Killing In The Name of Honor
Posted by michellemoquin on August 15th, 2008
Good morning…I hope. :) I am sleepy, It is early, and almost too early to write about a subject that I am about to write on. Hopefully I can give it the attention and coherency that is needed through the words that I write….
We are aware of it happening in the Muslim world but it is also happening throughout Canada, Europe and yes, the United States too. Young Muslim women are being targeted for violence. But why – what have they done? Really nothing in my mind, but in the minds of the Muslims, these women have humiliated their families, and when humiliation occurs, death is the punishment. These killings are known as ‘honor killings’ and they are happening worldwide including right here.
If a Muslim woman refuses to wear a hijab, has a non-Muslim boyfriend or male friends of any origin….if she is sexually active, or rejects an arranged marriage…if she aggressively seeks employment and education, and more than anything else, if she attempts to assimilate into Western culture…sorry, you have disgraced the family and the sentence is death. Is there anything else to add to this list? What are these women allowed to do? If you ask me, these women can’t do much or their life is on the line. This is just so barbaric. I know that this happens but I still can’t believe that it does. The video tells it all.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWbk_0TOX5Y&hl=en&fs=1]
Isn’t this just horrific?! And it happens more than we think. Although it is estimated that around 5000 of these killings happen every year worldwide, it is more likely that there are many more and that they just don’t get reported, due to the private nature of these crimes. The families are the perpetrators.
Yes, you heard me correctly…their own family members are the perpetrators, ’killing In the name of honor’. Yes, they would rather have a dead daughter than be disgraced by the horrible things that she does. It is usually the father or the male siblings that does the killing however, it is reported that even extended family members get involved; and surprisingly yes, some females too.
So, it is no surprise that many of these ‘honor killings’ go unreported. Why would a family report anything about their daughters when they are the perpetrators? You might as well admit the crime and we know that isn’t going to happen. No, don’t bring attention to the matter….it is easier to say she just left with no forwarding address, or she’s off in school, or she just disappeared….and hope that no one asks questions. Meanwhile, she’s been kidnapped, tortured, raped, strangled, and stuffed in a suitcase all in the name of ‘honor’. ’Thanks dad.’
So what does a young Muslim woman do when she is stuck between two incompatible cultures? She is living in the west trying to balance between the demands of a modern western world and the demands of her family to honor their religious and tribal traditions. It is a struggle for these young Muslim women to say the least, and sadly, too often they pay the ultimate price: Death. Can you imagine? Where does one turn? Your family are supposedly the people that you rely on; the ones that you can count on to always be there in time of need. In the cases of these young women, they don’t have that family support.
It is a growing problem that needs to be addressed and brought to the forefront of people’s minds. In october of 2007 the feminist group National Organization for Women (NOW) announced a press release stating their support of legislation that denounces ‘honor killings’ and violence against women. The initiative H. Res. 32 ‘denounces the practices of female genital mutilation, domestic violence, ‘honor’ killings, acid burning, dowry deaths, sexual slavery and other gender-based persecutions.’
NOW has made a commitment to help in the global effort to rid of this oppression against women. It is a step in the right direction as it is only the precious few who speak out and tell it like it is when it comes to the oppression of women in Muslim culture. Be a voice for these young women. We need to open our eyes instead of turning a blind one just because we may not understand. One doesn’t have to understand – what is there to understand? ‘Honor killing’ is not okay. Their lives are at stake and it is up to us to support these women by speaking out when human rights are in question. They are in question and this is me speaking out. If you want more information on how you can help, go to the NOW website….Thank you!
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle ?
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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August 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Hand Washing Secrets
Edward K. Chapnick, MD
Maimonides Medical Center
If you are hospitalized, everyone who enters your room should wash his/her hands. This includes family members, doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. If you feel embarrassed to remind your doctor or anyone else, raise the issue as a question: “Did you remember to wash your hands?”
Be sure that people who wash with soap and water dry their hands with a clean paper towel and not a cloth towel from the bathroom in your hospital room. The paper towel also should be used to turn off the faucet.
