Her name was Romina.
Her life ended at age 14.
No, it was neither due to an illness nor to an accident.
Her own dad killed her… during her sleep AND in the most horrible way possible (i.e., decapitated, can you imagine?!).
It seems that she ran away from home with a man 21 years older than her (boyfriend?).
O course, any dad (or mom) would worry about his daughter dating a man more than twice her age… But, make no mistake, this is not the issue here.
The main issue is a murder of a young girl disguised in a tribal cultural tradition.
As explained in the following BBC article, the reasons may be refusing “to enter into an arranged marriage”, being “the victim of a sexual assault or rape” or having “sexual relations outside marriage, even if only alleged”. However, “killings can be carried out for more trivial reasons, like dressing in a way deemed inappropriate or displaying behaviour seen as disobedient.”:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52811631
Bambi has posted about this topic earlier (Israa’s sad story):
How can someone cruelly and coldly kill one’s own daughter because she is perceived as having brought dishonour/shame to her family?
Why would a so-called honour of one’s family be valued more than loving or forgiving one’s daughter (for real, perceived, or suspected undesired behaviours)?
It is hard to imagine. It is shocking to read about every time.
Although honour killing is more cultural than religious, religion can act as a carrying vehicle for it.
Indeed, as per the BBC article cited above, “Iran’s Islamic penal code reduces punitive measures for fathers and other family members who are convicted of murder or physically harming children in domestic violence or ‘honour killings’. If a man is found guilty of murdering his daughter in Iran, the punishment is between three and 10 years in prison, rather than the normal death sentence or payment of diyeh (blood money) for murder cases.”
Honour killing may have occurred in Ancient Rome, of course in a different form. As described in Bambi’s earlier post, it keeps occurring in some Arab (e.g., Jordan, Palestine) or Muslim countries (e.g., Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan) as well as in India, Ecuador, Brazil. Mind you, it has occured elsewhere (e.g., Canada, France, the UK…).
As long as societies remain patriarchal (for real/to the extreme, like in many of the countries cited above), as long as punishment of the crime is minimal, and educational programs are lacking, we will hear about a future Romina and another Israa.
Bambi will always strongly condemn this violence against girls/women… and she will keep dreaming to live long enough to see an end to such tribal criminal practices!
