Will the appetite of those who defend segments 548 & 192 of the Syrian penalty law ever be fulfilled?! Will the appetite for drinking Syrian Women’s blood ever be satisfied in those who still defend this killing once by the name of Islam, and another by the name of Christianity, and a third by the name of customs and traditions?!
Will it ever have enough in the “male” ministers of the government who stands still watching this blood bath and involving in it by their silence and rejection of change?! Will it get enough in those hypocrites who say they defend “manors” while keeping the lowest manor of them all, a human killing another human?!
It doesn’t seem like it is going to happen in Syria where the newspapers are filled of articles talking what Syrian women has achieved and “taken”?! What they took of denying rights and violence and repression and insulting their dignity by denying them of their basic right of LIFE under the iron arm of both penalty and personal affairs laws in Syria! And demeaning their citizenship by denying them of their right to give their nationalities to their own children! And undermining their humanity by allowing males to “correct” them, beat and swear them, abandoning and divorcing them, and denying them of their children, house, and a lifetime of hard labor…?!
It just doesn’t look like it! Because the government is setting on its thrown, laid back, and watching as people plead her to interfere and protect a woman under the knife of killing. And if this girl has probably passed the danger, that didn’t happen unless because the people decided that they’ll rise above the level of the free-of-charge killing practiced by the government by her silence and support!
It doesn’t look like it while everyday a new Syrian woman gets murdered on this horrible male-governmental altar! Only days had gone since Jasmine Kefaya was murdered by her brother in Edleb, and the “knife of retardation” had already missed fresh blood, so it cut the throat of another Syrian woman in the same city, by the same justification! That woman is “Eman Watta” who hasn’t reached 23 years of age, from a village in the Edleb district! She was divorced by her husband because he thought she wasn’t loyal to him, so he sent her to her parents’ house fully knowing what her fate will be there! And it happened… it wasn’t long before her brother slew her; yes slew her in the house’s bathroom!!! Then, as usual, he turned himself in to the police station surrounded with honoring and respect for slaying another Syrian “goat” that “missed the right path”!!
And they still go on… the prime minister states that Syrian women has “reached” what no other Arab women reached! The minister of justice absolutely refuses to cancel those segments of shame! The minister of religious affairs completely refuses to press a clear opposing to these segments and those killings! The minister of internal affairs just watches and takes police reports of the incidents! The minister of social destruction and unemployment (minister of social affairs and employment), who is a woman, thinks the number is insignificant! The GWU denies the existence of such crimes! And the parliament… all of its members, men and women, claims that this is our “customs and traditions”!
It is YOUR “customs and traditions” ladies and gentlemen, and not ours. Never forget this: Killing is a custom and tradition of those who kill and those who participate with them, and it is never a custom nor a tradition to citizens in a country!!
It is YOUR “religions and cults” ladies and gentlemen, and not ours. Never forget this: Killing was never a law made by a god whose main descriptions are just, merciful, and forgiving!
It is your silence ladies and gentlemen… And remember: we will not sleep; we will not shut up until this killing stops, even if everyone who is someone in the Syrian three powers and in the hidden power of religious men is shutting his ears on us!!!
Written by: Bassam AlKadi, 5/1/2008, (Killing Syrian women continues, a new “honor crime” in Edleb!)
Translated by: Nawar El-Sabaa