For Unwed Kurds, Pregnancy Can Mean Death

Government Tries To Tackle "Honor Killings" Of Unmarried Women, But Tradition Runs Deep

(AP)  She is 18, unmarried and eight months pregnant. She hates it when the baby shifts and kicks in her womb.

"I don't hate the child," she said. "But the movements keep reminding me of my past."

After she gives birth in secrecy, she will give up her child for what she describes as her family's honor. Then she will travel home to the Kurdish area of northwestern Iran to find a husband who knows nothing of her story.

Secrecy is essential, because in her world, a child out of wedlock can lead to an "honor killing" - her murder by a relative to protect her family's honor. So she is known in this city only as Banaz, a nickname.

Tarza, 22, also uses a nickname. She sits on a sofa and weeps, wiping her nose with her leopard print head scarf. She gave birth out of wedlock in 2003, a few months after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, and says her male-dominated clan wanted to kill her for sullying their reputation.

Tarza, an Iraqi Kurd, said the threats persist. She lives alone with help from a women's center that arranged for an Iranian family in Sweden to adopt her child.

"I don't want to see the child," Tarza said, her face taut.

Honor killings, driven by the view that a family's honor is paramount, are an ancient tradition associated with Kurdish regions of Iraq, Iran and Turkey as well as tribal areas in Pakistan and some Arab societies.

While the rest of Iraq is preoccupied with the violence that has followed the U.S. invasion of 2003, the more peaceful Kurdish enclave of the country stands out in its attitude to honor killings. Here, officials who long ignored this explosive and deeply personal issue of family pride are seeking to curb the murders.

Civic activists welcome the regional government's condemnations of the custom and warnings of tough penalties, but say much more education and law enforcement is needed.

This year, the British government arranged for a delegation of Iraqi Kurds to travel to Pakistan to talk with officials there about their experience in combating the brutal tradition.

Some reports cite several hundred honor killings or related suicides a year in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has more than 4 million people. But there are no reliable statistics for a crime that is difficult to prove without effective law enforcement and the cooperation of tribal communities.

The number of women who committed suicide by setting themselves on fire increased from 36 in 2005 to 133 in 2006, while the murder of women rose from four to 17, according to a report by Kurdistan's human rights ministry.

The report makes no specific reference to honor killing. But one theory circulating in Kurdistan is that because penalties for murder have been stiffened, more men are resorting to coercing women into killing themselves.

In 2002, Kurdistan's parliament revoked Iraqi laws that allowed defendants to be cleared or treated leniently in the case of an honor killing. These laws, it is believed, were instituted by Saddam Hussein to curry favor with traditionalists.

"Killing under the pretext of protecting honor is murder," the region's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, said in July.

Another reason for the changing attitude could be the Western influences that have taken root here since the enclave - the Iraqi part of a historical Kurdish homeland stretching from eastern Turkey to western Iran - became a Western protectorate following the 1991 Gulf War.

"Western culture is growing here and is in contradiction with the old tradition that honor is something sacred," said Runak Faraj, head of the Rewan women's center in Sulaimaniyah, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's two main cities.

She said the values of the young are clashing with tradition, which maintains that pregnancy before marriage or an extramarital affair can be grounds for killing a woman, or pressuring her to commit suicide. Even the hint of a teenage romance lacking elders' approval can mean death.

Women in Iranian Kurdistan appear freer than in Iraq, able to go out unchaperoned with boyfriends, which suggests Banaz will have an easier time than the Iraqi, Tarza.

Banaz got pregnant in Iran after her boyfriend invited her to a party, and five months later she told one of her four sisters. They asked doctors to abort Banaz's child, but were refused.

Banaz knew the stigma would stain her two married sisters, and make it hard for her unmarried sisters to find husbands.

She tried to commit suicide by throwing herself from the top floor of her home, but a sister restrained her. She overdosed on pills but vomited them up. She considered dousing herself in gasoline.

"Burning was the final option. I was too scared to do it," Banaz said in an interview at the Rewan center. She spoke softly, but with confidence, and smiled easily.

[toolmangler-2009]

You have nothing to say about other people. So, shut up!
Posted by zootallures2 at 01:29 AM : Oct 07, 2007


And neither do you. Woman killer, baby killer, genocidal Muslim butt_ kisser. You halfway bury a person and throw stones at them until they are near death, then let them die slowly. DO NOT DARE to point fingers at anybody. You don''t have any right... Show me a people and I will show you atrocities committed by them all the way back to Adam and Eve.

[ki8911]

Patriarchal Tribalism is the cause of the problem, not just the religion. (I am not a fan of any kind of established religion.) Check out where in Brazil, for example, it is okay for a husband to kill his wife because she offended his honor. The real reason is he didn''t want to deal with a divorce so used the "offended honor" option and the men merely receive a rap on the wrist from the law. This is in a predominately Catholic country. Certain extreme Hebrew sects make life immensely miserable for women by also restricting their movements, requiring a chaperone wherever they go. Check out the various African countries where they still practice female circumsion and they aren''t all Muslim.
Until the mentality that women are disposable property is erased, this kind of cruelty will exist, no matter what religion is engaged.

[cassandragop]

Your tax dollars at work promoting freedom in Iraq.

[hypnotoad72]

Snidegrass - "Financial well being"? We don''t want that in America, much less anywhere else it seems... and you''re right, where is daddy-do-little? Oh, that''s right. He''s off, impregnating another woman so she can go turn herself into chicken flambi too...

[keithle1]

Does anybody know what "zootallures2" is talking about?

[santafeopera]

Most of these former - and possibly - next, comments are uninformed, unimaginative, universally misguided and generally off base. EVERYONE needs to become fully engaged in the actual situations before becoming ''bleeding heart liberals'' or bleeding heart activists.

And ALL male counterparts involved witht he female counterparts - should stand and deliver.

It''s all too hidious.

[keithle1]

Why have unprotected *** when you know you may die?

[tnt1954]

in ''alternative'' cultures, abortion, birth control
pills are used to salvage not only honor, but
the financial well-being of the ''parent''. adoptions
occur, but rather sneakily. afdc is a terrible
way to go, with low-cost housing. the ''boyfriend''
is often unemployed or has to take a ''disability''
check as it pays more than unemployment. and
often more money than he could make at a job.
in many cases, it costs more to get to work
than one makes at the job. so why work? its
cheaper not to. employees have to make a profit too?
of course, there is the marine corps hymn-to keep
our honor clean. according to the author, there
is no honor among thieves. which is why ali
baba and his forty wives do so well, fighting
the evil vizier in hopes of overthrowing him
and restoring the rightful vizier to the throne.
its another robin hood story. open sesame.
the 1001 arabian nights as told by scherezade
are a good ruse to help women keep their heads.
it happens here too, women lie, say they are
not pregnant and sneak off and have the kid,
against the wishes of the ''father apparent''
and planned parenthood. what a heroine to
save the infants life this woman is. why kill
the mother, she''s only half the Creator. takes
two to tango.

[typemama]

I somehow find it hard to be afraid for someone that did it TWICE!
The fear of my father yelling at me was enough for me to never get pregnant before marriage.

[hermit22]

why did the censor cut out the word i wrote? it is not swearing or anything....it is a simple discriptive word....how about i say "snakey" lout? will that pass?