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The Murder of Du'a Aswad
Recently, a mob of frenzied men beat and stoned to death a 17-year-old girl, Du'a Khalil Aswad, in northern Iraq. She was murdered by relatives and neighbors for falling in love with someone that her community did not approve of, in what's typically called an "honor killing." Her murder has received a fair amount of media coverage, not because "honor killings" are an anomaly in today's Iraq, but because this particular attack was videotaped and released on the Internet.
Throughout Iraq, and elsewhere, attacks like Du'a's brutal murder are used to punish women who make autonomous decisions about issues such as marriage, divorce, and whether and with whom to have sex. In the US, most people think that this brutality is exactly the kind of thing that the US "democratization" of Iraq was meant to stop. In fact, the opposite is true. Since the US invasion, "honor killings" have been on the rise across Iraq, due in large part to measures enacted by the US.
The US has empowered Islamist political parties whose clerics promote "honor killing" as a religious duty.[i] As Iraqi women's rights advocate Yanar Mohammed explained, "Once the religious parties came to power, Iraqi men began hearing in the mosques that it was their duty to protect the honor of their families by any means. It is understood that this entails killing women who break the rules."[ii] Women who are raped by men outside of their family are considered to have shamed their families. Consequently, the overall rise in rape and kidnapping under US occupation has elicited a rash of "honor killings." In October 2004, Iraq's Ministry of Women's Affairs revealed that more than half of the 400 rapes reported since the US invasion resulted in the murder of rape survivors by their families.
The US also destroyed the Iraqi state, including much of the judicial system, leaving people more reliant on conservative tribal authorities to settle disputes and on unofficial "religious courts" to mete out sentencing, including "honor killings." At the same time, however, while the US saw fit to violate international law by eradicating most of Iraq's legal system, it maintained Article 130 of the penal code, which provides vastly reduced sentences for "honor killings" (as little as six months, as opposed to life imprisonment, which is the minimum sentence for murder).[iii]
Although the US is obligated, as the occupying power, to protect Iraqis' human rights, including the prevention and prosecution of "honor killing," it has not done so. Official negligence promotes "honor killing" because perpetrators are confident that they will not be prosecuted.
What is "Honor Killing"?
"Honor killings"[iv] are usually murders committed by men acting to restore "family honor" tarnished by a woman's "immoral" behavior. "Honor killings" resemble so-called "crimes of passion" in US, European, and Latin American jurisprudence, in that sentencing is not based on the crime, but on the feelings of the perpetrator. For example, in 1999, a Texas judge sentenced a man to four months in prison for murdering his wife and wounding her lover in front of their 10-year-old child.[v] As in an "honor killing," adultery was viewed as a mitigating factor in the case. But while individualistic societies, such as the US, tend to locate honor in the individual, communities that suffer "honor killings" vest honor in the family, tribe, or clan. "Honor killings" are therefore often reluctantly condoned as necessary for the greater good of the community-sometimes even by those who are grief-stricken by the woman's death. In the ethical and legal framework that condones "honor killings," there is an inversion of the relationship between perpetrator and victim as understood in most formal legal systems. The woman who is killed (along with anyone who tries to defend her) is considered the guilty party because she has tarnished the honor of her family. In contrast, her killer, who is the dishonored party, is seen as the victim.
The Culture Card: Religion as an Excuse for Violence against Women
Despite the many ways that US policies have contributed to the increase in "honor killing" in Iraq, most people in the US continue to view these crimes as an invariable part of Iraqi, Arab, or Muslim "culture." For instance, US journalist Kay Hymowitz defines "honor killing" as part of the "inventory of brutality" committed by men against women in the "Muslim world," railing against "the savage fundamentalist Muslim oppression of women."[vi]
Hymowitz echoes a commonly held assumption, namely that gender-based violence in the Middle East derives from Islam. In fact, "honor killings" are not condoned by any Islamic texts, but are rooted in customary law that pre-dates Islam and Christianity. Identifying Islam or "Muslim culture" as the source of violence against women serves to dehumanize Muslims and justify violence against them. It also deflects attention from factors (such as politics, economics, and militarism) that influence the prevalence of gender-based violence, and obscures the ways that US actions have exacerbated conditions that give rise to violence against women.
