Sunday, April 18, 2010

Murder in Dhofar (2)

I apologize for the delay. I've been very very very busy this week and last week. I haven't had time to check email or breathe and believe it or not, I forgot to even have coffee today. Hectic hectic world.
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Anyway, I'm planning a post on current traces of slavery in Salalah, but meanwhile, I'll update you on the murder. Thanks to my contacts at the Ministry of Health, I have more details. The murder happened in Al Hilaniyat Islands off the coast of Dhofar. A man stabbed his 25-year-old sister to death and shot her with his pistol. The motives are still unclear but I'm pretty sure it involved another man/lover. He is in prison. The autopsy was performed at Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Dhofar. She was a Shahri. May she rest in peace. What a sad sad tragedy. And to anyone who says 'Murders like these happen all the time. It's nothing new', I say 'The minute we become immune to such tragedies, we stop becoming human'. I will never ever become used to hearing about crimes where lives are taken.
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And to all the children in my life; 'May Allah protect you and may you never experience all that is possible to get used to. Ameen'.

6 comments:

  1. :-S Thank you for updating us. How could a human do this to his own sister (unless he was drunk or under drugs). Men need to stop correlating their "priceless honour-ego" with women (female chastity). I can understand it in a way.. would be ok if BOTH men and women had to comply to the same requirements. But in this culture the woman is always responsible and to be blamed for the honour of the entire family. While men can do lots of horrible things and not care about their OWN "honour" or honour of those women with whom they do the haraam things. I can hardly believe the world is so wrong, maybe it's me and not the world... :-S

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  2. I mean: really, have you ever heard in your life that a mother or a sister brutally murdered her brother or father because they were dating/flirting girls? How many men raped women! What can be more dishonourable than that for the relatives of that rapist man! But did his sisters or even his brother or father murdered him for brining such a disgrace on the family? Maybe WE as women should start doing that (murdering every man amongst our relatives who has relationships outside wedlock), then men would be scared and would not dare to spoil our reputation with their shameful behaviour.

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  3. Honor killing ... I often wonder why men are never murdered for family honor.

    scarlettpimpernnel.blogspot.com

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  4. May she rest in peace ...

    Honestly, I can see the point both Alice and Anon are making, but I think it would not solve anything ... only make things worse ... we already have too much, waaaaaay too much, killing going on ... if we were to take the 'eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth' seriously it would not discourage anything - but actually make everything worse - and we'd all end up both blind and toothless!

    It's bad enough that women are being killed for 'honour' - if we were to turn around and start executing men in turn, what on earth would we have left? ... instead, we should focus on getting rid of 'honour' killing or any kind of killing at all ...

    I have one question - Nadia, you say that the motives of this man, this brother, for killing his sister, his own flesh and blood, are not yet clear, but you are "pretty sure it involved another man/lover". What does this mean? 'another' man/lover? Do you mean that she might have had a lover in secret and he found out about it and killed her for the sake of his family's 'honour'? It is not clear because you say 'another' ... Surely you do not mean that this brother was his sister's lover, and that he killed her because he thought she was seeing someone else 'behind his back'?

    If so, this is potentially more twisted even than his murder of her ... which, by the by, does not sound like a killing for honour, but like a murder inspired in horrific passionate rage ... I mean, he stabs her to death, THEN he shoots her, in the face?!

    Uff, what a tangled web we weave ... please elaborate on motives if you get the chance.

    Peace.

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  5. I don't understand the word honor killing. How can killing anyone be honourable? Every individual has right to live life as per their choice of profession, of partner..If brother or any other family member feels that the guy, sis is involved with, is not right, he should try to convince her . But killing own sister(for that matter anyone), is unpardonable. And I agree Nadia, we should never get used to these incidents/crimes.

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