Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

Stoned to death for falling in love

I have struggled hard to find the words to commemorate sweet 17 year old Du’a.

And still I cannot find any words to do her justice.

Maybe there are no words to commemorate a teenager stoned to death in the Iraqi Kurdish hillside village of Basshiqa for being in love with the ‘wrong’ 19-year-old boy.

A mobile phone clip shows her being dragged from the sheikh’s house to the marketplace in a headlock, wailing and screaming as police watch on. There, her beautiful body is faced with a hail of stones and she is repeatedly kicked. Finally her uncle approaches her as she tries to struggle to her feet and smashes a huge piece of concrete over her head.

The mob then dumps her bloodied and battered body in a rubbish pit.

No one tells her parents - who do not want her killed - that she is dead until the next day. Her two brothers then dig her body out so she can be buried in a cemetery.

Later, her mother, Badiaa Aswad, is seen at her grave howling and caressing the plain concrete headstone saying: “The last thing you told me was that you were hungry. Come home. Let me cook, and feed you.”

But Du’a will not be coming home.

Nor will many other often nameless faceless women and girls killed in the name of some vile honour.

At least 5,000 every year according to the United Nations.

In Britain alone up to 17,000 women are subjected to honour-related kidnapping, sexual assault, beatings and murder every year - most of them in their very homes and by those closest to them - their fathers, brothers, husbands and extended family members.

Since Du’a’s murder, more have been killed and even stoned, including Sara Jaffar Nimat last August – she was just 11 years old.

As I said it is hard to find the words to do Du’a justice.

But justice is all that we have left to offer if we are to truly commemorate her life.
And part of that means holding that which is responsible to account.

Most honour killings take place in countries ruled by Islam or in Islam-ridden communities including in the west. We need to say this.

Of course sex division, discrimination in the production process, a disadvantaged section within the working class are good for profits, which is why we can’t seem to get rid of violence against women though many old traditions, customs and practices have disappeared when no longer relevant.

Of course there is patriarchy, misogyny and violence against women in all societies, not just those ruled by Islam. In the United States 10 women are killed every day. In Sweden, according to 1989 data, one woman is killed every 10 days by someone she knows.

But focusing on one form of violence does not mean the denial of other forms of violence against women and only seems to become an issue when the matter being raised is linked to Islam. When it comes to those whose rights are deemed culturally relative a million and one prefects step up to list every single issue in the world that is either just as important or more important.

I mean we are not even allowed to call it honour killings; domestic violence is the preferred terminology so as to avoid causing offence to Islam.
And yes I know all religions are misogynist and discriminatory and obsessed with controlling women, sex and sexuality not just Islam. After all, Du’a’s family were Yazidi.

Nonetheless, there is a distinction that must be made with Islam in this day and age because it is the banner of a political movement; because it has state power; because is vying for political power; because Islam is part and parcel of the state machinery and the law in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

When Du’a is killed in broad daylight, the police stand by and watch. Those responsible are not arrested. Even if anyone ever is - which is rare - Article 111 of the Iraqi penal code will allow for reduced sentences in cases where "dishonour" is established as a motive.

Not only that but the state and the law, the police, the judiciary, the imams and the sheikhs are all in agreement that such killings are necessary, and even honourable, in order to maintain the social order and control the women who bring chaos in society by transgressing Islamic norms and rules.

Stoning is actually legal in countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sudan. This year, over half a dozen women in Iran were sentenced to stoning, with three known official stonings since 2006; two women await stoning in Sudan, and a couple have just this past week been stoned in Pakistan.

You cannot do justice to the victims of honour killings if you do not point the finger at Islamic states and the political Islamic movement, which is the biggest mass murderer of women in this day and age.

As Sayyid Hazim al-Araqi, Moqtada al-Sadr's representative in Baghdad says: if you crack down on honour killings, you will only encourage adultery.

And as a top cleric in the Islamic regime of Iran said recently, women who do not respect Islamic rules are the ‘source of all that is bad in society.’
This doesn’t take blame away from US-led militarism, which is directly responsible for the encouragement and growth of the political Islamic movement, including in today’s Iraq. It doesn’t ignore other forms of violence against women.

But in the 21st century, honour killings are as much the symbol of the Islamic movement as veiling and sexual apartheid are. Despite the attention and outrage, they are on the rise because this movement is on the rise. And we can only really begin to stop honour killings if we stop this movement in its tracks.

In her last moments, Du’a struggled to stand even when surrounded by a mob who were out to kill her. She refused to do what was expected of her in life and in death.

She is both the personification of the vile and subhuman status of women under Islamic rule but also the refusal and resistance of millions of men and women against 21 century barbarity. To commemorate Du’a we must stand up to the political Islamic movement with the resisting people of the Middle East and elsewhere to say enough is enough!

