Murder in the Name of Honor by Rana Husseini

Author:Rana Husseini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2011-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Death was the least she deserved, I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion.

I don’t have a daughter now, and I prefer to say that I never had one. That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign soldier, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman.

People from western countries might be shocked, but our girls are not like their daughters that can sleep with any man they want and sometimes even get pregnant without marrying. Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies. I have only two boys now. That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did.36

Rand’s mother Leila divorced her husband after the killing and was forced into hiding for fear of retribution. He had beaten her badly before she escaped, breaking her arm. Leaving him was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. She explained, ‘They cannot accept me leaving him. When I first left I went to a cousin’s home, but every day they were delivering notes to my door saying I was a prostitute and deserved the same death as Rand. She was killed by animals. Every night when I go to bed I remember the face of Rand calling for help while her father and brothers ended her life.’

The forty-one-year-old, who nicknamed her daughter Rose because of her beauty as a baby, said, ‘Now, my lovely Rose is in her grave. But God will make her father pay, either in this world ... or in the world after.’

Leila planned to escape to Amman in Jordan where she would carry on the fight alongside other activists like myself. On the morning of 17 May 2008, two months after her daughter’s death, Leila set off to meet ‘a contact’ who was to help her travel to Amman, where she would be taken in by an Iraqi family. She was anxious but happy to leave Iraq. She was also desperately tired; since her daughter’s death she hadn’t been sleeping well and told one of the women who gave her shelter that she had terrible nightmares. She had a recurring dream where she was being strangled and suffocated – like her daughter. That morning, because she couldn’t sleep, she had risen early and prepared breakfast for her helper, cleaned her house and even baked a cake.

Leila had her entire worldly possessions with her in one small bag as she walked fifty metres up the street to get a taxi. Suddenly, a car skidded to a halt beside her and a series of gunshots rang out. The attack, said by witnesses to have been carried out by three men, was over in moments. Leila was hit by three bullets. She died later in hospital.

Police said the incident was a sectarian attack and that there was nothing to link Leila’s death to her family.

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