In most hospitals, alcohol-based hand-cleaning gel dispensers are mounted on the wall in or near each patient’s room — these are for everyone to use, not just staff. These gels (which should contain at least 62% alcohol) are superior to hand-washing at killing germs. Alcohol dries out the skin less than soap and water does, so it is best for frequent cleanings. If hands are visibly soiled, soap and water must be used.
Important: Latex gloves are meant to protect the person wearing them, not the patient. If hands aren’t washed before putting on gloves, bacteria will live on the gloves. If a hospital staff member enters your room already wearing gloves, ask him to remove the gloves, clean his hands and put on a fresh pair.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I watch this and feel sorrow and pity, as well as, confusion and hate. This all is created through religion doctrines that make a family unit turn on itself?! I don’t understand how a family could reach this point? Would God, Allah, or whoever want you to kill simply because a woman has a mind of her own? This is nothing new, and simply insane.
Religion….structured religion, the dogma of religion…is disturbed! Catholic, Islamic, Christian Fundamentalists, and so many others… It is religion that has created this world’s ills. Bush has done so much of his damage to the world because he says God told him to…
All in the name of love…
August 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Michelle
You write of Georgia as if we Russians are barbarians. This thing was started by the Georgians because they thing they have bought the next President of the US. One of McCain’s senior campaign advisers is a paid lobbyist for the government of Georgia. Why don’t you write about that
Taras
August 16th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Michelle
My friends said that they have been writing in and that you do not allow them to get in. Please accept this. There are many sides to the way we women of Islam see ourselves.
My mother doesn’t see anything wrong with the way women are viewed or treated under Islam. She believes that it is Allah’s way of things. I am an American born woman of 18. I think it is appalling that my brothers get to do whatever they want with whoever they want but when they want to settle down they want to do it with a virgin arab woman. This is so sick on so many levels. I love Islam, but I don’t believe that Allah intended for his female children to be abused in this manner by his male children.
Thank you for bringing these murders to the attention of the world.
Aswaq
August 16th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Michelle
Thank you for bringing this terrible thing to the world’s attention. I am in a country that is just short of a slave camp for women. We are terrorized by our male relatives. We have to worry about rape at every turn. They pretend that it is us who has to be watched. The real reason that we can not be left alone with males is because they can rape us at will and we will be killed because of it.
i speak for the silent millions of women here when I say I hate Islam the way it is practiced here. Why the rest of the world allows these men to relocate to their countries and to continue to practice this horrible enslavement of the women they bring with them is incredulous.
Baseema
August 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Michelle
You are the greatest thing for women all over the world. This is a topic that the Pskastani Spectator would never touch. Moslem women need to be heard. We need to alert the world that we are being brutalized by men who are taught to hate women at a very early age. My brothers would kill me for anything. They would also rape me if they felt that they could get away with ti.
My sister was raped by my uncle and killed and left naked in the dessert to be rot or be eaten by animals. The family celebrated the saving of the honor of the family. The rest of us women were forced to be a part of the celebration. It was a warning to us to not be alone with a man.
This man was her uncle. How was she to know that at 16 she would be raped by her uncle because she was alone in a room with him? We women are basically prisoners to a lie. God did not say these animals could do this to us.
Affah
August 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Michelle
The women here are being forced to wear bombs to defend the rights the men here cry to Allah about in prayer. I for one hope the Jews keep their feet on their necks. Why should the not feel the oppression that they visit upon us every day of our lives.
Most of the stupid men that strap on bombs are illiterate. They get to be somebody by killing themselves and innocent people. Allah has no part in this. It is the men who force others to die for them that drive this madness.
The fear is that peace will come to this area of the middle east and they will have to get real jobs. Now they are forcing us to do the same terrible thing to people. We are women, but to these beasts we are expendable. They pretend to be concerned about what happens to us to get sympathy from the rest of the world. But when the cameras are off they abuse us then force us to die for their cause.
