Allah Almighty, free at last.
May 13th, 2008 10:08 am by Kelly GarbatoThis is the state of women’s rights in Iraq. You know, that previously uncivilized country that we so generously spread freedom to?
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 soldier 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. [...]
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.
Granted, Abdel-Qader Ali may very well have killed his daughter just as viciously before the American invasion of Iraq; maybe he was an evil, monstrous godbag before we bombed his country to shit. Or perhaps the US occupation, in all the resentment it’s fostered, played a part in Rand’s death. Abdel-Qader could have just been looking for a scapegoat, a whipping girl, to take his frustrations out on. Or not. But that’s neither here nor there; Abdel-Qader Ali’s crime is not my main focus when I say that “this the state of women’s rights in Iraq.”
Abdel-Qader Ali – and his sons, Hassan and Haydar, let’s not forget that Rand had three killers – may have murdered their daughter and sister whether we’d gone a-warmongering in Iraq or not. But now that the great civilizing Western forces are there, spreading freedom and democracy and shit, you’d think these monsters would at least pay for their crimes. You’d be wrong:
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. [...]
Sitting on a chair by his front door and surrounded by the gerberas and white daisies he had planted in the family garden, Abel-Qader attempted to justify his actions.
‘I don’t have a daughter now, and I prefer to say that I never had one. That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign solider, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman. ‘People from western countries might be shocked, but our girls are not like their daughters that can sleep with any man they want and sometimes even get pregnant without marrying. Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies.
‘I have only two boys from now on. That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did,’ he said, his voice swelling with pride. ‘My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours.’
Abdel-Qader, a Shia, says he was released from the police station ‘because everyone knows that honour killings sometimes are impossible not to commit’. Chillingly, he said: ‘The officers were by my side during all the time I was there, congratulating me on what I had done.’ It’s a statement that, if true, provides an insight into how vast the gulf remains between cultures in Iraq and between the Basra police the British army that trains them.
Sources have indicated that Abdel-Qader, who works in the health department, has been asked to leave because of the bad publicity, yet he will continue to draw a salary.
And it has been alleged by one senior unnamed official in the Basra governorate that he has received financial support by a local politician to enable him to ‘disappear’ to Jordan for a few weeks, ‘until the story has been forgotten’ – the usual practice in the 30-plus cases of ‘honour’ killings that have been registered since January alone.
Such treatment seems common in Basra, where militias have partial control, especially in the districts on the outskirts where Abdel-Qader lives.
Awesome. So the Iraqi police – you know, the ones we’ve supposedly trained to uphold peace, justice and the American Way ™ – still view women as chattel, property, beings to be owned and controlled by their male relatives.
Religious freedom over human rights…I guess that’s what dubya means when he refers to “freedom”.
On a slightly more positive note, Rand’s mother, Leila Hussein actually divorced her husband after the murder. He beat her of course, and now she’s in hiding, fearing for her life, but at least she got out. She’s currently trying to raise some money to move out of the country. As an Iraqi victim of femicide, you’d think the US would grant her asylum. Again, you’d be wrong.
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Tagged: war war on terra iraq islam religion godbags allah Abdel-Qader Ali Rand Abdel-Qader murder misogyny women’s rights
