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Somalia stoning: A story that left me reeling in shock and sadness
Although I work on human rights issues every day at Amnesty, there are some cases which leave me with pure sadness. And this latest story from Somalia is one such incident.
You may have seen reports last week that a woman was stoned to death for committing adultery in Somalia – the first such execution for two years.
Well just a few days ago, Amnesty learned that it was actually a 13-year-old girl called Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, and not a 22-year-old woman, as reports had first suggested – and that she had been raped by three men before being executed in this horrific way.
As the Guardian reports, the teenager’s father had actually tried to report that she had been raped, but instead she was accused of committing adultery – and was punished by being stoned to death, in front of hundreds of people in the stadium.
The Sunday Mirror reports how 50 men took up stones to kill Aisha – and when some witnesses tried to save her life, the armed militia group – called al-Shabab which control this region of Somalia – opened fire, killing a young boy who was a bystander.
The lack of stability and security in Somalia, which is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, is one of the reasons why such dreadful abuses are allowed to persist in this region.
Much more needs to be done internationally to investigate and document these abuses and take further action to protect ordinary people – like Aisha – in Somalia.
This Thursday Amnesty’s publishing a new report detailing the wave of attacks against humanitarian workers, peace activists and rights defenders across the region. The report will highlight how people are still being attacked and how little attention is being drawn to their situation.
Next week Tuesday (11 Nov) two visiting Somali human rights activists will be speaking at an event here at Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch. Do come along if you can to hear their first-hand accounts of life in Somalia at the moment.
Yule E
You may have seen reports last week that a woman was stoned to death for committing adultery in Somalia – the first such execution for two years.
Well just a few days ago, Amnesty learned that it was actually a 13-year-old girl called Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, and not a 22-year-old woman, as reports had first suggested – and that she had been raped by three men before being executed in this horrific way.
As the Guardian reports, the teenager’s father had actually tried to report that she had been raped, but instead she was accused of committing adultery – and was punished by being stoned to death, in front of hundreds of people in the stadium.
The Sunday Mirror reports how 50 men took up stones to kill Aisha – and when some witnesses tried to save her life, the armed militia group – called al-Shabab which control this region of Somalia – opened fire, killing a young boy who was a bystander.
The lack of stability and security in Somalia, which is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, is one of the reasons why such dreadful abuses are allowed to persist in this region.
Much more needs to be done internationally to investigate and document these abuses and take further action to protect ordinary people – like Aisha – in Somalia.
This Thursday Amnesty’s publishing a new report detailing the wave of attacks against humanitarian workers, peace activists and rights defenders across the region. The report will highlight how people are still being attacked and how little attention is being drawn to their situation.
Next week Tuesday (11 Nov) two visiting Somali human rights activists will be speaking at an event here at Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch. Do come along if you can to hear their first-hand accounts of life in Somalia at the moment.
Yule E
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23 Comments
Actually, if politicians like McCain and Palin get their way in the United States of America, any female who has sex outside of marriage will be stoned to death. Both McInsane and his ignorant and arrogant V.P. select, Palin, are supported and advised by Dominionist Christians who are working to instill a Christian Theocracy in the U.S. where their bible will become the law of the land and applied to all U.S. citizens … those who do not submit to these laws will be jail and/or executed. In fact, since Palin does not support females having access to abortion even in cases of rape and/or incest, it is easy to see that females in the United States could find themselves eventually in the same situation as just described in the above blog … unless women, as a whole, take up arms to protect themselves right from the start of this religious oppression.
I find it especially appalling that most Christians in the U.S. are remaining silent in the face of such blatant displays of racism, sexism, homophobic and religious bigotry by the McCain and Palin campaign … they don't seem to realize that just because they are Christians, it will not protect them from these fanatics/fascists in the long run.
Can't happen in the United States? When the Depression hits and food riots break out, permanent martial law will be declared (bills already passed for a complete police state), the Constitution suspended (bills already passed that have destroyed the first 13 amendments in the Bill of Rights), and this country will break down into a civil war just like many other countries have who have been raped of their raw resources and their people moved or slaughter for their landbases by several Western nations.
The roosters are coming home to roost, one by one. Just because many Americans are in complete denial about it does not mean that the reality of what their government has done to other people (as noted by another comment) and their countries does not exist; they will pay for it in the long run with their own blood and the collapse of their society. Sad, sad, sad, how too many U.S. Americans have not learned a thing from European history or world history nor from their own continent's history of the slaughter of millions of indigenous people.
I hope that they will learn from Somalia, but I am not going to hold my breath for that one either.
