Last Sunday, a 17 year old Iraqi girl was killed by his father for loving a British soldier.
Another shock to the world. Another misconception in the Muslim world.


Honour killing is not something new in some parts of the world today. An honour killing, by definition, is generally a punitive murder, committed by members of a family against a female member of their family whom the family and/or wider community believes to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman is usually targeted for: refusing an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce — even from an abusive husband — or committing adultery. These killings result from the perception that any behavior of a woman that "dishonors" her family is justification for a killing that would otherwise be deemed murder.

Now...to kill a person is already something which I consider morally wrong. But honour killing? That is even worse. Remember Du'a Khalil Aswad (may she rest in peace)? She was stoned to death not just by her father or family, but the whole village of Bashika where she lived because she actually converted to Islam to marry a Sunni Muslim boy. I know religion can be a very sensitive issue, but what gives them the right to murder an innocent girl? I somehow managed to catch a glimpse of the video, and trust me, it was a sad sight. The video was a recording from a mobile phone showing the victim lying helplessly on the ground while dozens of villagers were crowding her, taunting, kicking and punching without mercy. She was then stripped to her undergarments, the beating went on until a man decided to end her life by throwing a concrete block to the back of her head.

Honour killing is wrong!

Back to the case of the Iraqi girl. "Not much can be done when we have an honour killing case," said Sergeant Ali Jabbar of Basra police. "You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws. The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten." What is wrong with you? He just killed his daughter, and the authority didt do anything? What bothers me the most is the fact that they actually relate honour killing Islam. Now that's wrong. It pains me to see people who take religions to an extreme sometimes even cost the lives of other people. They give the wrong impression of what the religion really promotes.

I can only hope that this madness will end. Soon.

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