Pictures From Mobile Phones lead to Honor Killings!

Saturday, 17th of May 2008 not so long ago a devastating story took place in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq. When Ronak was going to a woman’s shelter in that city since she was accused of adultery by her husband, “was shot three times by a man hiding on the roof of a nearby building.” A pool of blood and a fallen red scarf marked the place where Ronaks’ life supposed to be stopped – but God’s will is always bigger than the human plans. Ronak survived after a four-hour operation – she was “wounded by bullets in the neck, side and leg.” To make things more clearer she was shot from 20ft away!

There are many ways in how these woman might die – some are strangled others are shot while others are burned alive by having petrol poured into them!

The United Nations estimates that at least 255 women died in honor-related killings in Kurdistan, in the first six months of 2007 alone.

What is even more surprising was to me is the massive increase of these crimes because of the mobile phones that are able to take pictures. How this happens? Very easily simply “men photograph themselves making love to their girlfriends and pass the pictures to their friends.”

“The first known case of sex recorded on a mobile leading to murder was in 2004. Film of a boy making love with a 17-year-old girl circulated in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Two days later she was killed by her family and a week later he was murdered by his.”

From that day on there was an increase in the number of women who died from this thing and usually it is the women who suffer from this since there pictures are being recorded on the mobile phones!

According to some statistics that took place in 2007, about 350 women suffered from violence as a result of pictures from mobile phones! This number may not even be close to the real number that nobody knows about!

What makes all of this even worse is that some women feel that there is no escape for them and because of this according to Sherizaan Minwalla, a lawyer with the Heartland Alliance in Sulaymaniyah says: “Suicide may seem a rational choice and even a form of protest."

Dana.