Yet another story that reveals why we don't see more courageous Islamic reformers standing up to the jihadists. "Death to betrayers of Islam who don't deserve God's forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more." An update on this story: "Mother who defied the killers is gunned down," by Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies in The Observer, June 1 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband - the man she witnessed suffocate, stamp on, then stab their young daughter Rand in a brutal 'honour' killing for which he has shown no remorse.Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her.
Her death, on 17 May, is the shocking denouement to a tragedy which had its origins in an innocent friendship between her student daughter, Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, and a blond, 22-year-old British soldier known only as Paul.
The two had met while Rand, an English student at Basra University, was working as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water. Although their friendship appears to have involved just brief, snatched conversations over four months, Rand had confided her romantic feelings for Paul to her best friend, Zeinab, 19.
She died, still a virgin, four months after she had last seen him when her father, Abdel-Qader Ali, 46, discovered that she had been seen talking 'to the enemy' in public. She had brought shame on his honour, was his defence, and he had to cleanse his family name. Despite openly admitting the murder, he has received no punishment.
It was two weeks after Rand's death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. Leila told The Observer in April: 'No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.'
Her words were to prove prescient. Leila turned to the only place she could, a small organisation in Basra campaigning for the rights of women and against 'honour' killings. Almost immediately she began receiving threats - notes calling her a 'prostitute' and saying she deserved to die like her daughter.
Even her sons Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, whom she claimed aided their father in their sister's killing, disowned her. Meanwhile, her husband, a former government employee, escaped any charges, and even told The Observer that police had congratulated him on what he had done.
It is not known who killed Leila. All that is known is that she was staying at the house of 'Mariam', one of the women's rights campaigners, whose identity The Observer has agreed not to reveal. On the morning of 17 May, they were joined by another volunteer worker and set off to meet 'a contact' who was to help Leila travel to Amman, where she would be taken in by an Iraqi family.
'Leila was anxious, but she was also happy at having the chance to leave Iraq,' said Mariam. 'Since the death of her daughter, her own life was at serious risk. And this was a great opportunity for her to leave the country and to fight for Iraqi women's rights.
'She had not been able to sleep the night before. I stayed up talking to her about her plans after she arrived in Amman. I gave her some clothes to take with her and she was packing the only bag she had. She was too excited to sleep.'
Mariam said that when she awoke Leila had already prepared breakfast, cleaned her house and even baked a date cake as a thank-you for the help she had been given. After the arrival of 'Faisal', the volunteer (whose identity is also being protected), the three left the house at 10.30am and started walking to the end of the street to get a taxi. They had walked less than 50 metres when they heard a car drive up fast and then gunshots rang out. The attack, said by witnesses to have been carried out by three men, was over in minutes. Leila was hit by three bullets. Mariam was hit in her left arm and Faisal in her left leg. 'I didn't realise I had been shot for a few seconds, because as I heard the gunfire I saw Leila falling to the ground and saw blood pouring from her head,' said Mariam. 'I was so shocked, I didn't immediately feel the pain.'
Two men ran from their homes to help. They rushed Leila to hospital and a passing taxi took the other two. But Leila died at 3.20pm, despite several operations to save her. As she lay in her own hospital bed receiving treatment, Mariam said that she heard someone saying that Leila had been shot in the head. But there were other mutterings that were clearly audible. 'I could hear people talking on the corridors and the only thing that they had to say was that Leila was wrong for defending her daughter's mistakes and that her death was God's punishment. [...]
Mariam has moved out of her home. But within hours of speaking to The Observer a close friend went to her new address to deliver a message that had been left for her at her front door. It read: 'Death to betrayers of Islam who don't deserve God's forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more.' She believes it was sent by Leila's killers....
Yet another story that reveals why we don't see more courageous Islamic reformers standing up to the jihadists.
But if Muslims themselves won't stand up to such depredations then how can anyone else help them?
If the next woman whose daughter is killed keeps quiet, what are we supposed to do?
This was a brave woman, whose murder should be recognized for what it is: what Islam offers mankind. She is a martyr - for freedom.
People throughout history have found causes greater than themselves - causes for which they were prepared to give their lives. It would seem freedom is a cause that Islamic reformers are not prepared to die for. This woman proves they are not helpless. She was prepared to die rather than live with the man who killed her daughter. That she was murdered doesn't make the cause any less valid. If they won't give their all then why should anyone else fight for them?
These are the 'ordinary Iraqi Mom and Dads' that Bush is always telling us about. She was anything but ordinary though, she was, considering her situation, extraordinary.