There are some things that transcend the apology of culture, pedeophila, female circumcision, rape, murder stoning a young girl….these things are just
wrong, wrong
This is what happens when you have society governed by self important and self appointed religious zealots and supported by a fearful, non-thinking, half-witted society. Not too much different from the Salem Witch Trials. [swear word removed by moderator]
1789
The tragic case of this young lady is not confined to Somalia but is prevalent throughout many Islamic Countries who treat women as dirt.
Even in Britain, girls are murdered in so called "Honour Killings" by their primitive families because they had the temerity to want to exercise their right of free will.
To make matters worse, the Labour Government uses Race as a means to undermine the rights and freedoms of primarily the British, but ultimately, of all who live here when in truth, they couldn't care less about Racial rights and tolerance.
This is why there is growing resentment and sooner or later, a massive reaction against immigrants not because they are foreigners, but because of the way some behave with their archaic suppression of women and of course, the deliberate use of Race by a very corrupt and venal Government.
The return of sharia law, which comes with fundamentalist Islam, will bring this sort of scene to many places in the world, unfortunately.
Desperate men have to have something to blame for their misery, and why not women, who are lower than pigs in most of their estimation?
Really, it is only in relatively affluent Western societies that women have achieved a status of humanity that transcends the mysogyny of our own Judeo-Christian traditions.
There's an eerie similarity with the equally horrific case of the 17-year-old from northern Iraq who was stoned to death last year: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17351
It's worth noting that this wasn't specifically a case of religion being used to justify her death, but of local cultural (and obviously extremely mysoginistic) practices being implemented.
Ultimately I think Aisha's appalling death is a particularly extreme instance of male violence in a particular cultural setting.
Jenny don't you think your comment was a bit exaggerated?
The whole point of the blog and people commenting was to draw attention to the fact that violence is WRONG and then you go and flippantly say that you would like see these people posting 'stoned to death'.
It's not obscene that they are bringing Bush and McCain into the equation. They have a lot to answer for regarding the state of the world and issues like this, as do a lot of political leaders. I respect your opinion which you are entirely entitled to. But maybe you are defending the wrong people.
In December 2006 Ethiopia, acting under orders from Washington, and backed by US air and naval power, invaded Somalia. The Ethiopian invaders quickly installed a puppet regime called the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), this after having first deposed the popular Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU was the first administration in living memory to have won the support of the majority of Somalis allowing it to end a decade of warlord violence, corruption, kidnapping and extortion.Unfortunately for Somalia, there was oil in ‘them thar hills' (The US is expected to import up to 30% of its oil from Africa by 2018). In addition, the Horn of Africa sports deep water ports and a strategic location near the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Washington had long had designs on these and, indeed, had made a prior, if unsuccessful, attempt to take over the country back in 1994. Now, with Ethiopia having become one of its new ‘client states' care of the new ‘war on terror', the US proceeded to pressure the UN Security Council to grossly violate the UN Charter by passing a fraudulent resolution saying that the ‘situation' in Somalia was a ‘threat to international peace' – this precisely at a time when the ICU had, for the first time in decades, brought nothing but peace and stability to the war-torn nation. The UN Security Council, in playing along with this total fiction, not only sealed Somalia's fate, but, incidentally, proved once again what a travesty is the UN's vaunted ‘independence'. With the UN resolution in hand, the US proxy force proceeded to kick . That is, they proceeded to kill thousands, round up thousands more into Ethiopian / US ‘rendition' jails (i.e. torture gulags) and force hundreds of thousands of Somalis to flee the capital, Mogadishu.
Please don't bring religion into this. No matter what umbrella these thugs hide behind ,the basic truth is that this was an appalling miscarriage of justice for this girl and many others which had nothig to do with spiritual beliefs.
unfortunately politics is most important, many western women were campaigning for the rights of females in places such as Somalia/Afghanistan prior to the 'conflict's and what has changed?
0 – nada – nothing
I think Jenny's response is totally unreasonable myself. Just silly and reactionary.
But i do think religion is a factor Lesley. It may not be spiritual, but it is perpetrated in the name of Sharia law which is absolutely integral to one of the major religions of the world. Is it justified in a humane and just world? No of course not. Does it exemplify the horrific persecution of women in a very male-dominated environment? Yes, of course it does. But definitely linked to religion I'm afraid.
Without 'moderate' religion to hide behind it would be a lot harder for the 'fundamentalists' to continue their oppression of women. For every one dramatic stoning there are a thousand forced marriages / denial of education / denial of a career – and yes it happens in all cultures including our own.
