Hina Saleem's murder in Italy
NYT has a shocking story in Italy, where a Pakistani father slit the throat of his daughter and buried her in his front lawn.
The trigger was the gruesome killing on Aug. 11 of Hina Saleem, a 20-year-old woman whose family moved here from Pakistan and who was found buried, with her throat slit, in the garden of her family home in a small town about 12 miles north of Brescia.
The tragedy ballooned into a cause célèbre after media reports alleged that Ms. Saleem had been killed because her traditionalist Muslim father objected to her Western lifestyle. She smoked and wore revealing, low-slung jeans like many young women. News reports said she had been living with an Italian man. Her body was found after her boyfriend reported her missing.
I am glad that the mother has squarely blamed her husband for her daughters needless death, and did not blame her murder as a cultural crime.
[On Thursday, Ms. Saleem’s mother, Bushra Bakum, dismissed notions that religion had played a role in the killing. She told reporters that Ms. Saleem had been a constant worry to her parents.
“She stayed out without explanation, we never knew where she was and with whom, she was simply a daughter who did not obey,” Ms. Bakum said. She also said she would not forgive her husband. “It’s his fault and no one else’s.”]
It is amazing that second generation immigrant men are not killed, for living a western life style. It is the women who have to preserve so called conservative cultural traditions that often control and repress them sextually, physically, financially and socially. A woman that says no to such traditions is seen as falling out of her culture and disrespecting her family and their honor. Often the punishment given to these women is to serve as an example to other women who might challenge their families or cultural norms. Is honor more important than one's childs life? Is what other people say and think of you more important than the well being of your children? Is it honorable to kill and murder?
The trigger was the gruesome killing on Aug. 11 of Hina Saleem, a 20-year-old woman whose family moved here from Pakistan and who was found buried, with her throat slit, in the garden of her family home in a small town about 12 miles north of Brescia.
The tragedy ballooned into a cause célèbre after media reports alleged that Ms. Saleem had been killed because her traditionalist Muslim father objected to her Western lifestyle. She smoked and wore revealing, low-slung jeans like many young women. News reports said she had been living with an Italian man. Her body was found after her boyfriend reported her missing.
I am glad that the mother has squarely blamed her husband for her daughters needless death, and did not blame her murder as a cultural crime.
[On Thursday, Ms. Saleem’s mother, Bushra Bakum, dismissed notions that religion had played a role in the killing. She told reporters that Ms. Saleem had been a constant worry to her parents.
“She stayed out without explanation, we never knew where she was and with whom, she was simply a daughter who did not obey,” Ms. Bakum said. She also said she would not forgive her husband. “It’s his fault and no one else’s.”]
It is amazing that second generation immigrant men are not killed, for living a western life style. It is the women who have to preserve so called conservative cultural traditions that often control and repress them sextually, physically, financially and socially. A woman that says no to such traditions is seen as falling out of her culture and disrespecting her family and their honor. Often the punishment given to these women is to serve as an example to other women who might challenge their families or cultural norms. Is honor more important than one's childs life? Is what other people say and think of you more important than the well being of your children? Is it honorable to kill and murder?
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