An American Honor Killing

[roxiejules]

In a quiet suburban parking lot outside of Phoenix, a father floors the gas on his Jeep Grand Cherokee and heads straight for his 20-year-old daughter. His goal: to protect his family’s "honor." Her crime? Refusing to be married off...

http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/latest/honor-killings-in-america

Faleh Almaleki gunned the engine of his Jeep Grand Cherokee and bore down on his 20-year-old daughter and her companion. The women took off running but were no match for the SUV, already traveling close to 30 miles per hour. Suddenly Amal turned, held up her hands in a futile attempt to stop the Jeep, and froze. Moments later, the vehicle struck the women, tossing them into the air. Amal hit the pavement;Noor landed on a raised median, in a patch of pebbly landscaping. Faleh wasn't done, though. Swerving onto the median, he ran over his daughter as she lay bleeding, fracturing her face and spine. Then, he reversed and sped away.

Local police characterized the incident as an attempted "honor killing" —

"I’m not a criminal. I didn’t kill someone randomly. I didn’t break into someone’s house. I didn’t steal,” Noor’s father protested to his wife in a November jailhouse phone call, recorded by the police. Suggesting that his wife get protestors to demonstrate at an Iraqi consulate, he added, “For an Iraqi, honor is the most valuable thing.” Later, he lamented, “No one messed up our life except Noor.... No one hates his daughter, but honor is precious...and we are a tribal society. I didn’t kill someone off the street. I tried to give her a chance.”

[Hawkowl]

1. So is the occupation working?

Or not? Iraq must be a hotbed of Thoreau and democracy, eh? Jolly good investment on our part! What?

[SouthernLiberal]

2. We have a different term for this in the USA...

First degree murder

[PDJane]

3. The main reason that women assimilate faster

Is that they have less to give up and more to gain. This is my main problem with the hajib, the burqa and the niqab; I wonder how many women would actually wear the things if it weren't for the pressure of the patriarchal society.

Person as possession; you must be what I tell you to be, and I may use physical force to mould you to my wishes. It is the curse of organized religion that makes this attitude so common.

[Better Today]

4. Besides this being just horrific, his statement is complete BS because he did run down

her companion as well, who wasn't his daughter and had nothing to do with his fucked up sense of "honor", unless I'm completely misreading something here.

[CanonRay]

5. Collateral damage

I think he learned that from us.

[Better Today]

6. Ouch, but not arguing with the truth of your statement.

[johnroshan]

7. I feel so guilty for doing this,

:rofl:

[whathehell]

9. Maybe...But they sure didn't learn that it was "honorable" to kill your own daughter or sister

over some sick, patriarchal shit about "honor" from us...They OWN that.:puke:

I hope this lovely daddy feels his "honor" in prison.

[get the red out]

8. What kind of "human"

Can do this to his own child? That is completely sick, mentally ill, criminally insane. A totally worthless whack-job looking for a "cultural" excuse to be a psychopath.

[Igel]

10. One that has a rather different world-view and set of cultural values.

To decry any that diverge from liberal, Western values as "insane" is to say that only liberal, Western values are "really values." We allow differences only where we don't have any strong opinion. Then we look at other cultures, pick and choose only those attributes and traits that fit with our values, i.e., that aren't "insane," and then say how wonderful cultural diversity is. Put simply, but close enough to what a lot of people do.

He loved his daughter and valued her life. If we sorted out his values and my or your values, we'd probably find quite an extensive overlap. But each culture has a typical set of ranking for things like "love family," "value life," and dozens of other important things. Each culture may have some distinctive, more rare value.

[roxiejules]

11. Am not sure what you mean by set of values....

but many men have said, "I'm hitting you because I love you so much" to women around the world. Is that a value?

This seems less like a "misunderstanding" of cultures and more like silencing women into submission.


See this story:

Almost more chilling than the crime itself was the family’s willingness to defend it in statements to police. The teenager’s siblings agreed Aqsa deserved violent retribution for her disobedience; Aqsa’s mother, Jan, suggested it was acceptable in Pakistan to kill children for such behaviour.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Guilty+pleas+Parvez+death/3158523/story.html#ixzz0uM1clvvO

[burnsei sensei]

13. +1 nt

[Old Troop]

12. Please correct me if I got this wrong. Are you saying that murder of your

own child is a cultural value that should be weighed before condemnation of it?

[burnsei sensei]

15. I've heard the same argument advanced

to excuse the murder of Mathew Shepard.
To excuse the flying of the Confederate flag from state house domes.
To excuse hundreds of thousands of lynchings in American history.
To excuse the slaughter on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the bombing that killed four schoolgirls in Birmingham.
Quote:
Each culture may have some distinctive, more rare value.
end quote.

Sometimes, rare, distinctive and may I say, even refined values must take a back seat to ethics.
What is wrong remains wrong-- fathers who murder their children are murderers.
It's not like he hit a fly.

[get the red out]

21. NO, he did not value his daughter

Most animals don't murder their young. That is a divergence from nature. So the guy has a problem. If someone does not believe that what he did was wrong, insane, cruel, and wants to call murder culture, then they have a problem also. People who support murder for "cultural" reasons are part of the problem.

I am also willing to bet that if he had murdered his son, we wouldn't see ANY posts supporting the crime.

[roxiejules]

14. The Concept of Honor

from Amnesty International:

So-called honor killings are based on the belief, deeply rooted in some cultures, of women as objects and commodities, not as human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men.

Women are considered the property of male relatives and are seen to embody the honor of the men to whom they "belong." Women's bodies are considered the repositories of family honor. The concepts of male status and family status are of particular importance in cultures where "honor" killings occur and where women are viewed as responsible for upholding a family's "honor." If a woman or girl is accused or suspected of engaging in behavior that could taint male and/or family status, she may face brutal retaliation from her relatives that often results in violent death. Even though such accusations are not based on factual or tangible evidence, any allegation of dishonor against a woman often suffices for family members to take matters into their own hands.

The murder of women in the name of "honor" is a gender-specific form of discrimination and violence. In societies where so-called honor killings are allowed to occur, governments are failing in their responsibility to protect and ensure women their human rights.

"Honor" killings should be regarded as part of a larger spectrum of violence against women, as well as a serious human rights violation. Amnesty International calls on you to help bring an end to "honor" killings, and to demand that governments take steps to ensure that women and men enjoy equal treatment under law.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/stop-violence-against-women-svaw/honor-killings/page.do?id=1108230

[AmericaIsGreat]

16. No, "WE" are not a tribal society

Maybe Iraq is a tribal society, but you are not in Iraq you piece of shit.

On some level I can't help but feel sorry for this guy. The ignorance that leads to honor killings has been passed down many generations and he was obviously a victim. You can bet this guy's dad wasn't involved in women's rights. When a person's mind has been so warped and brainwashed that killing their own daughter becomes logical, almost a source of pride, that's sad.

[Schema Thing]

17. as advocated in the Bible Duet. 22: 20, 21

[roxiejules]

19. the along came Jesus...

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

John 8:1-11

[Alcibiades]

18. It would be interesting to know how they came to the US

Given that the family had been here 16 years, it may have had something to do with the first Gulf War.

[proteus_lives]

20. There should be another immigration rule.

"When entering the U.S. leave the Middle Ages in the box marked 'trash' by the front gate."