Women in the muslim world -[Chapter I] "Honor Killing".

I like to watch news, beside American news I watch BBC world news,and even though been living in the States for over twenty years I still like to watch Italian news. I want to underline a story, which wasn't highlighted enough by Americans news media. It's a murder which was reported by Italians media, It impressed me for it's barbaric and hideous murder of a young women, she was slain by her relatives, because she had "become too Westernized".

Hina saleem a 21-year-old girl which was murdered by her father "Mohammed Saleem", because she refused to conform to an Islamic lifestyle, while refusing an arranged marriage and instead wanted to integrate into Italian society. Not only did she worked in a bar where alcoholic beverages were served but, worse of all, she had entered in a common law relationship with a 30-year-old Italian man. For her family, the scandal was too much to bear. For Hina's family, action was needed to restore their family honor, by committing an honor killing. Mohammed Saleem with the help of relatives, slaughtered his young daughter by cutting her throat on August 11, than Hina's body was wrapped in bags, and afterward dumped in a hole dug in the family's garden in the town of Sarezzo. Hina Saleem was found by police on August 13, 2006. Her mother, in Pakistan at the time of the murder, acknowledged to police that her husband had killed Saleem who "did not behave like a good Muslim girl."

So-called honor killings (murders, nearly exclusively of women, of persons who are perceived as having brought dishonor to their families) bare often identified with Islam. In Pakistan, "where honor killings are known as karo-kari," is probably the country where such atrocities are most pervasive. In Jordan, honor killings are sanctioned by law. According to Article 340 of the criminal code, "A husband or a close blood relative who kills a woman caught in a situation highly suspicious of adultery will be totally exempt from sentence." Honor killings are also regularly reported in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

An Italian court on this past Tuesday, convicted Mohammed Saleem and two of his brothers-in-law for the murdering his daughter. The court in the northern city of Brescia sentenced each of the three to 30 years in prison for the slaying of Hina Saleem. In addition, the girl's uncle was convicted of helping hide her body. He was sentenced to two years and eight months. Hina Saleem is now buried in the area reserved for Muslims at Brescia's Vantiniano cemetery. An earlier court hearing refused her family's request for her remains to be returned to Pakistan.

God, it's this sentence enough? No, I believe wasn't enough, I don't believe in capital punishments, but in this case, I question my believes. In the muslim world it's like, women are worth very little, they are valued as a things not human beings, just soulless things to own and dispose as they wish.

In a Italian interview with young Muslims from the Pakistan community, I felt horrified when listening to these youngsters (youth grown up there), they justified the Hina' father, saying he did the right thing, killing his daughter, because "she was giving him too many problems". A part which I didn't see in this interview, was the Muslims girls speaking out, may be because they are kept close in their own homes.

Cases similar to Hina's have been reported in France and Denmark. In England last September, a Kurdish father slit his daughter's throat because he disapproved of her Christian boyfriend and Westernized way of life. And, recently, in the port town of Taranto in southern Italy, a Muslim man who suspected that his wife had committed adultery decided, after consulting with members of his local Muslim community, that she should be stoned to death. The tragedy was only averted thanks to the intervention of local police. Another Kurdish woman was killed by her father for having a romantic relationship with a Swedish man.

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About The Author Red.eVolution-My Window In The World "A view of the world around us." Quote: "More of us, are talking about a matter, more chances our future will get." Red.eVolution http://mywindowintheworld.blogspot.com/