls as young as nine are all on the increase.
Du'a Khalil Aswad, 17, from Nineveh, was executed by stoning in front of
mob of 2,000 men for falling in love with a boy outside her Yazidi
tribe. Mobile phone images of her broken body transmitted on the
internet led to sectarian violence, international outrage and calls for
reform. Her father, Khalil Aswad, speaking one year after her death in
April last year, has revealed that none of those responsible had been
prosecuted and his family remained "outcasts" in their own tribe.
"My daughter did nothing wrong," he said. "She fell in love with a
Muslim and there is nothing wrong with that. I couldn't protect her
because I got threats from my brother, the whole tribe. They insisted
they were gong to kill us all, not only Du'a, if she was not killed. She
was mutilated, her body dumped like rubbish.
"I want those who committed this act to be punished but so far they have
not, they are free. Honor killing is murder. This is a barbaric act."
Despite the outrage, recent calls by the Kurdish MP Narmin Osman to
outlaw honour killings have been blocked by fundamentalists. "Honor
killings are not actually a crime in the eyes of the government," said
Houzan Mahmoud, who has had a fatwa on her head since raising a petition
against the introduction of sharia law in Kurdistan. "If before there
was one dictator persecuting people, now almost everyone is persecuting
women.
"In the past five years it is has got [much] worse. It is difficult to
described how terrible it is, how badly we have been pushed back to the
dark ages. Women are being beheaded for taking their veil off. Self
immolation is rising -- women are left with no choice. There is no
government body or institution to provide any sort of support. Sharia
law is being used to underpin government rule, denying women their most
basic human rights."
In August last year, the body of 11-year-old Sara Jaffar Nimat was found
in Khanaqin, Kurdistan, after she had been stoned and burnt to death.
Earlier this month, two brothers and a sister were kidnapped from their
home near Kirkuk by gunmen in police uniforms. The brothers were beaten
to death and the woman left in a critical condition after being informed
that she must obey the rules of an "Islamic state". One week ago, a
journalist, Begard Huseein, was murdered in her home in Arbil, northern
Iraq. Her husband, Mohammed Mustafa, stabbed her because she was in love
with another man, according to local reports.
The stoning death of Ms. Aswad led to the establishment of an Internal
Ministry unit in Kurdistan to combat violence against women. It reported
that last year in Sulaymaniyah, a city of 1 million people, there were
407 reported offences, beheadings, beatings, deaths through "family
problems", and threats of honor killings. Rape is not included as most
women are too fearful to report it for fear of retribution.
Nevertheless, police in Karbala recently revealed 25 reports of rape.
The new Iraqi constitution, according to Mrs. Mahmoud, is a mass of
confusing contradictions. While it states that men and women are equal
under law it also decrees that sharia law -- which considers one male
witness worth two females -- must be observed. The days when women could
hold down key jobs or enjoy any freedom of movement are long gone. The
fundamentalists have sent out too many chilling messages. In Mosul two
years ago, eight women were beheaded in a terror campaign.
"It was really, really horrifying," said Mrs. Mahmoud. "Honor killings
and murder are widespread. Thousands [of people] … have become victims
of murder, violence and rape -- all backed by laws, tribal customs and
religious rules. We urge the international community, the government to
condemn this barbaric practice, and help the women of Iraq."
© 2008 Independent UK