Posted on 05/04/2007 1:54:17 PM PDT by bnelson44
The Kurdish Regional Government is calling on the Iraqi federal system of justice to aggressively investigate the "honor killing" in early April of a 17-year-old Yazidi girl in Bashika, near Mosul in Nineveh province. The girl's death reportedly led to the reprisal massacre of more than 20 Yazidi factory workers a couple of weeks later.
Doaa Aswad Dekhil (also reported as Dua Khalil Aswad), a 17-year-old Yazidi girl, had converted to Islam to marry a Sunni man.
On April 7, Doaa went to the home of a Sunni sheikh, but was told that her relatives had contacted him and that she must return home, VOI has reported . Instead, she was stoned in the street by nearly two-thousand people, as confirmed by eyewitnesses, while police and army forces cordoned off the area and denied access to journalists.
The KRG government issued a statement this week calling on the central government to pursue the killers, and condemning the acts:
"The murder of Dua in a so-called honour killing is a tragedy for her family and the entire community in Kurdistan. There is no justification whatsoever for this crime. Dua’s death and the subsequent retaliation against the Yezidi community are a reminder to all of us, as individuals and as a society, that we have to continue to fight against the violent and archaic mindset that sadly persists today."
Bashika, in Nineveh governorate, is not a part of the Kurdistan Region and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The Kurdistan National Assembly (parliament) in 2002 repealed articles in Iraqi law which allowed for “honour” killings to go unpunished. Since then, there have been at least 40 convictions for such crimes in the Kurdistan Region, and at least 24 cases are awaiting trial, illustrating both the extent of the problem and the steps that the KRG is taking to address it.
I am absolutely appalled at the media for calling this an “Honor Killing”! There is no honor in stoning a young woman to death like this. The actions of these sub-humans amounts to nothing less that a brutal, vicious, mob murder!
How PC do we have to be? I’m sickened!!
Honor killing is the accepted term. They kill to protect or restore what they see as their honor.
Like you I don’t believe it is at all honorable, but that is the common term in the area.
Saying “honor killing” places the focus on the offended perpetrator, it gives them an excuse. It paints the aggressor as the victim.
It may be the accepted term, but I reject it!
This story appeared in the Iraqi press a couple of weeks ago and the police issued orders to arrest the killers. So I am not sure why the KRG is asking Baghdad to take action when the police are already after the case.
The article appeared on April 14 on this Arabic link:
The Translation is as follows:
Nineveh police commander orders the arrest of those who stoned a Yazidi girl to death
From Ibrahim Thanoon, Mosul, April 14, 2007 (Voices of Iraq)
Nineveh police commander issued on Saturday, a warrant for the arrest of those who stoned a Yazidi girl who converted to Islam four months ago and was killed last Saturday in Mosul. Wathiq Al-Hamdani, the police chief of Nineveh governorate told the independent Voices of Iraq news agency “this morning we issued a warrant for the arrest of the killers of the girl named Du’aa Aswad Dakhil so that they can be investigated and brought to justice.” The Yazidi girl Du’aa Aswad Dakhil was 17 year old and converted to Islam four months ago with the knowledge of her parents, as she decided to marry a Muslim. She moved to the house of a local sheikh but she was killed by stoning last Saturday after a crowd of nearly two thousand people converged on the house. Police cordoned the area and banned media coverage. The police commander Al-Hamdani pointed out that the perpetrators “took the girl away after tricking the sheikh that they have forgiven her and that they want her back to her parents house. The police chief also said that “ as the girl walked to the street with her uncles, a large crowd of Yazidi people gathered around her and stoned her to death”. A medical report issued by the hospital stated that the girl was still a virgin.
Eyewitnesses from the district of Bhzani in Mosul, told Voices of Iraq that a large number of Yazidis gathered around the girl and killed her by stoning. People in the areas of Ba’shiqah and Bhzani who are largely Yazidis have been exchanging pictures on their mobile phones of a girl struggling before dying as a crowed of people throw stones at her. Bhzani district is located north-east of the city of Mosul, about 25 km away from the center of the city. The movie clip shows a person shouting to the crowed to shoot the girl with a bullet of mercy. The pictures have disturbed alot of people who demanded that the killers be brought to justice.
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