I just read the following news article in the NY Times:
Click here for the full story. (NYTimes requires registration so just go to bugmenot.com and get a readymade login)
It is, of course, an utterly horrifying story about the disgustingly bad ways that human beings can treat each other. As much as I try to understand other cultures this lack of regard for another life is nothing short of fucking subhuman and should not be tolerated anywhere in the world.
On the other hand they live in Batman and have organizations like Batman’s suicide prevention squad, so welcome to the EU Turkey! (and Batman)
By DAN BILEFSKY
BATMAN, Turkey — For Derya, a waiflike girl of 17, the order to kill herself came from an uncle and was delivered in a text message to her cellphone. "You have blackened our name," it read. "Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first."
Derya said her crime was to fall for a boy she had met at school last spring. She knew the risks: her aunt had been killed by her grandfather for seeing a boy. But after being cloistered and veiled for most of her life, she said, she felt free for the first time and wanted to express her independence.
When news of the love affair spread to her family, she said, her mother warned her that her father would kill her. But she refused to listen. Then came the threatening text messages, sent by her brothers and uncles, sometimes 15 a day. Derya said they were the equivalent of a death sentence.
Consumed by shame and fearing for her life, she said, she decided to carry out her family’s wishes. First, she said, she jumped into the Tigris River, but she survived. Next she tried hanging herself, but an uncle cut her down. Then she slashed her wrists with a kitchen knife.
...
Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex.
...
"Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters to kill themselves," said Yilmaz Akinci, who works for a rural development group. "Rather than losing two children, most opt for the latter option."
Women’s groups here say the evidence suggests that a growing number of girls considered to be dishonored are being locked in a room for days with rat poison, a pistol or a rope, and told by their families that the only thing resting between their disgrace and redemption is death.
Click here for the full story. (NYTimes requires registration so just go to bugmenot.com and get a readymade login)
It is, of course, an utterly horrifying story about the disgustingly bad ways that human beings can treat each other. As much as I try to understand other cultures this lack of regard for another life is nothing short of fucking subhuman and should not be tolerated anywhere in the world.
On the other hand they live in Batman and have organizations like Batman’s suicide prevention squad, so welcome to the EU Turkey! (and Batman)
