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July 17, 2006

Even in a Democracy, the Religion of Pieces

...keeps killing it's women.

How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide
For Derya, a waiflike girl of 17, the order to kill herself came from an uncle and was delivered in a text message to her cellphone. “You have blackened our name,” it read. “Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first.”

Derya said her crime was to fall for a boy she had met at school last spring. She knew the risks: her aunt had been killed by her grandfather for seeing a boy. But after being cloistered and veiled for most of her life, she said, she felt free for the first time and wanted to express her independence.

When news of the love affair spread to her family, she said, her mother warned her that her father would kill her. But she refused to listen. Then came the threatening text messages, sent by her brothers and uncles, sometimes 15 a day. Derya said they were the equivalent of a death sentence.

...Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex.

Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But the violence has continued, if by different means: parents are trying to spare their sons from the harsh punishments associated with killing their sisters by pressing the daughters to take their own lives instead.

“Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters to kill themselves,” said Yilmaz Akinci, who works for a rural development group. “Rather than losing two children, most opt for the latter option.”


How about losing NO children? How about coming out of the f*ckin' STONE AGE? How about American feminists standing up for these world sisters? Or do you only have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you're a Radcliffe/Barnard grad, Quinnipiac speaker, Newsweek columnist or witty playwright who uses the "V"-word in your title?
Phyllis Chesler:
...Western feminism's failure to confront the problems raised by Islam, Chesler believes, is a result of the creation of a hierarchy of sins, "an intellectual culture in which racism trumps gender concerns". The example she cites as the embodiment of wrongheaded priorities is "gay and lesbian movement activists rooting for the Palestinians who, meanwhile, are very busy persecuting homosexuals, who in turn are fleeing to Israel for political asylum".

The result, she argues, is that "instead of telling the truth about Islam and demanding that the Muslim world observes certain standards, you have westerners beating their breasts and saying, 'We can't judge you, we can't expose you, we can't challenge you.' And here in the west you have a dangerous misuse of western concepts such as religious tolerance and cultural sensitivity so that one kind of hate speech is seen as something that must be rigorously protected. That means, principally, lies about America and lies about Jews."


Of course, she's also been labeled an Islamophobe. Islamic women speaking up, fighting the good fight that holds true, life threatening DANGER for those very thoughts, need back-up. Need to know they're protected. Need a chance to get the word out and a massive condemnation of the basic, deep rooted inhumanity of fundamentalist Islam. You shouldn't have to kill yourself ~ or worry that you should kill yourself so your baby brother doesn't have to go to jail for your murder ~ because you want to wear jeans. (Although I suppose it IS progress after a sort that he could actually GO to jail...God, that's a S-O-R-R-Y excuse for a culture.)

They
make
me
SICK. Go ahead and label.

Posted by tree hugging sister at July 17, 2006 10:38 AM

Comments

As an aside:

“Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first.”

That sums up their completely screwy thinkng, no?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 17, 2006 11:29 AM

Batman?? This is more than surreal. It appears to be the Islamic equivalent of pre-emptive Suttee, a practice the British-Raj were not afraid to condem and punish with hanging.
Why Feminists don't cry louder is a result of the Feminist self-burka. The muzzling bag-over-the-head done by Cultural Relativism, and the damning effects of equivalancy which allow them power to dominate the institutions here - that being more valuable than dead girls a thousand miles away.

Posted by: DirtCrashr at July 17, 2006 12:19 PM

THS, you'd better watch out or NOW is going to send you a text message . . .

Posted by: Mike Rentner at July 17, 2006 01:05 PM

And if that girl's boyfriend had a set of testicles and lived in a land of justice, he'd take appropriate actions against the uncle and then take the girl and leave town.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at July 17, 2006 01:07 PM

BBWWAHAHAHAHA, Mike!! After they've read this AND seen the Hasselhoff picture, they may not waste their time... {8^P

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 17, 2006 01:09 PM

if that girl's boyfriend had a set of testicles

But then, he'd have disgraced HIS family and would have to kill HIS sister/get her to kill herself to make up for their collective shame. Vicious circle. If these girls would just get over it ~ quit complaining, go ahead and kill themselves willy-nilly ~ then these Islamo fascist types would be out of breeders and out of business.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 17, 2006 01:15 PM

Silly girl, the boyfriend never disgraces his family. They're proud of him!

Posted by: Mike Rentner at July 17, 2006 01:27 PM

Damndamndamn! I forgot.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 17, 2006 02:48 PM

Posted by: KG at July 17, 2006 11:35 PM

oops, apparently trackbacks are working again, my bad

Posted by: KG at July 18, 2006 12:41 AM

(No, you're good! Hardly anyone else can get the DAMN things to work.)

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 18, 2006 10:05 AM