In fact, culture alone explains very little. Like all human behavior, "honor killing" does have a cultural dimension, but like culture itself, "honor killing" is shaped by social factors such as poverty and women's status that change--and can be changed--in ways that can either help combat or promote "honor killing." For instance, poverty-inducing economic policies, such as the 2003 US decision to fire all public-sector workers in Iraq (40 percent of whom were women), have contributed to the rise in "honor killings." Increased poverty has made people more dependent on tribal structures for jobs, housing, and other scarce resources and compelled more women into polygamous, forced, and abusive marriages, where they are at greater risk of "honor killing."
Therefore, culture is a context, but not a cause or a useful explanation for violence, in Iraq or anywhere else. It makes much more sense to examine gender, a system of power relations whose number-one enforcement mechanism is the threat of violence against women. There is nothing "Muslim" about that system, except that its Muslim proponents, like their Jewish, Christian, and Hindu counterparts, use religion to rationalize women's subjugation. In Iraq, those championing "honor killing" as a means of social control and moral policing are the ones that the Bush Administration has propelled to power.
Confronting "Honor Killings" in Iraq: Iraqi Women Activists
Next time you hear Bush praising the founding fathers of the new, democratic Iraq, think of Du'a Aswad. Think of Iraqi women activists such as members of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) who are standing against "honor killing," aiding potential victims, and working for a secular, truly democratic government in Iraq. In partnership with MADRE, an international women's human rights organization, OWFI has created the Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women, which, inspired by the network of courageous individuals who operated the Underground Railroad during slavery in the US, seeks to provide women threatened with "honor killing" with the means and resources to escape and begin to build a new life. Members of OWFI have also initiated a campaign calling on the Iraqi Kurdistan government to hold the perpetrators accountable for Du'a's murder, and establish and enforce laws that criminalize the "terror[ization], murder, and oppression of women."[vii]
Remember Du'a, the countless women she represents, and Iraqi women activists like those of OWFI--who, in the face of death threats and ongoing intimidation, are bravely confronting an epidemic of gender-based violence fueled by US policies--and work to hold the Bush Administration directly responsible for the daily terror and erosion of women's rights with which Iraqi women are now forced to contend.
MADRE is an international women's human rights organization that works in partnership with women's community-based organizations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Yifat Susskind is MADRE's Communications Director and author of MADRE's recent report, "Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-based Violence and the US War on Iraq." The above article includes excerpts from the report, which is available at www.MADRE.org.
[i] For reference to Sistani's fatwa, see: Doug Ireland, "Shia Death Squads Target Gay Iraqis," Gay City News, March 23-29, 2006, http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=17008058&BRD=2729&PAG=4 61&dept_id=568864&rfi=8.
[ii] Interview with Yanar Mohammed, April 25, 2006.
[iii] American Bar Association Iraq Legal Development Project, "The Status of Women in Iraq: An Assessment of Iraq's De Jure and De Facto Compliance with International Legal Standards," July 2005.
[iv] Like "crime of passion," the term "honor killing" communicates the perspective of the perpetrator, and thereby carries an implicit justification. Some women's rights advocates therefore prefer the terms "feminicide," "shame killings," or "so-called honor killings".
[v] See paragraph 35 of Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/49, Jan. 31, 2002, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2002/83.
[vi] Kay S. Hymowitz, "Why Feminism is AWOL on Islam," City Journal, Winter 2003, http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_why_feminism.html.
[vii] See the "International Campaign against killings and stoning of women in Kurdistan," http://www.petitiononline.com/kurdish/petition.html.