Muslims can't handle rejection.
Memo to President Bush: Let's invite lots more of these ordinary moms and dads to live amongst us in America. Their peaceful customs would inspire us all.
...... step out of line
The Man come and
Take you away
It's time we stop
Children
Look around
Everybody look
What's going down
-- Stephen Stills
Obama will want to have a talk with the father and husband.
Very, very tragic. This article qualifies as a bona-fide galvanizer that should be sent to family and friends. Unfortunately, the fact that it occurred in Iraq will be seen by many through the prism of a "blame-America" myopia.
I bet 'Paul' feels like crap over this if he knows about it. The fact that the murderer received no punishment is inconceivable, unless you are talking about Islam, where the inconceivable is so conceivable, it happen on a routine basis.
Orwells 1984...the Ministry of Peace wages war.
Islam 2008...The Religion of Peace wages war...on it's own children...And congratulates itself for having done so...The inconceivable made conceivable...Allah can do anything...He is sooo wise...
"Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance" (TM)
This should be sent to all the world so that everyone decent and lawabiding can see the condition of the women of islam. The child(Rand) did nothing to deserve this. The honor of the muslim family is based strictly on appearances, not on truth. It is unforgiving and murderous in its mindset and there is no love in islam. Rand's mother was truly a martyr. May the true God give you peace , Leila. RIP.
And Rand, too. May God give her peace.
Mother who defied honor killers is gunned down
......................
As soon as I saw this, I knew the victim must be Leila Hussein. You see a lot of horrors on this site, and any reader would be a basket case if they allowed themselves to fully take each incident to heart. I did cry when I saw this, though. This poor woman, terrorized and killed for trying to defend her own daughter--and moreover, killed, if not by her own husband and sons, then surely by killers acting in their name.
That's how scared these murderers are of prosecution in "liberated", "democratic" Iraq--to commit another killing, right after the first. They know it is unlikely that they will receive any sort of punishment.
And what was the young daughter's crime?
"The two ("Paul" and Rand) had met while Rand, an English student at Basra University, was working as a volunteer helping displaced families and he was distributing water."
We are so often told that if only we in the West help build roads, and schools, and bring medical care and aid, that we will win Muslim hearts and minds. Well, here is a young soldier *distributing water*, for God's sake, and yet he is still considered by this girl's father to be "the enemy".
You can't even call this a Romeo and Juliet story. It is impossible to know for sure, but it is likely that this casual conversation that Rand had with "Paul" was the first time a boy had been nice to her. No wonder she fell in love with him.
Yet this "whore" died a virgin--for most, this would have been no more than an innocent flirtation--or perhaps even less that that on "Paul's" part--perhaps just a few friendly chats.
Duh Swami wrote:
I bet 'Paul' feels like crap over this if he knows about it. ..................
I bet he does, poor guy. I read elswhere that he has been transferred back to the UK, for his own safety. I wonder how many other Brits are now in danger in Iraq because of the insane reaction to this.
from above:
"It was two weeks after Rand's death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step."
.................
Let this sink in--the unspeakable horror of having to continue to live with--and share the bed of--the murderer of your own child, who convinced your other children to help him do it. I salute this woman for standing against such a horror.
But now, of course, she stands as a cautionary tale rather than a model to follow. Now even her would-be rescuers' lives are in danger.
"As she lay in her own hospital bed receiving treatment, Mariam said that she heard someone saying that Leila had been shot in the head. But there were other mutterings that were clearly audible. 'I could hear people talking on the corridors and the only thing that they had to say was that Leila was wrong for defending her daughter's mistakes and that her death was God's punishment."
The very doctors and nurses and hospital staff charged with saving your life and that of your friends, openly claiming the murderers were doing God's work. I cannot imagine what it has been like for this poor woman.
Will these safe-house workers now receive proper protection? Will Leila's killers be brought to justice?
After reading this passage, both seem unlikely:
"Meanwhile, her husband, a former government employee, escaped any charges, and even told The Observer that police had congratulated him on what he had done."
This is the modern, democratic Iraq that America and Britain and their allies have fought so hard for.
Yet more proof, if we needed it, that we are all the same, all religions are the same, all cultures are the same, all people want the same things. As others above said, let's be sure and bring more of these people who are just like us here, where they can share their way of life and their values which are the same as ours.
Any chance any of these doctors gave less than 100% effort to save her in the belief that Allah didn't want her to live anyways?