Most of the women who are forced to do this see no other reason to live. We will gain NOTHING if the men gain independence. We will still be slaves. I hope Allah makes them suffer until they see the injustice in what they are doing to us.
The women who have been fortunate enough to be able to read and who have access to the net hate these men. We are but prisoners in a world of cruelty that you could not imagine.
Al Zhahra
August 16th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Clean Your Car for Less
Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen
You don’t need to spend a lot of money or time dealing with car-cleaning problems. Cheap and easy tricks that really work…
Caution: Always test any cleaning remedy on an inconspicuous area of your car to be sure that it won’t harm the car’s finish. Never use scouring pads, steel wool or abrasive household cleaners on your car’s finish.
Foggy windshield. A thin coat of gel shaving cream applied to the interior of your windshield and other car windows can keep them from fogging up in the winter. To apply: Spread the gel on the window, let dry, then use a clean cloth to rub it off. The glass should remain fog-free for days, if not longer. (This also works on bathroom mirrors.) Keep a blackboard eraser in your glove compartment to quickly wipe the glass clear without leaving streaks when it does fog up again.
If your windshield seems hazy even when it’s not fogged up, pour white vinegar on a clean cloth and wipe down the glass inside and out. Then wash the windshield with water, and wipe it dry.
Grime-covered headlights. Combine one cup of white vinegar, one quart of water and one tablespoon of cornstarch. Use a sponge to apply the mixture to your headlights, or you can use an old pair of panty hose. Let the cleaning solution sit for about 10 minutes, then rub off with a soft cloth.
Dirty windshield wipers. Wipe the blades with a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol. Besides cleaning the blades, the alcohol also will reduce the amount of ice that builds up on them during storms. Also: Lightly run a folded piece of extra-fine sandpaper along the wiper-blade edges to remove stubborn gunk. This light sanding can help older wiper blades remain effective longer.
Bumper stickers. Soak a cloth in white vinegar, then position the cloth so that it completely covers the sticker for 30 to 60 minutes. If the sticker is on a vertical metal surface, use refrigerator magnets to hold the cloth in place. The vinegar should dissolve much of the sticker’s glue, allowing you to peel it off or very carefully scrape it off using an old credit card. (Favor peeling over scraping if the sticker is on paint.) If some of the sticker’s adhesive remains after the sticker has been removed, pour some vegetable oil on it and the adhesive should become much easier to rub away.
If this doesn’t do the trick, use a hair dryer to loosen the adhesive. Set the dryer on high, and check every few minutes to see if the sticker will peel free.
Nicks and scratches. If your car dealer doesn’t have touch-up paint for your car, crayons are the cheapest way to hide ugly nicks and scratches. Find the crayon color that most closely matches that of your car, and carefully work it into the nick or scratch. Use a clean, soft cloth to wipe away any excess. This won’t be a perfect fix, but it should make the flaw much less obvious. If you can’t find an appropriate-colored crayon, at least apply clear nail polish to the damaged area to prevent it from rusting.
Dead bugs. Bugs and bird droppings (see below) contain acids that can damage a car’s painted or chromed surface if they’re not cleaned away quickly. To make bug removal easy, spray a light coat of vegetable cooking oil on your car’s bumper, grille and hood before long drives. The slick oil should make it much easier to wipe away the bugs after the trip.
When dead bugs do get stuck firmly to your car, dip a scrunched-up mesh onion bag, nylon net shower sponge or old pair of panty hose in warm soapy water and gently scrub off the bugs.
Bird droppings. Pour seltzer on the droppings as soon as possible. Once the seltzer stops bubbling, wipe the area with a microfiber or cotton cloth.
Helpful: Griot’s Garage’s Speed Wipes Travel Pack is a car-care product worth having. Keep these wipes in your glove compartment so you can clean off bird droppings when you don’t have seltzer handy. Cost: $9.99 for a pack of 20 wipes (800-345-5789, http://www.griotsgarage.com).