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24 Comments so far
Show AllFine . So begin in your own backyard. Are you aware that 'honour killings' are rampant among certain immigrant communities - in Britain for example .Whenever they occur ,the police ,time and again ,look the other way - so as not to tread on 'cultural corns'.
She was murdered because she converted to Islam. She was part of the Yazidi faith and she was killed by her Yazidi relatives for leaving her faith to become Muslim and marry a Muslim man. Here are the facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%E2%80%99a_Khalil_Aswad
Here is info about the Yazidi religion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi
written on behalf of Du's Assad:
"I remember looking. It was my last memory. Looking at them all looking at me die. Not the eight or nine stone throwers, but the rest of them, many more than eight or nine, looking and doing nothing. The many could have stopped the few. But they didn't.
"And they will catch him and kill him too. We are not wealthy. We must rely upon the kindness of others. And with such fear and with such desperation it will not take much more than a few sheep and an old car to turn a trusted friend into a Judas goat.
"I sought protection from my tribal elders. But the dishonor for my uncles and brother and cousins was too much for them to bear. They lied and said all was forgiven. They came for me and dragged me outside and beat me and crushed my skull with rocks.
Hundreds stood by while a few, men of my family, murdered me.
It was their right under tradition and law.
"I sought protection from my tribal elders. But the dishonor for my uncles and brother and cousins was too much for them to bear. They lied and said all was forgiven. They came for me and dragged me outside and beat me and crushed my skull with rocks.
Hundreds stood by while a few, men of my family, murdered me.
It was their right under tradition and law.
"It only hurt a little bit, for a little while, the pain of the stones. It was nothing compared to the fear of running, of getting caught, of being betrayed, of knowing that my dreams for my life would come to nothing.
And now, for cheap thrills you can watch my snuff film on the internet for free. But please don't shame my family any further. They have suffered enough.
As for me, don't give me another thought. Every single one of us has a story that would break your heart......"
Britain isn't my backyard.
"Honour killings" in my backyard are termed
"domestic violence" and are one-on-one.
Don't get the argument here. You are not part
of the solution, though.
Anyway, this article is about sanctioned murder with a view to dishonouring it and a call for vigilance to end the practice.
Muslims Rock (Excuse the Pun)
Nobody mentioned Turkey; honor killings are practiced there!
Here again; people blindly keeping tradition. Without the simple compassion to see someone's life the way annis points out.
Put this in the MSM with out twisting it; tell the story that the dark ages coming back thanks to our preoccupation with oil.
An excellent article that won't get the attention it deserves. Too many feminists are so attached to multiculturalism that they cannot recognize extreme suffering in their fellow humans if its cause has a "cultural" dimension (poverty cannot be the only reason for these events, because poor/unequal societies in central and south America have lower rates of such violence than wealthier countries in the Middle East).
Feminists in the West need to learn that the same things that hurt women in America hurt them in the Middle East. It is a human universal that women do not like to be beaten and raped.
ZeroP, You say "If Jerry Falwell had his way, she would be wearing an apron and cleaning the kitchen floor."
If jerry falwell had his way then any woman who disagreed with his version of the bible would also be beaten to death. That is why christianity is just as bad as fundamentalist Islam. It might always get the outlets it wants, but if the forces of evil that falwell represented ever get their way then women in the west will be victim of christian state sponsored violence even more so than they are now.
Thankfully Falwell won't ever get his way as he is dead and as there is no afterlife he will never again bother us (or his non-existant god) again.
Du'a Aswad and her murderers were NOT Muslim. They were Yezidi. Yezidis are neither Muslim nor Christian, but practice a pre-Muslim religion native to northern Iraqi Kurds. They are called devil-worshippers by many, because they identify Malak Ta'us with Shaitan.
The above comment was not made to generalize. Wherever lack of progressiveness exists (including Texas), such situations are common. Ann Coulter does not understand that the reason that she can get on TV and say things that stay in the public realm is becuase of the people that she is constantly badgering.
