Honor Killing Victim Wanted to Live Like other German Girls

[bjorkfan]

At age 16, all Morsal Obeidi wanted was to live the way other girls in Germany do. She paid dearly: Obeidi's brother stabbed her 20 times. Her murder has sparked a renewed debate in Germany about the failure of many immigrant families to integrate into Western society.

Morsal is buried one week after her death. In the morning, the women wash the body, cleansing it of its earthly sins, in keeping with tradition.

The teenage girl's thin body is covered with stab wounds, evidence of the knife that was plunged into her torso. The women wrap the body in linen and lay it into a coffin made of a light-colored wood.....

(more) http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,555667,00.html

[msongs]

1. immigrants in german society? the same german society that murdered 50 million in 1933-1945? nt

[Book Lover]

2. What a stupid, irrelevant thing to say.

Is US society the same as it was 60+ years ago?

[lukasahero]

4. Since you refer to a time period of 60+ years ago then no,

it's not the same German society. Unless you want to hold American society that committed genocide on Native Americans and partook in human slavery to the same standards.

Of course, I'm not sure whether your point was really to disparage German society or to dismiss the violation of a young girl as mere tiddlywinks compared to "real" atrocities. Doesn't matter to me which as I consider both nothing more than a means to distract from the real point: violence against women.

[Book Lover]

3. Thanks for this post

What an effed-up story, and family.

[Cerridwen]

5. "honor is something that even a loser can invoke."

From the article that last sentence on the first page jumped out at me.

In this new world, the proud men are the first to become losers. They lose their way of life, because in their world their only claim to authority is the fact that they are men and that, as men, they can resort to their one advantage over women, brute strength. They cling to old concepts like honor, because honor is something that even a loser can invoke.

Though relatively unsuccessful in the world outside, at home he was still in charge, still the man of the house.

That's what it boils down to, isn't it. "I may be a loser in the real world, but in my home I can do whatever I damn well please." The "home"; the last refuge of the worthless coward too inept and scared to take on his (sometimes her) problems and so beats the crap out of or disposes of his "minions"; his property. His son followed in his shoes "admirably".

Just a quick reminder of why early, western feminists took on the patriarchal family structure.

[bjorkfan]

6. That's the struggle between respecting cultural differences vs. gender equality

[ismnotwasm]

7. That's just horrible

A troubled young woman, and psychopath for a brother. Reading through the article, it doesn't sound like the classic so-called "honor killing" It wasn't honorable. There was no family consensus that I see, just an out of control rageful young man who decided for himself to use his faith, his culture as an excuse to commit murder.

The article states the family wasn't considered particularly conservative. IMO, framed that way, it trivializes and sensationalizes the murder. On the other hand, in a separate article, it states there have been 48 honor killings since 1995, and they are hard to prosecute because of "red tape"
It also talks about the young woman going to a child and youth welfare agency repeatedly for help. This is a massive system failure it seems to me. Almost as though the lives of Muslim women, and the violence against them is an expected outcome, an unstoppable one.

This paragraph bothers me;
"In this new world, the proud men are the first to become losers. They lose their way of life, because in their world their only claim to authority is the fact that they are men and that, as men, they can resort to their one advantage over women, brute strength. They cling to old concepts like honor, because honor is something that even a loser can invoke."


Honor is also a modern concept. "Proud men" is put forward almost as though that is an excuse. Honor as though it's just too old fashioned for words

The article states that this young man was considered a violent criminal, where is his honor? Long gone. I can't imagine Dad being too proud of him either.

Now the Twenty-four million dollar question is, how many non-Muslim women in Germany were murdered by intimate partner violence since 1995?

[bjorkfan]

8. I'm sure more than 48 non-Muslim German women have been victims...

of intimate partner violence since 1995. If they have better support in their immediate communities they may be more likely to report it as well. OTOH, if Muslim women are afraid to report abuse that makes it harder to get official statistics, much less resources to help them.