The Horrors behind Honour

 A young girl meets a British solider in Basra, it was instant attraction from the moment they met and after several encounters the young girl dreamed about the day they would marry.

 A typical fairytale right? That is until her father catches her openly talking to her admirer. He suffocated the young girl to death before brutually attacking her with a knife, he then buried his daughter in an unmarked grave where her uncles spat on it in disgust.

This is for honour.

The young girl was Rand Abdel-Qader, she was only 17 years old. This devastating tale is far from isolated, this is only one of the number of ‘honour’ killings taking place today, which campaigners are calling the genocide of Iraq’s women. More than 15 women a month are killed in Basra for breaching Islamic code, this repressing code can sentence you to death for forgetting to wear a veil or talking to another man.

A fortnight ago a well-respected journalist, Begard Huseein, 27, was stabbed to death by her estranged husband in Erbil. Her crime? Behaving ‘immorally’ with another man.

After Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical regime the lives of Iraq women have become considerably worse. Self immolation (suicide through burning) is rising because these women are left with no choice. Iraq women are being imprisoned, crippled and killed in the name of religion. A faith which is meant to promote peace, hope and love.

A disturbing element of this is that the issue still remains taboo in the public domain. There are only a few organisations that are set up to help the problem. One of these is the establishment of a unit by the Internal Ministry unit in Kurdistan. It was set up in memory of Du’a Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old from nineveh who was stoned in front of a mob of 2,000 men. Unbelieveably this even included the police and her own relatives.

When is this repressive regime going to stop? And further more when will religion stop being the justification for these horrific and immoral acts? My teachings of the bible may be slightly different in practice but the fundamental principle remains the same and nothing in the bible states that innocent people should die for following their heart.

 It’s time Britian should be made aware of the horrors of honour killing, it is not a case of out of sight out of mind. These horrific killings happen in Britain too, behind closed doors where these young womens lives are swept under the carpet. Justice is never served.

For further information or to help fight the campaign against these brutal killers visit contact The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) via www.equalityiniraq.com.