If Jerry Falwell had his way, she would be wearing an apron and cleaning the kitchen floor. Maybe that is what she does want anyway - I once chanced upon her on the Rush Limbaugh show -Rush was master and she was the serf in the conversation.
In 1995 a Texas judge let white man go free after he had killed a black man. Vioilence on the street as a result of traffic seemed to be common then - (Yeeha - wild west!!). Both men had stopped on the highway, and the black man approached the other man's truck, no weapons in sight. The man in the truck lowered the window and killed the other man with a shotgun. Self Defense. Yes! Justice was served!
I would like to bring up the point of conditioning. I do believe that goes some distance in making who we are. As parents, even if we are giving a 100% equal opportunity to our children (or at least trying to) what positively defines a woman and a man based on their inner capacities? Is the gentleness of a woman and the aggression of a man important enough to be nurtured? It seems to me that it is natural to who we are. Hope that was clear enough.
No one should be surprised that democracy is failing to flourish in Iraq following a US operation of "liberation". I don't think we need to take a country by country tour of the world to see that the US acts of liberation consistently end with an oppressive, often murderous, leadership of the liberated country. Though liberation and democracy are always the battle cry, a stable environment for business investment is the true motivation. Destroying a society economically and then basing the government on conservative and devisive social ideals creates an environment where multinational corporations can act with little, if any, retraint. Cheap labor and no checks on environmental standards seem to be the standard goals of US acts of liberation. What is amazing is not the abuse of human rights allowed under the US occupation, but that anyone believed it would be otherwise. How many times can US administrations cry out in the name of democracy and install conservative dictatorships before the US public ceases to believe? With the complicity of the news media, the answer is clearly, "Many." We need go back only a decade in the same region to hear the cries of another Bush about a "free and democratic" Kuwait. Who doesn't know about Pinochet and the Chilean plight? I can still hear Reagan's voice trying to persuade me that tiny, impoverished NICARAGUA was a threat to the United States.
Further, it is no surprise that the Bush administration would permit an assault on the rights of women. One need look only to the assault taking place at home. But I am surprised to read Yifat Susskind suggest that misogyny and Islam do not go hand in hand. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are patriarchal religions with patriarchal texts. I often hear apologists for all three (a Jewish acquaintance recently boiled her argument down to, "but Judaism ISN'T the Bible. The CULTURE is quite different."). A reading of the religious texts of these religions makes clear that they are not friendly to women and do not value them as the equals of men. Because they are written texts, however much the culture might change over time, the ideals of misogyny will ALWAYS be available for a new generation, validated by the sacred texts.
I am not sure what I am suggesting, here. I don't know how one manages to find a genuine path to women's rights in the context of patriarchal religions. Someone might have a brilliant suggestion in this regard and I would be pleased to read it. I understand the need to fight for women's rights within the cultures of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, but, perhaps, it is time for women to reach BEYOND that context into something truly supportive of equality among the genders.
In this case it was Yezidi vs Sunni.
Whatever, it was: an ungodly act in the name of religion or rightousness but
only brutal immoral murder with overtones of sexual gratification on the part of the mob.
Where was the father of this young girl? He should have defended her to his death, taking many in the crowd with him.
This is another attempt by the media to blame Islam when, in fact, it is not as pointed out by some posters. This is a cultural thing. Why is no one outraged by bride-burning in Hindu India? Or killing of female children in China?
"Domestic Violence" - this has to be the euphemism that takes the cake.If even the authorities are leery about using the word 'murder' what chance do we stand.
If the following extract ,from Wikipedia ,is anything to go by then 'honour killings' are indeed a 'cultural thing ' (as our friend has pointed out here ) and far too deeply ingrained to do very much about -at least within a reasonable time-frame:
"The practice of honor killing is over-whelmingly associated with certain Muslim cultures and the peoples influenced by those cultures. Honor killings are more common among poor rural Muslim communities than urban ones. Arab Christians living within parts of the Near East, such as sections of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, sometimes carry out the crime as well. Many cases of honor killings have been reported in Pakistan. In December 2005, Nazir Afzal, director of Britain's Crown Prosecution Service, stated that the United Kingdom has seen "at least a dozen honor killings" between 2004 and 2005."
