Just exactly how is one forced to commit suicide?

Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at November 14, 2007 8:39 AM

"Honour"? "Suicide"? How is it suicide if you are being forced to kill yourself?

I must be "misunderstanding" Islamic culture again.

Can anyone explain how this would be tolerated in any society?

Is this institutionalized sociopathic behavior?

"Clueless in Gaza" - apologies to Aldous Huxley

Posted by: tanstaafl at November 14, 2007 8:39 AM

The London Times has also published 2 illuminating articles on this subject:

Honour Suicides: death by a bullet in the back. From May 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article725523.ece

Turkey's forced 'suicides'. From March 2007.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/christine_toomey/article1496590.ece

Posted by: Silvester at November 14, 2007 9:38 AM

Posted by: Isabellathecrusader

Just exactly how is one forced to commit suicide?

Rather easy, forced virginity tests, many turkish girls have committed suicide rather than facing the shame of having to go through such a test.

STANBUL (PANOS) – The tradition of displaying a blood-stained wedding sheet to publicly announce the lost virginity of a Turkish bride has been relegated to faded examples in museums of folk culture. Instead, a female family member now removes the nuptial bedding in the morning as evidence for the groom’s parents.

Newly-wed couples from the urbanised upper and middle classes simply avoid the issue by going away on honeymoon. But women by and large are still expected to remain virgins until marriage – and many are forced to prove it by submitting to a so-called ‘virginity test’. Here a torn hymen is evidence of loss of virginity, although such evidence is unreliable after puberty.

The procedure is regularly performed by doctors at the behest of suspicious parents, teachers and future in-laws, even though the Turkish Medical Association has denounced it as “a form of gender-based violence” against girls and women.

While the actual number of virginity examinations carried out is unknown, a 1998 survey of 118 of Turkey’s 158 forensic specialists found they had conducted 5,901 virginity examinations in the previous 12 months, of which 1,856 were listed for “social reasons”.
Social reasons boil down to the suspected immoral behaviour of girls and women – but never boys or men.

As recently as 1998 any Istanbul high school headmaster could order mandatory virginity tests for prospective students – a practice that caused several distraught girls to commit suicide.
These tests are performed by forensic doctors. And requests can also come from state officials in cases of alleged sexual assault, a practice which the survey’s authors criticise as irrelevant, especially after the onset of puberty.

“The routine legal practice of reducing the trauma of sexual assault to the presence or absence of an intact hymen … is not only simplistic and inaccurate,” say the researchers – a Turkish and American team - the examination causes mental anguish to those subjected to it. Their study, titled ‘Virginity Examinations in Turkey: Role of Forensic Physicians in Controlling Female Sexuality’, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999.

They found that 93 per cent of those interviewed believed that virginity examinations in the absence of allegations of sexual assault were psychologically traumatic to the patient and often performed against her will. Forty-five per cent of the doctors admitted conducting virginity examinations for “social reasons”.

Researchers concluded that forensic physicians who perform the exams – and the girls and women who submit to them – do so under the intense pressure of strict social norms that equate female virginity with family, community and national honour, defined simply by the presence of an intact hymen.

Posted by: shiva at November 14, 2007 9:39 AM

And this from January 2005:

Girl, 17, shot by brother

A teenage girl died yesterday after being shot by her brother in south-eastern Turkey because she wore trousers at a wedding ceremony.

After an argument in the town of Batman the 27-year-old man wounded his sister, 17, with a rifle and later dumped her from the roof to make it appear that she had committed suicide. She was taken to hospital, where she died of her wounds.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/10/wbul10.xml

Posted by: Silvester at November 14, 2007 9:44 AM

Oops, category error. This was not a forced suicide but a murder dressed up as suicide. It all gets so confusing! Either way, I don't think I'll be moving to Batman soon!

Posted by: Silvester at November 14, 2007 9:47 AM

"Six stab wounds to the back--what a brutal suicide!"

Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 14, 2007 10:27 AM

OK, What part of the Quran does this "tribal tradition" come from? Hadith? A filthy infidel wants to know.

I thought Kurds were somehow diferent from other Muslims. Perhaps not.

Posted by: Pelayo at November 14, 2007 10:42 AM

...Why would a woman want to be a Muslim anyway?...

Posted by: exsgtbrown at November 15, 2007 7:15 AM

"Gee, honey, you don't want me to have to serve 10 years or more in prison, do you? Be a good wife, this one last time! Now what you do is douse yourself with the gasoline..."

Posted by: A_Nonny_Mouse at November 15, 2007 7:58 PM