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Honor Killing in Turkey
I cannot stop thinking about sixteen year old Medine Memi, the Turkish girl who was buried alive by her family for casting aspersions on the family “ honor”. Her “crime” was to talk to males who were not part of her family. Her father and grandfather are accused of committing this heinous act. This horrific and unforgetable incident occurred in Kahta town in the Adiyaman province. She had been missing for forty days and was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, buried in a hole under a chicken pen near her house. Cement has been placed over the hole.
When her body was finally found, she had amounts of dirt in her lungs and stomach which proves that she was buried alive. She had no drugs in her system which offers further proof that she was not drugged or poisoned, but fully conscious and very aware of the feeling of suffocation. Not only was she ultimately killed, but she was tortured before she died by suffocation. Try holding your breath and see how long it takes before you have to breath. She was trying to breath with dirt obstructing her nose and mouth. Medine had reported to the police at least three times that she had been beaten by her father and grandfather and tied to seek asylum at the police station. She was sent home every time.
She has never been allowed to go to school and perhaps did not even know how to read and write. To not know how to read and write in this millennium is tantamount to gross neglect. But why would you take the effort or time to teach someone to read and write when her life was worth nothing more than what you decided it was? The males that she was “friendly with” surely knew the cultural mores and what the consequences of her actions would bring. Are they not just as culpable for her death as the ones who buried her alive? Where was her mother and female members of her family while this travesty was happening? Her mother was arrested but released. She knew of the crime against her daughter and did nothing to stop this vicious act.
Reportedly there are as many as 200 of these murders a year in Turkey. According to the United Kingdom’s Telegraph, this makes up half of the murders in the entire nation. What if the males involved in these “dishonorable” acts such as becoming a friend of or talking to a female outside the family were also punished in such a manner? Would this bring an end to the so called “honor killings”? I think it would make a good starting point.
It is reported that her father and grandfather face charges of “premeditated homicide with aggravating circumstances, perpetuated by cruelty which if convicted would mete out a penalty of life in prison. Honor-killings, wherever they are recognized or practiced, must cease. There is no “honor” in such an act.
This sixteen year old girl was “missing” for forty days. It is apparent that the family thought they could kill her with impunity. She was considered disposable. Here is a concept to chew on. Approximately one half of the world’s population is female. Without these females, there would be no further increase in the population. Can women not be considered worthy of equal status due to this blatantly obvious scientific and biological fact of life? If there were no women, the population of the world would cease to exist. Please, does it all need to go further than this concept?
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=17102
Posted by Carol Duff on Feb 20 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Coping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Carol,
Appalling, a travesty, just unbelievable – I cannot begin to describe or find an adjective that would convey the feeling of sadness for this young girl and anger towards her family, and especially her parents. As a father of daughter, I just cannot imagine committing any such act – social mores, religious fanaticism, tribal pressures – a parent is a parent is a parent! There clearly is no good reason – none.
Society just continues to turn its cheek to such heinous events – folks like yourself must continue to publicize these issues more. If women are continued to be persecuted as they are today, your simple point of procreation would no longer exist. If nothing else, and we both know there is so much more that must be resolved, equality, let alone the protection of young women in these still barbaric times must stop.
Totally unacceptable – this is indeed the 21st century – when will our nation take a true leadership role in ensuring this barbarism stops? Honor killing? Cruel and unusual punishment at best. The parents and all of those who had knowledge and participated in any way in this murder should indeed be given an eye for an eye sentence – is that not part of Turkish society’s antiquated and ludicrous beliefs as well?
Thanks again.
Chuck
Chuck,
I find it intersting that you have made the only comment. Thank you for you comment as it shows me that someone out there is paying attention. Does anyone really care if an act does not 100 percent involve them directly? I am rather disappointed in the lack of interest here.
Carol
Carol,
You have indeed exposed part of the problem and I would agree that there are more than a few people that ignore this kind of story for the very reason you described. The other part of the problem is even those who do not write, ignore for any number of reasons – they just don’t care and will make any and every excuse to NOT become involved with a struggle as you described, let alone the murder of a 16 year old girl by her own father.
This was so disturbing to me when I read it earlier today I just had to return to see if anyone else had commented as well. This is something that should be broadcast on a 60 minutes segment or some other very large audience exposure vehicle.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks again.
Chuck
I too am interested in seeing this insanity brought to an end. Thank you Carol for writing this article, although I found it difficult to read as I imagined the scene of this poor girl buried up to her neck as the fatal shovelfuls of dirt were being cast down upon her head by her psychopathic father and grandfather. I have always been a believer that we do not have the right to take human life as punishment for crimes, but in this case I feel myself even wanting to forgo any laws against cruel and unusual punishment and show the two men who did this just what it’s like to try and breath dirt. I can’t imagine what kind of emotional state these two lunatics were in as they did this. Were they angry, sad, or oblivious to their actions?
You mentioned there are as many as 200 of these killings a year, do you know if they are all done in this same manner? I thought Turkey’s laws were very strict and execution was common for crimes that here in the United States might result in far less punishment. Somebody told me DUI first offense was punishable by death in Turkey, but I don’t know if that’s really true. I have heard stories of westerners spending 20 years in Turkish prisons for possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.
It seems that besides enacting laws to prevent such crimes, the real answer must start with altering the belief system of the people. What is the predominant religious belief among these people? Please don’t say it is Christian because I know that the Bible does not condone anything like this. Are they Muslim? I don’t know the Koran but I can’t imagine it allowing for this either.
This is so disturbing that I would venture a guess that those who are capable of killing their own children like this are completely insane, demon-possessed or both. I write letters to our local newspaper here in California where I live and they have published many of them. I will be sure and write one about this in order to spread awareness. This is an area where as our ally, the U.S. State Department could put pressure on the Turkish government in order for them to enact some laws to stop this unbelievable practice. I still say the “eye for an eye” punishment televised on Turkish TV with close-ups of the condemned father’s eyes as the dirt is piling up might make some of the other heartless bastards out there think twice before burying their little girl under a chicken coup.
Keep up the good work Carol and I will do what I can to let others know what is going on in a country whom we call our ally.
I actually read this article this morning and was telling my husband about it. It is somehow amazing that in many cultures, females are ostracized and even murdered while any males involved in so-called travesty are not treated in the same manner. I am glad however to see that the father and grandfather are being charged. It is quite reckless of the authorities to send away an individual if they report a crime. I believe that the authorities involved need to be charged also. Had they acted, she might still be alive today.
Honour killings are also regularly reported in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Honour” killings of women (and occasionally their male “partners in crime”) reflect longstanding patriarchal-tribal traditions. In a “bizarre duality,” women are viewed “on the one hand as fragile creatures who need protection and on the other as evil Jezebels from whom society needs protection.” Patriarchal tradition “casts the male as the sole protector of the female so he must have total control of her. If his protection is violated, he loses honour because either he failed to protect her or he failed to bring her up correctly.” (Armstrong, “Honour’s Victims.”) Clearly, the vulnerability of women around the world to this type of violence will only be reduced when these patriarchal mindsets are challenged and effectively confronted.
Rashidah,
You make a valid point with your comment. The patriarchal mindset in the case of extreme control of the females in society has little place in a society where females are educated and given the same rights and responsibilities as their male counterparts. Education is vastly important to help erradicate this type of archaic treatment of females in a society. Females through out the world deserve the same educational opportunities as males. Education is the key to equal and just treatments.
Carol