Deeyah just reminded me that yesterday was the anniversary of Du’a Khalil’s stoning in Iraqi Kurdistan. Here’s my speech marking her murder at a conference some time ago:
And here’s sweet 17 year old Du’a last moments – brutally murdered in the name of honour by a mob whilst police stand by merely for loving the wrong boy:
We mustn’t ever forget her or the many others who face honour-based violence and honour killings across the globe.
Sharia in its Honor Killing and forced conversion is the monster sitting behind the tapestry of a peaceful Sunni/Shiite Islam! My only complaint is you seem to be convicting the Kurds of doing this act! Was she Kurdish? Was the mob really Kurdish? Before convicting the Kurdish ethnic group of committing this atrocity, lets know all the facts, please!
The Kurds don’t necessarily control the police in nor populate all the areas of their nominally autonomous area of Iraq which isn’t even called Kurdistan! The one worthy thing the US accomplished in Iraq was saving the Kurdish, ethnic group after having abandoning them there in ’91 with Saddam Hussein killing tens of thousands of them-men, women and children!
Had the USA let the Kurds set up a secular Republic of Kurdistan, their’s might have actually been much more moderate in its application of Sharia and a friendly State recognizing Israel! The Kurds have been fighting the Islamic, Sharia Turks and Iranians for years for their promised independence, remember? Your associate, Mia Ahadi worked with them in the past too!
The opponents of Kurdish independence are now the Sharia, Islamic Turks and the Sharia, Islamic Iranians! I just want to make sure we blame the right people for the right atrocities!
As for the Afghan, artist banksy: Shame her art forms all look like pictures of aliens wearing shower curtains! As you said, a real wet dream for Islamic Sharia followers that no other men will ever have!
You’re just a textbook of right wing politics aren’t you? Take sides because you think one side is good and another bad – so change the facts or add to them when it doesn’t suit you or if it does. Muslims bad; Iranians good. Kurds good; Muslims bad and so on. It’s pathetic. Interestingly your politics is not very different from Islamist ones. They like to blame collectively too. Depending on which side you like, you either blame collectively or hold the collective free of guilt. You forget the human being in all this, which is why your politics stinks. And what’s interesting is you are clueless to how US militarism is the other side of the coin of Islamism. But again that’s right wing politics for you…
Du´a was not a muslim, she was a Yazidi.you should do research about what the Yazidi gone through.Its not always religion should be blamed, tradition also makes the things worst.it isnt only muslim women who are suffering but also i wittness christian young girls are also forsed to marry with 14 with a mann 15 years older than her. I am working with young refugees in Germany, we also somplained by the German authorety because their marrieg get recognized in this country.
Yes yusef, no one said she wasn’t a Yazidi who fell in love with a Muslim boy… But by the way, religion is also always to blame. No one says that other religions don’t oppress. But can you see that Islam is also oppressive?
Hi Maryam,
I really like your blog.
I was so sad to read and listen to your video about poor Du’a.
For a long time I have felt very frustrated about how women are treated in the name of religion and by self-righteous men around the world.
I wish I could do more myself but not sure what to do.
It’s so great that you and others are blogging to raise awareness of the issue.
If there is anything I can do, please let me know.
I hope this blog gets read all over the world and that it makes people think.
Best wishes
John
Thanks. I guess you can help get the word out – about the situation as well as various campaigns that I am working on that are effective – like Count Me In Iran, Equal Rights Now, One Law for All or the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain…
I never could understand “loving the wrong person”. That idea seems so foreign to me, despite a small minority, here in the States, frowning and even spewing racial slurs concerning women who marry Black men, even in this day and age. Luckily they are an extremely small minority, but similar stories like this, despite concerning religion, sadden me, because such things are worse in other areas and you’d think we as a human species would be beyond that sort of thing by now. Love is blind to such things, but humans are really crazy when it comes to love and who we love.
Thank you, Maryam.
Your video from 2008 is in the blog I published yesterday on April 7. I’ve watched it several times over the last years:
http://tonyajarrett.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/dua-khalil-aswad-day-of-remembrance-april-7/
Thanks Tonya
Poor baby girl.