BAGHDAD, IRAQ (CNN) -- Authorities in northern Iraq have arrested four people in connection with the "honor killing" last month of a Kurdish teen -- a startling, morbid pummeling caught on a mobile phone video camera and broadcast around the world.
The case portrays the tragedy and brutality of honor killings in the Muslim world. Honor killings take place when family members kill relatives, almost always female, because they feel the relatives' actions have shamed the family.
In this case, Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl whose religion is Yazidi, was dragged into a crowd in a headlock with police looking on and kicked, beaten and stoned to death last month.
Authorities believe she was killed for being seen with a Sunni Muslim man. She had not married him or converted, but her attackers believed she had, a top official in Nineveh province said. The Yazidis, who observe an ancient Middle Eastern religion, look down on mixing with people of another faith.
Each year, dozens of honor killings are reported in Iraq and thousands are reported worldwide, said the United Nations. The practice has been condemned around the world by governments and human rights groups. A yearly vigil protesting honor killings is held in London, England.
Two of the four arrested are members of the victim's family, police in Nineveh province said Thursday. Four others, including a cousin thought to have instigated the killing, are being sought.
The killing is said to have spurred the killings of about two dozen Yazidi men by Sunni Muslims in the Mosul area two weeks later. Attackers affiliated with al Qaeda pulled 24 Yazidi men out of a bus and slaughtered them, a provincial official said.
The violence ratcheted up tensions between Yazids and Muslims in Bashiqa, the victim's hometown, a largely Yazidi city in Nineveh province.
Provincial officials don't think much could have been done to stop the honor killing, but at least three officers are being investigated and could be fired.
"The climate, the religious and social climate is such that people can do that in daylight and that authorities do not intervene," said the spokeswoman for the Organization of Womens' Freedom in Iraq, Houzan Mahmoud.
Also, the top police official in Bashiqa is being replaced.
Don't worry, if we put a few more soldiers in there for a few more years, then thousands of years of backward-ass religious bullshit will magically go away. Give the surge time to work, people!
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Why did I have to go and watch that vid? Thanks world, now I'm even more depressed.
Cowardly bastards. I bet they feel big after having gang-beaten a girl to death.
But hey, at least Saddam's gone. Huh?
"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."~Teal'c
It's amazing that neo-cons still beat the "democracy will solve everything" drum after all that's happened. Iraq has, if anything, demonstrated the outright fallacy of democracy as a panacea. But you can't say anything bad about democracy, no sir! That makes you anti-American!
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Events such as this are no doubt dismissed as "growth pains" on the course to democracy. And everything will change to a happy happy democratic culture in just a little more time. Just a little. Really.
"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."~Teal'c
In many ways, Americans are trapped in a web of their own propaganda. They've turned "Democracy" and "Will of the People" into such ubiquitous buzzwords for American cultural supremacy and moral righteousness that they can't back away from them now.
The literate class knows better, but they're in the minority. Joe Sixpack still thinks that "The Will of the People" is a synonym for "the correct course of action". He is incapable of asking himself "What if The Will of the People is fucked up?"
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
This article, and a lot of similar articles on other websites, state that its actually reached multi tier civil war.
So, go us.
This day is Fantastic!
Myers Briggs: ENTJ
Political Compass: -3/-6 DOOMerWoW
"I really hate it when the guy you were pegging as Mr. Worst Case starts saying, "Oh, I was wrong, it's going to be much worse." " - Adrian Laguna
I wonder if maybe some kind of agitprop campaign against "honor" killings might help, the way campaigns against wife-beating and drunk driving in this country helped stigmatize the fucktards who do it.
Perhaps it's time to implement that old quote. Can't remember the exact text or source. "You have a custom of burning widows alive. We have a custom where we hang men from the gallows for burning women alive. You may carry out your custom, and then we will carry out our's."
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
loomer wrote:Perhaps it's time to implement that old quote. Can't remember the exact text or source. "You have a custom of burning widows alive. We have a custom where we hang men from the gallows for burning women alive. You may carry out your custom, and then we will carry out our's."
But the Americans are there to "liberate" them, remember? Well, they feel free to do shit like this now, so I guess they're "liberated".
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Darth Wong wrote:In many ways, Americans are trapped in a web of their own propaganda. They've turned "Democracy" and "Will of the People" into such ubiquitous buzzwords for American cultural supremacy and moral righteousness that they can't back away from them now.
The literate class knows better, but they're in the minority. Joe Sixpack still thinks that "The Will of the People" is a synonym for "the correct course of action". He is incapable of asking himself "What if The Will of the People is fucked up?"
Even more bizarrely they seem to think that democratic governments will for some reason always choose to act in the USA’s national interest instead of what they judge to be their own national interest and automatically agree with the US government and support it in all things, and these 'democracy will fix everything' morons react with disbelief whenever this doesn’t happen.