The above was Maryam Namazie’s speech commemorating Du’a at an April 12, 2008 conference in London organised by the Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq. To see a video of the speech, click here.

To see Maryam Namazie’s response to questions on whether men are to blame for women's rights violations, the extent of Islam's role, whether criticism of Islam is anti-Muslim, and her opinion on various interpretations of Islam, click here.


This speech was first published in WPI Briefing 204, May 8, 2008.



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Comment:


  • Name: VERY BAD...I HV TEARS IN MY EYES READING THIS AND I AM A MAN
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 06:11:31 -0700

Comment

I AM A 35 YR OLD MAN,MARRIED AND WITH 3 KIDS.I AM NOT MUSLIM I LIVE IN KAFIRISTAN INDIA.I HAD TEARS IN MY EYES READING THIS.I HOPE AND PRAY IF THERE IS A GOD,PLS DESTROY ISLAM AND TIS ROOT CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM NOW AND MAKE THE WORLD A SAFE PLACE FOR WOMAN AND MAN BOTH.


  • Name: tanstaafl
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 06:15:26 -0700

Comment

The silence of the West regarding "honour" killing is deafening.


  • Name: Challenge to all infidels from Akhter
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 09:15:55 -0700

Comment

2.023 Produce a Sura like Quran, call helpers if you want.


  • Name: SAVE YOUR TEARS FOR THESE POOR BASTARDS!!
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 13:04:37 -0700

Comment

WHO KILLS WHOM IN SPOUSE KILLINGS? ON THE EXCEPTIONAL SEX RATIO OF SPOUSAL HOMICIDES IN THE UNITED STATES* * MARGO I. WILSON11McMaster University, * MARTIN DALY11McMaster University * 1McMaster University *This research was conducted with financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We thank E. McCloskey and M. Sullivan of the Chicago Police Department and J. Bannon and R. Hislop of the Detroit Police Department for their many courtesies. For their roles in developing the homicide data files and facilitating our use thereof, we thank C. R. Block, R. Block, and R. L. Drake in Chicago; M. Wilt-Swanson in Detroit; J. LaCroix and J. Turner of the Statistics Canada Centre for Justice Statistics; K. Shaw of the British Home office; and F. Hird of the Scottish Home office. For discussion and prepublication information, we thank C. R. Block, R. Block, C. A. Carlson, R. E. Dobash, R. P. Dobash, R. Gartner, K. Polk, and A. Wallace. These analyses were undertaken while M. Wilson and M. Daly were fellows of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences with financial support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation (BNS87-008), the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Gordon P. Getty Trust, and while M. Daly was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Margo Wilson is Associate Professor of Psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. Her research interests include spousal conflict, male sexual proprietariness, risk taking, and discriminative parental solicitude. Martin Daly is Professor of Psychology and Biology at McMaster University. He is coauthor (with Margo Wilson) of Sex, Evolution and Behavior (Wadsworth, 1983) and Homicide (Aldine de Gruyter, 1988). Abstract A hitherto unremarked peculiarity of homicide in the United States is that women kill their husbands almost as often as the reverse. For every 100 US. men who kill their wives, about 75 women kill their husbands; this spousal "sex ratio of killing" (SROK) is more than twice that in other Western nations. Our analyses of spousal homicide samples from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain indicate that this contrast cannot be attributed to greater gun use in the United States, nor to a domain-general convergence of the sexes in their uses of violence. Significant predictors of the spousal SROK include registered versus de facto marriage, coresidency versus separation, ethnicity, and age disparity, but the impacts of these variables are not sufficient to explain the differences between US. and other nations’victim sex ratios.


  • Name: Abu Taleb
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 15:39:48 -0700

Comment

It is not just the west who is deaf, but the whole people in the world. And not only on honour killing, but also on woman oppression in Islamic countries, poverty everywhere etc etc.


  • Name: agnostic
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 15:52:01 -0700

Comment

[[[The silence of the West regarding "honour" killing is deafening.]]] ****They are more concerned whether terrorists in Gitmo are properly treated, whether any non muslim has used the word "jihad" "terrorist" or "muslim" in negative sense. Can't have their "moderate" muslims upset, in any way. Preparing natives for full islamisation. Next step, full Sharia law. Enslavement or Freedom is in the hands of each one. Decide.


  • Name: to Akhter, challenge to all infidels from akhter.
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 18:50:10 -0700

Comment

It is clear that all those killings based on your Quran. How can you still consider your Quran is a sacred book? I have read other religions' sacred books, but only Quran told people to kill other people. Has Allah lost his most powerfulness? he need help from men to punish the infidels? You asked us to produce a sura like Quran, I say that the book Uncle Tom's Cabin is far more better than your Quran. Why? At least it is not teach people to kill other people. If Islam is the only religion in this world, I'd rather be an atheist than to be a Moslem. I won't let such a stupid book rules my life.


