That's the headline from an article in The Observer yesterday. It describes an honor killing in Basra, where a 17-year-old girl was stomped to death by her father for talking to a British soldier -- "the enemy, the invader and a Christian".
Well, it's been a long time since I posted and received the wrath of dKos for pointing out the obvious for stating this, but I'll do so again: this is another example of how religion kills.
It's another story highlighted by the incomparable PZ Myers at Pharyngula. PZ expresses outrage better than I do. Here's a taste of what he has to say:
I have a daughter myself, who I want to grow up to be independent and free and sensible and interesting, so I can't even imagine what it would take to bring a parent to this:
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.
Yikes. What did she do? Become a mass murderer, a terrorist, a destroyer of entire cultures by acts of destruction?
No, nothing quite so horrific. She was guilty of puppy love.
According to CNN:
Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
So there are two questions here. First, can someone tell me how Rand Abdel-Qader is better off, now that we invaded Iraq? Second, can someone tell me how this death is due to anything but the religious beliefs of the people doing the killing? Before you invoke "cultural beliefs" or "cultural norms", please note that the people doing the killing invoke religion as the explanation. I have never heard of an atheist killing in the name of atheism.