(A largely depressing collection – you have been warned.)
If you’ve ever wondered by women in cultures where “honour killings” occur seem to collude, or at least not resist, their occurrence, here is your answer:
Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband – the man she witnessed suffocate, stamp on, then stab their young daughter Rand in a brutal ‘honour’ killing for which he has shown no remorse…. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital.
And this situation isn’t just in unstable places like Basra – in Iraqi Kurdistan, the relatively stable, “safe” part, there’s been an explosion of violence against women:
“At least 14 women died in the first 10 days of May alone,” a doctor told AFP in the region’s second largest city of Sulaimaniyah.
“Seven of them took their own lives, the other seven were murdered in still unexplained circumstances” — apparently the victims of “honour” killings.
“Over the same period, we recorded 11 attempted self-immolations. These women were so desperate they set fire to themselves,” the doctor added, asking not to be identified.
But on the positive side, in some parts of the world, we have come a long way – as late as 1978, the British military was debating whether it would be “safe or prudent” for women members to carry guns.
“An army working party was also looking into arming women, and expressed concern that giving guns to women might also be seen as “provocative and indeed offensive”.
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