  • Name: to Akhter, challenge to all infidels from akhter.
  • Date: Wednesday May 21, 2008
  • Time: 19:24:20 -0700

Comment

It seems to me that you have only read one book during all your life. Your Quran. As far as I know, Mo plagiarized the Quran from Torah read by his brother in laws who was a Christian. The stoning of women/girls here, was partially taken from the Torah. But according to the Torah, only women who committed adultery should be punished like that. In Islam, for falling in love with the 'wrong' person is enough to be punished with that punishment. Jesus had asked: 'the man who have no sins should first throw the stones to this woman (who committed adultery)'. After no one threw any stone, then He said to the woman: "Go, and do not do the same again". Are the people who stoned the girl have no sins at all? I strongly believe that their sins are far more bigger than that of the girl's. If you believe Satan is exist, than your Quran was made by Satan. Why? Only Satan who wants to do the killing of people. And Quran is the only legitimate doctrines of a religion that people are taught to kill others. My suggestion to you Akhter, please read other book, storybook children first, to peace your mind, then gradually to scientific books after your mind is at ease. After that, phylosophical books. Then you will realize, how stupid you were, believed in a book like Quran. Only very, very stupid people would believe such a garbage book like Quran. If Allah is most powerful, how can't He have a Son without a wife? Enough with His Koon Fayakoon. He doesn't need a wife. The birth of Jesus from Mary, consider it like this. Should they found a baby without any parents at all in that stable in Betlehem? And He is not a Son in our sense, but actually He is God's Word. Read the Gospel of John 1:1 and 1:14. Akhter, please read other books. There are very abundant books which are far more better than your Quran. The book 'Wizard of Oz' teaches primary logical thinking if you can read it. The caterpillar said: "If you don't know where you are going to go, than it is doesn't matter which direction you take". Please try learn some logic, Akhter? Not blind faith.


  • Name: claspur
  • Date: Thursday May 22, 2008
  • Time: 02:53:24 -0700

Comment

I've just mailed notice of this article to friends to look at this. It would be nice to have an option to directly forward articles like these off this site. News like this needs to get dispersed more rapidly.


  • Name: Mohammad
  • Date: Saturday May 24, 2008
  • Time: 14:21:15 -0700

Comment

This specific incident was not committed by the Muslims. The people who stoned Du'a to death were Yazidis who belong to an ancient religion. Publishing this story here gives the false impression (probably intentional) to accuse Islam of accepting honor killings. There is no one Muslim scholar who endorses honor killings. These are false practices of backward cultures in the Middle east who departed from Islam long ago. These people are suffering today because of not honoring god's commands as revealed to his prophet 1400 years ago and abide by their tribal laws. This incident shows that it is not Islam that is to blame but rather the tribal backward culture of arabs, persians, turks, kurds, and others in the Middle east.


  • Name: Abel
  • Date: Friday May 30, 2008
  • Time: 11:19:13 -0700

Comment

Which are the most backward countries in the world? Islamic countries! This is because their false teaching taught in the quran has kept them backward. Economically, scientifically, industrially, technologically , socially in every way backward. Why have all other countries which have majority Christian, Hindus, Budhists etc have advanced but not Islamic countries? If anyone needs evidence of the false teaching in Islam this is it. Islamic teaching has made sure that no change can come about from within the religion and from outside by killing and intimidating all who criticise the Islamic religion and its founder. The followers of Islam are now caught in a trap out of which they cannot escape. A trap created by their own Islamic teaching and its founder. The ones who suffer most are Muslims themselves. I feel sorry for them. Though truth will triumph eventually evil and falsehood will claim the lives of millions. The truth will however prevail. Islams founder was afraid the truth would come out and hence built a system of intimidation and murder which continues to this day. The truth will prevail. The truth will set you free.


  • Name: Mohammad to Abel
  • Date: Sunday June 01, 2008
  • Time: 12:39:46 -0700

Comment

You have no vision of history. There was a time that Muslims were socially, technologically, and scientifically ahead of others in the world. The Christian Europe was once a hellhole and a field for witch hunters. Hey why do we go too far. It was just 60 years ago that the Christian Europe killed 6 million Jews. More recently the Christian Serbs created one of the worst genocides in the heart of Europe. The advancement of the west did not happen because of Christianity but because of rejecting it and reducing its sphere of existence to Sunday mornings. Muslims' advancement was because of Islam and their today's inability to compete is because of their abandoning the true teachings of Islam and reducing Islam to culture.


