The Sub-Human Woman?

Hello faithful readers, I return for a brief stint on the blog to bring you some depressing, depressing stories, which you may have read/come across/heard about in recent times.

The NYT's 2,200-plus-word treatment of Saudi Muslims and the behavioral gulf between men and women is an opinion piece masquerading as a news article. Its exploration of the expected roles of courting men and their female targets oozes judgment from every sentence: "The separation between the sexes in Saudi Arabia is so extreme that it is difficult to overstate," the author writes.

In far more serious news: The honor-killing of a 17-year-old Iraqi English student because of her "love affair" - a teenage infatuation and several public conversations - with a 22-year-old British soldier. She was stomped on, suffocated, and stabbed, apparently to preserve the honor of her family. (From guardian.co.uk)

The killer? Her father, aided by her brothers. The father - who was also supported by her uncles and, after a brief two-hour arrest, local law enforcement - goes free and continues to righteously assert the necessity of the brutal killing:

"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. ... I have only two boys from now on. That girl was a mistake in my life. ... My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours."

The girl's mother, who was beaten and suffered a broken arm when she informed her husband she was leaving him, lives in fear, but now works for an organization that campaigns against honor killings.

"Even now, I cannot believe my ex-husband was able to kill our daughter," she said. "He wasn't a bad person. During our 24 years of marriage, he was never aggressive. But on that day, he was a different person."

Extreme, but not unheard of. The Guardian says: "Last year 133 women were killed in Basra - 47 of them for so-called "honour killings", according to the Basra Security Committee. Out of those 47 cases there have been only three convictions for murder. Since January this year, 36 women have been killed."