Couldn't agree with you more ..it certainly is a cultural thing.
If "outrage" is in season -let's also not forget to turn our ire on the West's 'cultural thing' : its penchant for bearing arms (long enshrined as a 'right') - and the attendant 'right' to indulge in mass murders and drive-by shootings ,whenever one feels like it.
What does it mean "cultural thing?????"
If "'outrage' is in season..." what does this mean???????????
Are these observation meant to be archly sophisticated??? Are they meant to seem worldly?
Why bring in any other
issue? Can't anyone stick to the issue at hand???? Why bring up more outrages, other outrages, than the extreme one at hand right here, right in front of us this minute?
A young woman, barely out of childhood is tortured by a mob of "men" for their pleasure
and it is given a moral basis? If that is not societal psychosis I don't know what is.
And, added to it, the performance of it in broad daylight, with no shame, and the recording of it?????
WHAT IS WRONG HERE AND NOT JUST "THERE"?
The reason her father did not protect her is that it was purportedly in defense of his honor that it was performed.
It is not necessarily an attempt to blame Islam by that author, but perhaps SHEER IGNORANCE - which is the primary root of all evil.
So, let's attempt to find out how not to be ignorant.
I was being more than a little sarcastic when I wrote that at the time.
But,actually, "domestic violence" is as serious, and
in writing that I realized it.
What's the practical outcome in "honour killing" and domestic violence which frequently ends
in murder: a dead person, a dead woman.??
They both are fed by fear, need for power,
and some sort of sexual deviancy.
"Domestic violence" was not taken seriously
for a long time; the toll on women and children not recognized not to say the danger
of murder.
So, now we have the public filming in broad daylight of a practice we rightly deem barbaric and heinous and so now maybe we can go to the next level of stopping it.
And it CAN be stopped. It can be stopped
exactly by what happenen: showing that film all around the world and arousing shame and disgust and horror.
Let those people not hide it anymore.
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY REPORTS AMONG WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD ABOUT THIS PRACTICE.
THE CULTURAL ASPECT CAN BE FOUGHT BY THIS EXPOSURE, BELIEVE ME.
The reason it still goes on is the ISOLATION
NOT the so-called "cultural" factor.
Down with Patriarchal Religions! I don't care which of the "Big Three" we are discussing. So many societies and families in this world model themselves (mindlessly) after the patriarchal blueprint, which includes the subjugation of women & children, and oppression of anyone who is judged as different or anyone who is fighting for their rights. The patriarchal model advocates preemptive war, unjust laws, slavery, the ecological destruction of Mother Earth, and endless greed and suffering. The patriarchy defines the crime and carries out the death sentence as it chooses. Give me the gentle, matriarchal religions that predate the patriarchal ones. Matriarchal gatherings are truly spiritual, ecstatic, creative, and nobody has to die!
Dua was not a Muslim neither were the murdering thugs who beat her up and killed her. Please refrain from making comments that generalize.
statement of the Kurdistan Regional Government:
Kurdistan: KRG condemns murder of Dua Khalil Aswad
Reports " The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) condemns the murder of Dua Khalil Aswad, aged 17, who was stoned to death on 7 April in the town of Bashika near Mosul, Nineveh governorate.
The KRG also condemns the killing on 22 April of at least 20 Yezidi workers, in an apparent act of retaliation by members of a Sunni Arab armed group.
The murder of Dua in a so-called honour killing is a tragedy for her family and the entire community in Kurdistan. There is no justification whatsoever for this crime. Dua's death and the subsequent retaliation against the Yezidi community are a reminder to all of us, as individuals and as a society, that we have to continue to fight against the violent and archaic mindset that sadly persists today.