  • Name: Abel
  • Date: Monday June 02, 2008
  • Time: 09:57:26 -0700

Comment

If your talking of the so called golden age of Islam and arab culture it was due to the fact that the arabs conquered the Byzantine Empire which was the most advanced civilizations of those times. The vast amount of wealth that fell into the hands of the arabs fuelled further conquests and it seemed that the progress was because of the arabs and islam. However the arabs who came out of arabia were not technologically or in any way advanced. They just happened to gain control of a region which was advanced. But that too did not remain that way for too long. Slowly and inexorably after converting the captive populations to Islam, centuries of advancement was reversed. The system of treating captive peoples as dhimmis (inferior) and hence liable to pay heavy taxation slowly drove the region to backwardness. Next your description of the Nazi massacre of jews as a christianity inspired plan is totally incorrect. Hitler did not appeal to the Christian religion and the christian beliefs of the German people. He was inspired by the pagan past of germany and the myth of german superiority. He turned his back on christianity and calling his actions as being inspired by christianity in anyway, is totally preposterous. The gospel of Christ does not have a single sentence which asks his followers to wage violent battles against non-believers. Love and truth are considered the ultimate weapons in christianity. However Islam and its scriptures are full of exhortation to wage battle against non-muslims, slaughter them and subjugate them. Islam did this to north africa, turkey , syria etc. No wonder these regions slipped into darkness after being beacons of advancement for so long. Europe was in decline during the dark ages. The conduct of christian clergy and the church had become autocratic and stifled free thought. The difference is that it was not done with the backing of christian scriptures. This led to the rise of protestanism, rennaisance etc. which brought europe to the forefront of civilization a place which it still retains. Christians have been willing to introspect and admit to their mistakes but not Islam and its followers. Whereas Christ said truth will set you free, Islam asks its followers to blindly follow the dictates of the Quran and the sayings and example of its prophet as mentioned in the Hadith. Christ had a totally different nature. He asked his detractors to point out his mistakes. He used his power to heal the sick and perform miracles and not crush people into submission which is so totally different from the example of islams prophet. As for the war in bosnia, the srebrenica massacre of muslims, the killings of Kosovo muslims by Milosovics regime is highly condemnable. The christian world said so and actually intervened militarily. Some of this reaction by serbs was due to the fact that muslim invaders did all this and more to them. The forceful abduction of their women and children by the ottomans etc. This however does not justify what the serbs did and their actions were rightfully condemned. Islam does not encourage its followers to reason and accept their mistakes. Christianity does, because our God is a God of wisdom ,compassion, fairness and justice. All human beings are created by the Almighty and being his creations we have to reflect in some way his qualities just as children reflect the qualities of theit father. God is all powerful and all knowing and we can never equal Him but we can try to inculcate the qualities of truthfullnes and compassion and justice which the Almighty has in infinite measure. We will face failure in our quest but it is up to us to keep trying and seek the Lords mercy.Without Gods mercy we can never suceed. However it is up to us to realise that we are in need of it.


  • Name: Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari
  • Date: Tuesday June 03, 2008
  • Time: 08:11:25 -0700

Comment

Islam forbids any kind of artistic pursuit like music, painting, sculpting and even photography. Islam also prohibits love between men and women. According to Islam, women are to be raped, not loved. Aim of Islam is to raise a regiment of cruel and brute killers. Therefore prohibits anything that softens one's mind.


  • Name: to Abel from Promachos
  • Date: Wednesday July 16, 2008
  • Time: 07:50:14 -0700

Comment

Absolutely correct! What Muslim's call "Islamic civilisation" was merely the incorporation of the remnants of ancient empires they destroyed which, when whatever was left was totaly under the rule of Islam, led to stagnation for a thousand years until Europe tuned up and showed them what modernity really is. It's strange, they decry everything European and Western and yet they do not fail to use technology derived from European civilisation, a civilisation as much Greek, Roman and Christaian, to destroy us. If we really are kafirs then why do they covet everything we own and use our tools against us. Surly using kafir technology makes them equally kafir? If not where are their industries? They don't have any, not until they plunder ours that is.


  • Name: your mission in vain
  • Date: Wednesday December 31, 2008
  • Time: 01:09:49 -0500

Comment

The Quran does not urge people to stone girls to death for falling in love...only women AND MEN who committed adultery should be punished like that. stop and think why these rules might have been written? maybe to prevent a family from breaking apart? the rules in Quran is to build a social constitution away from corruption. But unfortunately ignorance has embraced some people in this world who can only say "I hate Islam" without a TRUE REASONABLE justification. with my back straight and my heads up i say that it's a shame that you all have turned from Islam...but I hope from the bottom of my heart that you all find your way back to Islam, and open a site like this one with your mission being: WHY I RETURNED TO ISLAM


  • Name: Astagfirullah
  • Date: Wednesday December 31, 2008
  • Time: 15:51:10 -0500

Comment

May Allah guide you to the right path. Remember Allah is ever forgiving.


 
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