Interesting news stories about middle-eastern "law"

[audtatious]

Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, told her closest friend that she was in love from the moment she set eyes on the young British soldier working alongside her in Basra, and she dreamed of a future with him.

It was an innocent infatuation but five months after Rand, a student of English at Basra University, met Paul, a 22-year-old soldier posted to southern Iraq, she was dead. She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed by her father. Several brutal knife wounds punctured her slender, bruised body - from her face to her feet. He had done it, he proclaimed to the neighbours who soon gathered round, to 'cleanse his honour'.

And as Rand was put into the ground, without ceremony, her uncles spat on her covered corpse because she had brought shame on the family. Her crime was the worst they could possibly imagine - she had fallen in love with a British soldier and dared to talk to him in public.

Rand was murdered last month. That the relationship was innocent was no defence. She had been seen conversing intimately with Paul. It was enough to condemn her, because he was British, a Christian, 'the invader', and the enemy. The two met while he was helping to deliver relief aid to displaced families in the city and she was working as a volunteer. They continued to meet through their relief work in the following months.

Rand last saw Paul in January, two months before her death. It was only on 16 March that her father, Abdel-Qader Ali, learned of their friendship. He was told by a friend, who worked closely with police, that Rand had been seen with Paul at one of the places they both worked as volunteers. Enraged, he headed straight home to demand an explanation from his daughter.

'When he entered the house, his eyes were bloodshot and he was trembling,' said Rand's mother, Leila Hussein, tears streaming down her face as she recalled her daughter's murder. 'I got worried and tried to speak to him but he headed straight for our daughter's room and he started to yell at her.'

'He asked if it was true that she was having an affair with a British soldier. She started to cry. She was nervous and desperate. He got hold of her hair and started thumping her again and again.

'I screamed and called out for her two brothers so they could get their father away from her. But when he told them the reason, instead of saving her they helped him end her life,' she said.

She said Ali used his feet to press down hard on his own daughter's throat until she was suffocated. Then he called for a knife and began to cut at her body. All the time he was calling out that his honour was being cleansed.

'I just couldn't stand it. I fainted.' recalled Leila. 'I woke up in a blur later with dozens of neighbours at home and the local police.'

According to Leila, her husband was initially arrested. 'But he was released two hours later because it was an "honour killing". And, unfortunately, that is something to be proud of for any Iraqi man.'

At the police station where the father was held Sergeant Ali Jabbar told The Observer last week: 'Not much can be done when we have an "honour killing" case. You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws.

'The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten. Sorry but I cannot say more about the case.'

Rand, considered impure, was given only a simple burial. To show their repugnance at her alleged crime, her family cancelled the traditional mourner ceremony.

Two weeks after the murder, Leila left Ali. She could no longer bear to live under the same roof as her daughter's killer and asked for a divorce. 'I was beaten and had my arm broken by him,' she said. 'No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed with a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter, who, over the years, had only given him unconditional love.'

Now she works for a women's organisation campaigning against honour killings. 'I just want to try to stop other girls having the same fate as my beloved Rand,' said Leila who is forced to move regularly from friend to friend

A colleague of Leila's said: 'We prefer to change places each two weeks to prevent targeting. She has been threatened again by her husband's family and is very scared.'

Throughout her friendship with Paul, Rand confided in only one person, her best friend Zeinab, 19. 'She used to say that her charity work had more than one meaning now. From the first time she saw him, she was helping needy families but also that Paul was helping her. With just a simple, caring smile, he was able to give her the sense of love, making her forget all about the hard and depressing life in Iraq,' said Zeinab.

The two teenagers had spent hours talking about him,' she said. 'She loved to speak about his blond hair, his honey eyes, his white skin and the sweet way he had of speaking.

'He was very different from the local men who usually are tough and illiterate. I was in heaven when she was speaking about him. Everything looked so beautiful.

