Glenn Stewart Coles, 9251 Yonge Street, Suite 8-924, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, L4C 9T3
Text Box: When she woke up the morning of April 7, she did not know that later that day she would be murdered by an angry mob. Only seventeen, Dua Khalil Aswad was unaware that she had been seen talking to a boy of a different faith. She had broken the rules of the family, and was about to pay for it with her life. A cell-phone video of the stoning death of Dua Khalil was broadcast around the world. It was extremely disturbing to watch. A crowd of angry men took turns kicking, hitting and throwing rocks at the screaming girl, until finally she lay dead in a pool of blood. At least two people filmed the murder on their cell phones while the local police stood by and watched. It is difficult to find inspiration in a world where people commit such crimes. But the death of Dua Khalil may serve a purpose. Though film of this murder exposes the world to the horrors of ‘honor killing’, it was not an isolated incident. Apparently in Iraqi Kurdistan, this is a daily occurrence. Many other countries allow honor killing, such as Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Morocco. Each year, thousands of women are killed by relatives for tarnishing the family honor. Many of them die in public, just like Dua Khalil. To those unfamiliar with this lifestyle, many questions arise. How can people kill their own relatives? How important is honor, and how can any social insult be important enough to merit this action? How can people hate rather than love; how can people kill rather than nurture? What is wrong with humanity, and can we ever possibly turn things around? It is important to understand the climate in which these crimes occur. In many societies, women are possessions owned by the men of the family. Extreme control keeps the women isolated, dressed to cover their faces and bodies. A woman’s right to live presupposes her compliance with all social and moral customs. Even suspicion of indiscretion is enough to warrant an honor killing, since the anger is based not on truth but on what other people believe. To me, this action implies wrongness beyond my imagination. It is not right to kill, and there can be no justification for death by mob. Honor and insult are feelings motivated by beliefs, and there are always more sides to the story. And when these activities are triggered not just by culture but religion, I see wrongness in both the culture and the religion. If there is a god, she looks at us and weeps. © Copyright Glenn Stewart Coles, 2007 First Published May 20, 2007

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She had broken the rules of the family, and was about to pay for it with her life.

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