The death of a muslim woman

[MHalblaub]

SPIEGEL
March 2, 2005
----

THE DEATH OF A MUSLIM WOMAN
"The Whore Lived Like a German"

By Jody K. Biehl in Berlin

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?
...

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,344374,00.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. what country were these families originally from?

Were they Germans who converted to Islam? Or were they families of "guestworkers" from another country?

The reason that I ask is that this article perpetuates a myth that putting down women is condoned in Islam. It is not. It is condoned in the cultures of many countries where Islam is the dominant religion-in fact, the anti-female bias predates Islam and was addressed by the Prophet many times.

I feel sad that killings like these have happened, but please don't think that they were done in the name of Islam.

[rodeodance]

2. Seems like most came from Turkey

from Part 2 of the article:

.....Though subtle, evidence of the seclusion in which religious Muslim women live in Germany abounds. Turkish tea rooms are often packed with men, while women are often at home caring for children. They rarely can be seen on the streets alone after dark. At a memorial vigil held a few weeks after Hatin's death, a mere 120 people showed up. Almost none were Turkish. In fact, most were from a lesbian and gay organization that -- outraged by the crime -- organized the make-shift ceremony.

The ceremony underscored another disturbing reality: It is often not the Muslim community that first expresses outrage over how its women live, but those on the outside. "It's often very frustrating for us that more doesn't come from within," Boehmecke said. "We've been trying to bring attention to the plight of women for years, but with little success." Cileli sees it in harsher terms. "It not only took the death of a white man" for people to prick up their ears, she said, but of a "white European" man (van Gogh). "A European was killed because he defended us -- and the world press stood up to listen. But how many women died before him?"

A statistical black hole

A memorial to Hatin, showing her holding her son when he was a baby. That was before she discarded her headscarf and insisted on living as she wanted.
Zoom
DPA
A memorial to Hatin, showing her holding her son when he was a baby. That was before she discarded her headscarf and insisted on living as she wanted.
Astonishingly, the first extensive data the German government collected about the lives of Turkish women was published last summer, as part of a study done by the Ministry for Family Affairs. The study showed that 49 percent of Turkish women said they had experienced physical or sexual violence in their marriage. One fourth of those married to Turkish husbands said they met their grooms on their wedding day. Half said they were pressured to marry partners selected by relatives and 17 percent felt forced into such partnerships.

So far, the Turkish community has been sluggish in its response to such data and even to the question of honor killings. But last week -- about three weeks after Hatin's death and under heavy pressure from activists -- the Turkish Association of Berlin and Brandenburg held a round table discussion about the plight of Muslim women. At the talks, the group issued a 10-point plan calling for a "zero tolerance" stance on violence against women and encouraged other Turkish and Islamic organizations to "actively recognize" and address the problem.

[rodeodance]

3. well, there are those within Islam who do believe in these brutal

practices (such as honor killings). But, as the article says (below)--this element seems to be rising--there are more and more insisting on the repression of women (and killing if women/girls deviate and desire to be 'Western").

.....The response among Germany's devout Muslims is equally tough to gauge as there is no single organization the community looks to for leadership. Instead, the community is divided into about three dozen groups, each with its own leadership. Ali Kizilkaya, the chairman of the Council of Islam, one of the largest umbrella organizations, has decried Hatin's murder as "an abuse and affront to the Muslim religion." He insists Islam does not condone honor killings.

But try telling that, said Boehmecke, to the hoards of young boys who taunt Turkish girls in schools and their families who tacitly encourage such behavior. Educators at the grassroots say their numbers are rising, she says. Indeed, the German weekly Die Zeit reports that the percent of schoolgirls wearing headscarves in the Berlin district where Hatin was killed has gone from virtually none to about 40 percent in the past three years. Which one of today's smiling schoolgirls, Boehmecke wonders, will be next year's victim of honor?......

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. of course

just like there are people who say they are Christians and who condone making women second class citizens and who condemn homosexuality, etc.

And of course these people are on the rise-they are persecuting moderate Muslims. It has been illegal to practice Sufism in Saudi Arabia, for example. If I lived there, I would be arrested, imprisoned, and perhaps even executed.

[Hoping4Change]

4. ayeshahaqqiqa I agree with many of your posts but I have a

bone to pick with this one. What gets my goat is your comment that Islam is to be judged apart from the people who practice it. The fact is that the Koran like the Bible is terribly flawed as it allows for so many different interpretations.


When god/creator/force made a mountain everybody agrees it's a mountain. There is no room for dispute. How is that when any holy book that is purported to come directly from God, God slips up?

For instance why didn't the Koran lay on the line who would be replacing Mohamed? Big slip up since such a major rift developed over that one omission.


Who defines the Islam you reference with your comment "in the name of Islam"?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. you obviously haven't read the Qur'an

and your world view is so very different from mine that ther is no point in discussing it. Let's just say that you think what you think and I think what I think.

Frankly, I'm very very very tired of trying to explain Islam or even religion to people, so I think I will simply stop trying.

[Hoping4Change]

7. You obviously didn't bother to read to read the article.

If you did you'd know who these women were.

Whether I have or haven't read the Koran is actually irrelevent as I believe it to be like all other religious texts the product of human imagination which is the real gift from god and oddly doesn't come with the name of the sender.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. I admit I didn't read the article

or all of it. Limited time. But I was responding to the tenor of the posts, which I felt implied that ALL Muslims act this way. I get this sort of stuff from other boards as well-one person told me I should "get rid of my veil" and learn that Islam was a tool of the Devil because it puts down women. I don't wear a veil-and the prayers I recite each day are gender neutral (and in English). Not all Muslims are the same, and that was my point.

As I said before, it is obvious you have your own firm opinions, and so I won't try to change them. As a wise man told me, don't wake up a person who is asleep. Just so, don't try to dissuade a person from strongly held beliefs.

[Hoping4Change]

9. You are projecting. You are the one with the firm beliefs. You

clearly are committed to protecting your beliefs yet you accuse me of rigidity. I like Keats "am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the hearts affection, and the truth of the imagination."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. yep

my belief is that I should let you have your beliefs.

[Hoping4Change]

11. Spare me because your quoting the wise old man advising

not to wake those who are sleeping belies your statement. By referencing me as one who sleeps is blatantly an accusation that I am someone who is closed to reality and in my own world.

[bemildred]

12. Dead "estranged" wives is not an exclusively muslim sort of thing.

And Der Speigel is often full of shit.