The world needs religion like a hole in the head.
I wept tears of despair after reading of another stoning under the so-called Sharia law, this cannot in any civilised persons mind be acceptable. I hope that organisations, charities etc. etc. will do all they can do to keep up the pressure to stop these executions.
There was no support for the family when they went to the authorities for help, instead the opposite. There was no justice, no court case where she had a defence team to fight her side.
I would also like to comment on Deborah's blog which is completely going off the track about what this stoning is actually about.
What on earth has Christians in the USA Cain/Palin got to do with this stoning. Palin herself has a child who is pregnant, has she stoned her!! No, on the contrary as a believer she has not stopped loving her and supporting her. She is not expecting her to go and get an abortion and hide the problem that as a young, unsupported girl she probably should have waited until she was in a secure relationship.
Please do not go off track and start pointing fingers into opposite directions. Christianity preaches forgiveness and understanding not hatred and cruelty like we have witnessed in Somalia.
Perhaps they should be subjected to UN/EU sanctions, embargoed, blockaded and then… possibly… invaded? How dare the inferior, uncivilised savages of planet Earth do such things in their own countries – haven't they heard like the Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans of the (hard-right wing Capitalist-Facist and formally democratic) European Enlightenment-cum-globalisation with its mission to bring civilisation to the rest of the world?
Please, do us all a favour and save us your white man's self-rightious indignation. Aid agencies are just another facet of western imperialism.
John Roberts – A couple of facts for you…. i) I'm not white. ii) I'm not self-righteous. iii) Amnesty is not an aid agency.
Apart from those somewhat key factors in your objectional comment, you're spot on mate. Erm…hang on…nope, you're just spouting ignorance.
Does your lack of disgust at the stoning of this woman mean you don't care or approve? It's not imperialism to object to a barabaric murder – it's common human decency. Why not put some kind of reasoned argument here and we can debate it. Instead of fatuous ineffectual comments. We don't all have to agree but put some rationale behind your opinion for heavens sake.
It is really nothing to do with a 'white man' trying to force to views on 'savages'…you are totally missing and not understanding the point of highlighting this tragedy. It's not so that we can judge another country and their culture…not that we can encourage globalisation and bring civilisation to 'savage' cultures and countries?! I seriously don't know where you are pulling this from?! Disney's Pocahontas?!
This whole blog, article, coverage, is about we as human beings, equal human beings having a chance to say that it is NOT RIGHT or ACCEPTABLE in ANY society, in ANY culture that ANY living soul should be exposed and put through such a violent and disgusting act. When I read this article and news of this, I could have cried for this poor girl and many like her, why?! because they are fellow HUMANS, like you and me. No one who is commenting or covering this story is doing it out of self-righteousness, they are doing it out of concern and love for their fellow human. People who suggest otherwise clearly have issues and are angry with experiences they've have of 'white men's self righteous indignation'. You are directing your issues and anger at the wrong people.
This is truly shocking and deeply distressing. Two thoughts:
1 Somalia and the United States are the only nations not to have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In the case of the United States the difficulty centres on constitutional issues.
I hope that this dreadful incident might shock the US finally to overcome their constitutional niceties and ratify the convention.
2 Sharia law only prescribes execution for adultery (i.e. when the defendent is married) and not for mere fornication and there are very strict rules about the number of witnesses and the nature of what they witness. A sad irony of this case is that Aisha will have been named after Muhammed's child bride, a youthful indiscretion of whose gave rise to the relevant chapter (Al Nur – The Light) in the Koran dealing with adultery.
I would like to hear from Tariq Ramadan on this particular incident.
My impression is that the Muslim community are in denial about what has taken place.
I really can't understand people who see racism or cultural imperialism in objecting to barbaric acts like this. Why is racism wrong? Because it mars and sometimes destroys people's lives, and is not intelectually valid.
The same goes for sexism and other forms of bigotry. If people support or refuse to object to evil acts on the grounds taht it would be racist to do so, they are not thinking clearly. It is they who are racist as they believe the lives of -say- Somali people to be worth less than their misunderstood idealogy.
I really can't understand people who see racism or cultural imperialism in objecting to barbaric acts like this. Why is racism wrong? Because it mars and sometimes destroys people's lives, and is not intelectually valid.
The same goes for sexism and other forms of bigotry. If people support or refuse to object to evil acts on the grounds taht it would be racist to do so, they are not thinking clearly. It is they who are racist as they believe the lives of -say- Somali people to be worth less than their misunderstood idealogy.