In a horrific Brigadoon, a place that only comes into view once every millennia, a place where everyone seems related by cousin kinship to everyone else, the police chief of Bashiqa in northern Iraq is being replaced. Authorities over him have arrested four men alleged to have participated in the ‘honor killing’ last month of Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl whose religion is Yazidi. Without any evidence the alleged killers (one of them a cousin) accused her of seeing a boy of another faith, a Sunni Muslim, converting to that faith, and marrying him secretly… all of which appear to date to be false.
Someone in the witness-mob had a camera-phone and filmed Dua being stoned to death, literally bleeding to death before a crowd of dozens of excited men. She was first dragged into the circle in a headlock by a large man, thrown to the ground, stones half the size of her head used to crush her face and skull. She was kicked in the face and belly as she tried to rise. Police watched impassively.
What really is a grave “dishonor murder of one of God’s souls,” these so-called ‘honor killings’ have in modern times gotten the nod from more than a few village males, while others, as well as women, are often afraid to protest… given the rage and loss of rational thought that seems to go hand and hand in those who commit such murders.
One woman who spoke out and continues to speak out against the dishonor of murdering daughters, is a Bangladeshi woman named Taslima Nasrin, a physician and writer. I came to her work twelve years ago through my affiliation with PEN Prison Project as she was facing imprisonment for writing and speaking out against “honor killings.”
Dr. Nasrin had to flee her country after a fatwa was issued by Muslim fundamentalists who offered money to whomever would kill her to silence her. Month before last, in March 2007, a group in India, calling themselves “All India Ibtehad Council” said they would give 500,000 rupees as an award for anyone who would behead Dr. Nasrin.
There is a saying in curanderismo, which is the ancient healing practice of many Latino groups from Spain through to the New World… that if you if wish to understand how a mad person comes to their conclusions, you must ask yourself what you yourself would have to believe and think to come to the same conclusion…
While we are waiting to understand the inunderstandable, here is one of Taslima Nasrin’s poems, called “NoorJahan,” the name of a young woman who was ‘honor murdered.’
This is from Dr. Nasrin’s book, “The Game in Reverse: Poems and Essays”
NOORJAHAN
by Taslima Nasrin
They have made Noorjahan stand in a hole in the courtyard
There she stands submerged to her waist, her head hanging
They’re throwing stones at Noorjahan
Stones that are striking my body
I feel them on my head, forehead, chest, back
And I hear laughing, shouts of abuse
Noorjahan’s fractured forehead pours out blood, mine also
Noorjahan’s eyes have burst, mine also
Noorjahan’s nose has been smashed, mine also
Noorjahan’s torn breast and heart have been pierced,
mine also
Are these stones not striking you?
They laugh aloud, stroking their beards
Their tupis* shaking with jubilation
As they swing their walking sticks
They with quivering and cruel eyes
speed to pierce her body, mine too
Are these arrows not piercing your body?
*headpiece
Noorjahan by Taslima Nasrin ©1995, All Rights Reserved.
T/h Helaine