The Kurdistan National Assembly (parliament) in 2002 repealed articles in Iraqi law which allowed for "honour" killings to go unpunished. Since then, there have been at least 40 convictions for such crimes in the Kurdistan Region, and at least 24 cases are awaiting trial. This illustrates both the extent of the problem and the concrete steps that the KRG is taking to address it.
All those who carried out or were indirectly involved in the killing of Dua must be brought to justice as soon as possible. Bashika, in Nineveh governorate, is not a part of the Kurdistan Region and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The KRG urges the Iraqi Federal Government to investigate and institute legal proceedings in the district where the killing took place, and it offers its full cooperation in this matter."
The Murder of Dua Khalil Aswad in Northern Iraq
The Murder of Dua Khalil Aswad in Northern Iraq leads us to a very important discussion that goes beyond this poor child's parental betrayal and public death. Some years ago while I lived in New York City an Islamic Father strangled his 16 year old daughter by bending her over the kitchen dining table with the whole family present. She had, I believe, lost her Virginity.
Believe me, If Dua Khalil Aswad was Islamic and left her faith that was only a circumstantial contribution to the killing. Believe me, If Dua Khalil Aswad was Yazidi and left her faith that was only a circumstantial contribution to the killing. Killings like hers are part of every religion and culture in the world with roots going back over 1000 years. Read Leviticus in the Jewish Books. Read the transcripts of the Salem Witch Trials for pre-Industrial Age Christian opinions on child killing. In India the child-brides of rich old men are thrown on the pyre when the old man dies, or they are made Untouchable, which is a death sentence. Why?
Over a 1000 years ago life was so hard, and survival of the Group so uncertain, absolute allegiance to behavior proven beneficial was a survival necessity. Rigid codes of behavior were the norms because not surviving was not an option in any truely rural or harsh environment. The actual crime was not fornication or change of religion, it was Abandoning the Group effort to survive.
The return to "Fundamentalism" and unbelievable punishments for Group Deviants is part of the failure of the Modern World to include the "resource" populations and the "labor" populations, in other words, the 3rd World, into the security net we enjoy in Western Urban environments. And more shocking, the inroads of Fundamentalism in Urban Nations rural and urban labor populations stems from this same willingness to leave exploited groups out of the web of social security. Exploitation creates Uncertainty and Uncertainty calls up the Mind Frame of Ancient Rigid Social Behaviors.
Leo Rivers
Shouldn't Du'a Assad have the final word herself? This was not written by her but after her death and I think this woman got into her heart:
written on behalf of Du's Assad:
"I remember looking. It was my last memory. Looking at them all looking at me die. Not the eight or nine stone throwers, but the rest of them, many more than eight or nine, looking and doing nothing. The many could have stopped the few. But they didn't.
"And they will catch him and kill him too. We are not wealthy. We must rely upon the kindness of others. And with such fear and with such desperation it will not take much more than a few sheep and an old car to turn a trusted friend into a Judas goat.
"I sought protection from my tribal elders. But the dishonor for my uncles and brother and cousins was too much for them to bear. They lied and said all was forgiven. They came for me and dragged me outside and beat me and crushed my skull with rocks.
Hundreds stood by while a few, men of my family, murdered me.
It was their right under tradition and law.
"I sought protection from my tribal elders. But the dishonor for my uncles and brother and cousins was too much for them to bear. They lied and said all was forgiven. They came for me and dragged me outside and beat me and crushed my skull with rocks.
Hundreds stood by while a few, men of my family, murdered me.
It was their right under tradition and law.
"It only hurt a little bit, for a little while, the pain of the stones. It was nothing compared to the fear of running, of getting caught, of being betrayed, of knowing that my dreams for my life would come to nothing.
And now, for cheap thrills you can watch my snuff film on the internet for free. But please don't shame my family any further. They have suffered enough.
As for me, don't give me another thought. Every single one of us has a story that would break your heart……"