Well, at least the authorities arrested the guilty parties. Rule of Law is very important, even if the law is Sharia Law, it's preferable to mob rule.
Elfdart wrote:I wonder if maybe some kind of agitprop campaign against "honor" killings might help, the way campaigns against wife-beating and drunk driving in this country helped stigmatize the fucktards who do it.
I doubt it would work at all. It's a deeply steeped cultural thing with strong religious overtones. This article does a pretty good job of examining it.
loomer wrote:Perhaps it's time to implement that old quote. Can't remember the exact text or source. "You have a custom of burning widows alive. We have a custom where we hang men from the gallows for burning women alive. You may carry out your custom, and then we will carry out our's."
Sir Napier Goes like "You have a custom of burning widows, well we have a custom of hanging men who kill women, you may make your pyre next to it my carpenters will make a gallows. You may follow your custom then we will follow ours."
loomer wrote:Perhaps it's time to implement that old quote. Can't remember the exact text or source. "You have a custom of burning widows alive. We have a custom where we hang men from the gallows for burning women alive. You may carry out your custom, and then we will carry out our's."
Sir Napier Goes like "You have a custom of burning widows, well we have a custom of hanging men who kill women, you may make your pyre next to it my carpenters will make a gallows. You may follow your custom then we will follow ours."
Close, but not quite. What Sir Charles Napier said was more like "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours." Although, of course, that may not be it either. Not to mention that this is way off-topic anyhow.
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Any views expressed herein are my own unless otherwise noted, and very likely wrong.
I shave with Occam's Razor.
Darth Wong wrote:In many ways, Americans are trapped in a web of their own propaganda. They've turned "Democracy" and "Will of the People" into such ubiquitous buzzwords for American cultural supremacy and moral righteousness that they can't back away from them now.
The literate class knows better, but they're in the minority. Joe Sixpack still thinks that "The Will of the People" is a synonym for "the correct course of action". He is incapable of asking himself "What if The Will of the People is fucked up?"
Even more bizarrely they seem to think that democratic governments will for some reason always choose to act in the USA’s national interest instead of what they judge to be their own national interest and automatically agree with the US government and support it in all things, and these 'democracy will fix everything' morons react with disbelief whenever this doesn’t happen.
That is because Americans are for democracy, hence people who are for democracy must think like Americans. After all, the USA was founded on the unity of the 13 colonies' struggle against imperial power, thus it stands to reason that anyone who is pro democracy and anti tyranny must stand together, right? Right?
CotK <mew> | HAB | JL | MM | TTC | Cybertron
TAX THE CHURCHES! - Lord Zentei TTC Supreme Grand Prophet
And the LORD said, Let there be Bosons! Yea and let there be Bosoms too!
I'd rather be the great great grandson of a demon ninja than some jackass who grew potatos. -- Covenant
Dead cows don't fart. -- CJvR
...and I like strudel! -- Asuka
Plekhanov wrote:Even more bizarrely they seem to think that democratic governments will for some reason always choose to act in the USA’s national interest instead of what they judge to be their own national interest and automatically agree with the US government and support it in all things, and these 'democracy will fix everything' morons react with disbelief whenever this doesn’t happen.
This is ironic considering that in the US' own history, certain democratically elected governments in South America among other regions have been removed or undermined by the CIA in favor of totalitarian regimes, because the elected government was leaning in favor of the Soviets.
"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."~Teal'c
Plekhanov wrote:
Even more bizarrely they seem to think that democratic governments will for some reason always choose to act in the USA’s national interest instead of what they judge to be their own national interest and automatically agree with the US government and support it in all things, and these 'democracy will fix everything' morons react with disbelief whenever this doesn’t happen.
I liked this better when the CIA would just overthrow your gov't and install a puppet regime without the need for a big invasion and stupid PR. They got more shit done in the olden days. "There, we gave you your nation back, Mr. Sheikh. Now give us the oil or we'll give it to someone else."
Darth Wong wrote:But the Americans are there to "liberate" them, remember? Well, they feel free to do shit like this now, so I guess they're "liberated".
The fact that there was more law and order under Saddam fucking Hussein's regime is absolutely pathetic. The man was a cumsucking tyrant, and people were better fed, better clothed, and more content under him.
Darth Wong wrote:But the Americans are there to "liberate" them, remember? Well, they feel free to do shit like this now, so I guess they're "liberated".
The fact that there was more law and order under Saddam fucking Hussein's regime is absolutely pathetic. The man was a cumsucking tyrant, and people were better fed, better clothed, and more content under him.
This is what happens when your entire post-war strategy amounts to "Here's democracy! Now Iraq will become a clone of ideal Republican America in 3.. 2.. 1.. any second now..."
"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."~Teal'c
-- Asuka