Tree sap. The easiest way to remove sap is to wipe it off before it has a chance to dry. If the sap already has dried, coat it with mayonnaise, wait a few minutes for the mayo to reduce the sap’s stickiness, then gently rub with a cloth. If this fails, pour rubbing alcohol on a soft cloth, hold it against the sap for a minute, then use the cloth to gently rub away the sap. If the sap still won’t budge, spray WD-40 on it. Wait a few minutes, then rub it off with a cloth. Wash the affected area after the sap has been removed. To make sure these remedies won’t harm your car’s finish, test an inconspicuous area.
Road tar. Put mayonnaise on the tar, wait two minutes, then wipe the area clean with a soft cloth. (Test on an inconspicuous area first.)
Grease. Grease is not as sticky as sap and tar, but it can be difficult to wash away. A simple solution is to use baby wipes. Baby wipes also can be used to clean grime off a car’s vinyl or cloth upholstery. Cloth upholstery should be allowed to air-dry after a baby wipe is used, but vinyl can be wiped dry with a paper towel. Baby wipes should not be used to clean leather car interiors — use saddlesoap instead.
Bad smells. A pet has an accident in the car… a child gets sick. You clean up the mess, but the smell’s still there. Put shallow bowls of white vinegar on the car’s floor, in front and back. Then close the windows and leave the car overnight. In the morning, remove the bowls of vinegar and open the doors and windows for a few minutes so that any lingering vinegar smell disappears.
August 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
LONELINESS DOUBLES ALZHEIMER’S RISK
For some time we’ve known that social isolation is a risk factor for dementia. Now a new study goes far deeper, with findings offering fascinating insight. Researchers at Rush University in Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania followed 823 people older than 70 for four years, using questionnaires administered by researchers to assess social isolation and conducting tests of cognitive functioning. They discovered that people who scored highest on the loneliness scale — regardless of whether or not they actually spent much time with people — were more than twice as likely to develop AD during the follow-up period as people whose score was the lowest.
WHO GETS ALZHEIMER’S… AND WHO DOESN’T
Robert S. Wilson, PhD, senior neuropsychologist of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, was the lead author of the study. When I spoke with him he said that loneliness is sometimes considered an early sign of AD, but these findings show it is associated with increased risk and not an early symptom of its pathology.
This information was gleaned from brain autopsies of the 90 people who died during the study, which found that loneliness was not associated with plaques and tangles in the brain, considered the leading cause of dementia in older people. Thus, it seems that non-biological factors may play an important role — and according to this study loneliness is high on the list.
Culturally, we’ve been inclined to regard problems of age to be inevitable with the passing of years, says Dr. Wilson. This study shows it’s time to correct that assumption and more closely investigate ways to prevent the debilitation of old-age diseases including dementia. The kind of loneliness this study talks about is more like a trait than an emotional state — it’s not the type of loneliness you might experience being away from home for an extended period, which is loneliness as a state, but rather the type that you feel all or most of the time, loneliness as a trait, that follows you everywhere. Even so, there are still many ways to address and modify it. Medicine helps treat depression, which is usually part of loneliness, but non-drug therapies including regular exercise, joining like-minded groups for activities and expanding your circle of friends and acquaintances in general can be hugely beneficial — most especially when you’ve got strong networks already in place. If you live alone, you may want to consider moving to a retirement community, where even shy people can make connections, since most residents are looking to do so. Not only will being with others possibly help people avoid Alzheimer’s in years to come, it will make for happier years right now.
Source(s): ??Robert S. Wilson, PhD, senior neuropsychologist of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Hi, Michelle. I just came across your blog via WordPress, where my blog (Muslimah Media Watch) has recently moved.
I thought you might like some of our perspectives on this:
http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2008/07/08/yet-another-honor-killing-2/
http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2007/12/13/a-real-tragedy-2/
August 26th, 2008 at 8:18 am
[...] just received a comment from Fatima on my article: ‘Killing in the name of honor’. Fatima also has a blog on wordpress called: Muslimah Media Watch. She has written a few articles [...]