'But, I always had to remind Rand that she was a Muslim and her family was never going to accept her marrying a Christian, British soldier'.

'Unfortunately she never wanted to hear me. Her mind was very far from reality, but closer to an impossible dream.'

Paul gave Rand gifts. She kept them - and him - secret from her family and asked Zeinab to take care of these small tokens of his affection for her. He gave her a charming cuddly animal. 'She couldn't take it home so she asked me to keep it for her,' said Zeinab. 'It's hard to look at it every day,' she said.

Rand told Zeinab she and Paul had met only four times, though Zeinab doubts this. Their meetings were always in public and through the voluntary work that Paul carried out as part of his regiment's peacekeeping duties.

Rand had an excellent command of English and spoke it fluently and that, said Zeinab, allowed them to communicate freely without others around understanding what they were saying. 'She was the only one who could speak English and it made it easier for her to get closer "through words" to him,' she said.

Soon Rand began giving different and elaborate excuses to her family to enable her to continue her voluntary work. She persuaded her father that her work was vital in helping families. And she began paying daily visits to displacement camps, local aid agencies and hospitals in the hope of bumping into Paul.

'He used to tell her all about England. She told me his father had died from a disease and that it was a really sad story,' said Zeinab.

'She liked to speak about how couples could live together in his country. He told her that flowers could be found on every corner and he promised to take her one day to buy some in the streets of London. She was a fan of London and he told her about all the tourists attractions there.'

'But the thing she used to like talking about best was how he praised her beauty and her intelligence. She told me he called her "princess".'

Despite knowing how dangerous the consequences of her actions could be, and the punishment she faced if caught, her passion for Paul grew stronger, said Zeinab. 'She never did anything more than talk to him. She was proud to be a virgin and had a dream to give herself to the man she loved only after her marriage. But she was seen as an animal,' said Zeinab.

'What they did to her was ugly and pathetic. Rand was just a young girl with romantic dreams. She always kept her religion close to her heart. She would never even hurt a petal on a rose.'

Last year 133 women were killed in Basra - 47 of them for so-called 'honour killings', according to the Basra Security Committee. Out of those 47 cases there have been only three convictions for murder.

Since January this year, 36 women have been killed.

[audtatious]

A WOMAN who was trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her son, 3, was handed to an Afghan who raped her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched.

He was jailed for 20 years for murder - but the woman, Rukhma, was jailed, too.

She had put up with her mistreatment for three months before going to authorities.

But in December, Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, was given a four-year sentence for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan.

The Taliban's fall six years ago heralded new rights for women: to go to school or get a job.

Their rights are now enshrined in the constitution.

But except for a small urban elite, a woman fleeing domestic violence or accusing a man of rape herself often ends up seen as the guilty party.

"Why am I here? I'm innocent," Rukhma said, crying in a musty cell and cradling a baby daughter she bore in jail.

"It is cruel to have your son killed before your eyes and then to be imprisoned."

In parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a woman who runs away is typically suspected of having taken a lover and can be prosecuted for adultery.

Leaving home without family permission may be deemed an offence.

The chief prosecutor of eastern Nangarhar province, who oversaw Rukhma's case, suggested she got off lightly.

"If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully.

His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Mr Qayum said.

Kamala Janakiram, a UN human rights officer, said that in 70 to 80 per cent of cases she has seen, a woman complaining of domestic violence is charged as a criminal.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said many victims are forced to marry attackers or jailed for adultery, as proving rape is virtually impossible.

Women can end up in prison simply on the basis of gossip, said Manizha Naderi, director of Women for Afghan Women.

Fear of returning to a violent spouse drives some women to suicide.

Rukhma is still hoping an appeal will free her.

Prosecutor Qayum in unrepentant: "She spent several nights with the man. She committed adultery. It was rape, but the woman is also guilty."

AP

[rn79870]

Tell me why we are spend billions upon billions of dollars to bring peace to a land where they apparently hate westerners so much that befriending one brings death to a teenager. What a sick society.

