The 'honour' killing of a Kurdish 17-year old (right) has caused shockwaves worldwide. Now, activists are fighting back. LOUISE NOUSRATPOUR reports.
Sunday May 20, 2007
The Morning Star
AT just 17 years old, Du'a Khalil Aswad was dragged to her death in broad daylight by her male relatives. She was so shocked that she didn't even scream.
In a frenzy of misogynist violence, she was stoned to death in a Kurdish town near Mosul last month in front of hundreds of witnesses, including members of the US-trained Iraqi police force.
"These men killed Aswad, a child, laughing and kicking her. They smashed her face and head and, to humiliate her, they stripped her naked. Yet they seem to have walked free," says Diana Nammi, who is a member of the Iranian Women's Rights Organisation.
The brutal act was a so-called "honour" killing. Aswad's crime was to fall in love with an Arab man not of her own pagan Yazidi faith. She was deemed, therefore, to have brought "shame" on the family name.
Kurdish feminist Houzan Mahmoud, who has received death threats from reactionary jihadist group Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq, explains that the mobile video of Aswad's murder has been sent to every girl and woman in the area to terrorise them.
"But it has had the opposite effect," she says triumphantly.
As the video of Aswad's barbaric murder was posted across the internet, thousands of men and women across Iraqi Kurdistan rose up in condemnation and demanded justice for Aswad.
"It has brought thousands of men and women out on the streets and we have so far gathered 80,000 signatures for our campaign. We have also seen the publication of hundreds of sympathetic articles and poems," she adds.
Many hold the US-led occupation and the Iraqi regime directly responsible for the soaring rate of rape, murder and other gender-specific violence in the country.
The occupiers are "allowing reactionary groups to flourish," says Amnesty International UK women's rights campaigner Heather Harvey. With it, violence against women in its most severe form is also growing, she added.
There have been many alleged cases of rape and murder of women by Iraqi and occupying forces. Most notorious is the case of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, who was raped and then murdered, together with her family, by US soldiers in March last year. No-one has ever been convicted for these crimes.
It is estimated that hundreds of women have been murdered in the name of honour since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The latest United Nations figures show that over 44 women were killed between January and March 2007. Aswad and at least 12 others have since met the same fate.
"Behind Du'a and behind all the killing is the occupation. We will see hundreds of Du'a as long as there is occupation. There is no state in Iraq to uphold law. The 'authorities' watched Du'a get stoned," warns veteran Kurdish women's activist Surma Hamid.
The US-led forces also stand accused of deliberately supporting reactionary religious and tribal groups to divide and rule the population and undermine their ability to unite against their main enemy.
"We need to get to the heart of the matter and demand an end to the occupation," storms Hamid.
Campaigners are also calling for changes to the law to protect women and bring the perpetrators of violence to justice.
Many women in the region, who, like Aswad, dare to love outside marriage or resist forced matrimony, are staring death in the eye.
But, while lawlessness and rampant violence reigns in Iraq, the Iranian regime has "institutionalised" violence against women by enshrining stoning in law as punishment for disobedient women.
"The fate of Du'a could be mine," says Diba Alikhani of the Iranian Association in Support of Women.
The Islamic regime in Iran has left women with two choices, she argues. "To be a victim or fight back." She and many others have chosen the latter option and they, along with their counterparts in Iraq, now face death threats.
However, International Federation of Women Against Fundamentalism chairwoman Elizabeth Sidney dismisses as racist arguments which single out Islam over "honour" killings, stressing that this kind of misogynist brutality exists in all religions and cultures.
"Having studied many religions, I can tell you that the Christian sect, Mormons, can teach the mullahs - Islamic clergies - a thing or two about gender brutality," stresses Sidney.
In Britain, two women a week are killed by a family member.
Kurdish and Iranian Women's Rights Organisation director Diana Nammi highlights the case of Banaz Mahmoud Babakir Agha, who was the victim of an "honour" killing in Birmingham last year.
"Her murderers fled to Kurdistan and are now roaming free," says Nammi.
Campaigners have labelled the region a safe haven for criminals in the absence of laws to prosecute them. They are calling on the British government to hunt Agha's killers and seek their extradition.
The horrific killing of Aswad has provided the catalyst for an international campaign both to fight "honour" killings and to raise awareness about the plight of women in occupied Iraq.
Kurdish rights activist Ibrahim Karim issues a stark reminder of the challenge that it faces.
"Iraq is run by armed militia men and lawlessness is rampant. The Iraqi government has no authority. The occupation is the key problem."
