This, off the British Daily Mail website:
The moment a teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy
Last updated at 18:28pm on 3rd May 2007
A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion.
As a horrifying video of the stoning went out on the Internet, the British arm of Amnesty International condemned the death of Du’a Khalil Aswad as "an abhorrent murder" and demanded that her killers be brought to justice.
Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.
Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honour killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.
The teenager was dragged outside by 8 or 9 men and stoned for half an hour until she died. Her boyfriend is now in hiding in fear for his life.
They said she had shamed herself and her family when she failed to return home one night. Some reports suggested she had converted to Islam to be closer to her boyfriend.
Miss Aswad had taken shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader in Bashika, a predominantly Kurdish town near the northern capital, Mosul.
A large crowd watched as eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged Miss Aswad into the street. There they hurled stones at her for half an hour until she was dead.
The stoning happened last month, but only came to light yesterday with the release of the Internet video.
It is feared her death has already triggered a retaliatory attack. Last week 23 Yezidi workmen were forced off a bus travelling from Mosulto Bashika by a group of Sunni gunmen and summarily shot dead.
An Amnesty International spokesman in London said they receive frequent reports of honour crimes from Iraq – particularly in the predominantly Kurdish north.
Most victims are women and girls who are considered by male relatives to have shamed their families by immoral behaviour.
Kurdish authorities have introduced reforms outlawing honour killings, but have failed to investigate them or prosecute suspects, added the Amnesty spokesman.
Kate Allen, the organisation’s UK director, said: "This young girl’s murder is truly abhorrent and her killers must be brought to justice.
"Unless the authorities respond vigorously to this and any other reports of crimes in the name of 'honour', we must fear for the future of women in Iraq."
So many thoughts come to mind when I see something like this that it's hard to get them all down. And it's hard to make any eloquent points among them because they are all just clamoring around in my mind. But I'll make a brief attempt.
First, this is a hideous, barbaric, disturbing, disgusting act. And I'm not saying that to pass judgment on a the general religious tendencies of a people group I know little-to-nothing about. I say that as a judgment on the behavior of a group of people.
I've never stoned anyone, but the visions and sounds that play out in my mind make me nauseous. To be able to stand there and be involved in the act, as a normal decent person but moreso as a family member of the person being stoned, is simply unthinkable to me. I cannot comprehend the callousness required to be able to do that.
Second, you occasionally hear about these sorts of punishments happening to people. Usually they are carried out by a mob, and they generally relate to some notion of defending honor or punishing a dishonorable action. I cannot see the honor in subjecting a person to a painful, disgusting, hideously barbaric form of death. I cannot see how loving a person of another belief system merits this sort of treatment.
To be fair, I'm a Christian, and there was a time when my forebearers tolerated and engaged in this behavior. But then Jesus came, and the one stoning I saw Him come across was stopped when He told the bearers of "justice" "let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." There were stonings after that, but I'm not aware of one that is met with approval in the Bible, and though I know that people have done even more hideous things than stonings in the name of Jesus and Christianity, I don't condone any of them.
There is no "honor" in this act. There is no "justice" in this act. There is no restoration in this act. This is the darkest side of human nature, rearing its ugly head and destroying a life that was fresh and full of untold promise and potential. It is loveless, hateful, and obscene.
I don't recall the last time I saw an article like this, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've been inspired to write about something like this. In my opinion, my prior silence and acceptance of this sort of, for lack of a better word, shit (I think this expletive is very proper here, given the entirely base and utterly obsene and gross nature of this act) is shameful. People need to take an interest in this, speak up on it, and do whatever they can, big or small, to shine light on these sorts of things and stop them...
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