
Rand Abdel-Qader, 17 years old, butchered by father and brothers for “honour”.
It Is Not About Iraq, Afghanistan Or Even Israeli-Arab Wars - The Conflict Runs Much Deeper Than Mere Territorial Issues
We often hear the idea that at our most basic selves, people around the world are the same because “everybody wants the same thing for themselves and their family”.
What a lie that is. Some cultures are at their very heart so different that there cannot be a meeting of the minds or genuine compromise. We can be aware of other cultures, but we cannot in good conscience possibly accept or validate all other cultures with our polite, politically correct silence.
On this Mother’s Day, think about women in some other cultures who are oppressed and considered little more than chattel. Read about yet another young Muslim girl murdered by her family for “honour”.
But remember this unless you wish to deceive yourself: this is not an “isolated incident” or a father gone mad. This is a common and accepted behaviour in the culture. Indeed, murder of women who violate the simplest of rules is not only accepted in the culture - it is expected of any man who is a true man.
‘My daughter deserved to die for falling in love’
For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. ‘If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,’ he said with no trace of remorse.
Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city’s Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.
Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said.
Rand, who was studying English at Basra University, was deemed to have brought shame on her family after becoming infatuated with a British soldier, 22, known only as Paul.
She died a virgin, according to her closest friend Zeinab. Indeed, her ‘relationship’ with Paul, which began when she worked as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water, appears to have consisted of snatched conversations over less than four months. But the young, impressionable Rand fell in love with him, confiding her feelings and daydreams to Zeinab, 19.
It was her first youthful infatuation and it would be her last. She died on 16 March after her father discovered she had been seen in public talking to Paul, considered to be the enemy, the invader and a Christian. Though her horrified mother, Leila Hussein, called Rand’s two brothers, Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, to restrain Abdel-Qader as he choked her with his foot on her throat, they joined in. Her shrouded corpse was then tossed into a makeshift grave without ceremony as her uncles spat on it in disgust.
‘Death was the least she deserved,’ said Abdel-Qader. ‘I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,’ he said…
… continue reading this story at The Guardian (link here)
Further Reading
Daily Mirror - Iraq Girl Murdered By Dad For Loving A Brit Squaddie
Independent - Girl, 17, Killed In Iraq For Loving A British Soldier
Independent - Iraqi Girl Murdered By Family For Having Unknown Number On Cell Phone
Daily Mail - Teenage Iraqi Girl Who Fell In Love With British Soldier In Basra Is Murdered By Her Own Father In Honour Killing