honor
Turkish girl buried alive by father and grandfather for talking to boys
By Tom Pettifor
6/02/2010
Mirror.co.uk
A terrified girl of 16 was buried alive by her father and grandfather - as a punishment for talking to boys.
The body of Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied in a 6ft hole beneath a chicken coop.
A postmortem showed she had been conscious when she was covered with dirt.
One forensic investigator said: "What we found is blood-curdling.
"She had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood - she was alive and fully conscious when she was placed into the pit."
The medical examination revealed a large amount of soil in Medine's lungs and stomach - indicating she had suffocated during a slow and agonising death.
The teenager's remains were discovered outside her family's house in the town of Kahta in south-eastern Turkey.
She had been missing for 40 days and the hole had been cemented over.
A coroner was told how desperate Medine repeatedly tried to get help from local police in the weeks leading up to her horrific death. Her father and grandfather are accused of killing her because her friendship with boys "brought dishonour on the family".
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There are other sources:
BBC - which includes the following tidbit: A local organisation that campaigns against honour killings said the victim, one of 10 children, had gone three times to the police to complain that she was being beaten, but she was sent back to her family each time.
and even more insight into the people of peace, we are told we must accomodate ...
...the practice is linked more to the customs of this region of Turkey, than to religious belief.
When girls or women are deemed to have stained the family honour, by behaviour as innocent as simply talking to boys, there is strong peer pressure from the community on the male members of the family to restore their honour, say groups working on the issue in the south-east.
The only way allowed by their code is to kill the girl or woman - usually a young man is given the task after a family council meeting, and the method and location of the killing are discussed in detail.
Afterwards, the family will try to pretend she never existed.
or visit
Turkish Daily News, English
Now - some will tsk tsk and exclaim that all this proves is Americans have no shame. We dishonor our fathers, mothers, families, and think nothing of it. True, to a degree. Many Americans value the life of innocents, and the rights of individuals over groups - or, we place an emphasis on individual liberties versus group liberties. I understand the conundrum we end up in when we go to extremes, but we do not participate in barbaric actions that were sanctioned in pre-Islamic times, condoned in many parts of the Islamic world, and tolerated in several other parts. Of course you could reference abortion - and that would be the best you could do, a response that does not have a snappy response. The best is - a majority of Americans oppose abortion. It is kept alive as an issue by a minority. In any case, the barbarism and evil acts of a father upon a daughter, are unconscionable.
evil
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