Look Mr. President. It's time to pack up and come home. Or at least, make them pay in oil for the expense of running your war. GW, never mind, this is over your head isn't it?

[redtop91]

I tend to agree. Something is wrong with that society that Westerners cannot identify with. Or is calling it wrong just a Westerners viewpoint? Theocracies follow a completely different rule set. Until commerce became dominant in Anglo-America people were guilty of similar things. It takes a shift in focus to change the middle East. The best example I can think of the kind of shift that is, is Saudi Arabia IMO. The daughter one is heartbreaking.

[audtatious]

We need to show understanding to "the religion of peace". Let's let it take over out society like it is starting to take over others. Hell, the divorce rate would decrease at least.

[themadscientist]

I refuse to even try to understand that mindset. I am glad I got out before we went back to the desert. I would have killed everyone involved and made sure to burn the bodies simply because it is a great offense. I'll call it "vendetta". See, anybody can make murder sound justified with a marketable title.

[audtatious]

I do wonder what would happen if the British guy killed the girls farther under the guise of "honor killing". For some reason I don't think that would fly with them.

[Leuthesius]

Tell me why we are spend billions upon billions of dollars to bring peace to a land where they apparently hate westerners so much that befriending one brings death to a teenager. What a sick society.

Look Mr. President. It's time to pack up and come home. Or at least, make them pay in oil for the expense of running your war. GW, never mind, this is over your head isn't it?

No. It is time for a generational war to END this. How would you like it if your father killed your daughter for these reasons? This is sick! To leave and come home would be absolutely selfish for reasons only in American interest. We have to stay and protect these women and children from this slaughter.

[rn79870]

No. It is time for a generational war to END this. How would you like it if your father killed your daughter for these reasons? This is sick! To leave and come home would be absolutely selfish for reasons only in American interest. We have to stay and protect these women and children from this slaughter.

Are you proposing that America become the world's policeman? Should we go into every country where civil rights are non existant, or only the ones that we have upset due to our foreigh policy?

How do you propose we protect them?

[audtatious]

Yes and no. We do have some responsibility to help others as we are the only superpower (currently). What/where is what is debated. The UN itself should be making decisions as to what needs to be done in these countries but they are so politically inept and biased it is pretty much unavoidable that we will go into places without their consent or support (or they do not disagree yet simply refuse to act as is the case in a lot of situations).

honestly, we should be in other places like Darfur which is getting ignored by the UN. Of course, we need to take one step at a time.

[rn79870]

I disagree. If there is any world police force necessary, it needs to be under the auspices of the United Nation. We need to fund it, and participate in it, but we do not need to be the bully we are now perceived to be. If the UN votes to intervene, then fine. The US should not take it upon themselves to rid the world of evil dictators. Let the UN work out the details.

[audtatious]

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which passed unanimously on November 8, 2002, offering Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" that had been set out in several previous resolutions. They did not comply and Congress gave Bush the green light.

Since there were other countries involved besides us it sounds pretty valid and supported to me....

[Leuthesius]

You mean the same UN that thinks "climate change" is going to kill us all? The organization needs to be destroyed. It is nothing but a shell of its former self.

[rn79870]

Yes, unfortunately we didn't go in there with blue UN helmets on. We went in as American troops. And let's look at the good it's done. We're little closer to a resolution now than we were then. The Iraqi people are questionably better off (a big stretch there), and we have given most of the world more reason to dislike us. Had it been the UN, instead of the US, things would be far better off.

All of this may be in retrospect, but the lesson is valid. Used the UN.

[audtatious]

That is more of a viewpoint than anything else.

While we didn't wear blue helmets we went in with a large number of countries providing troops or support. The UN constantly sits on its azz doing absolutely nothing because they have no real power and the majority of them have their own political agendas.

In general, the UN is worthless and has shown as much.