Brainwashed: The Puppets of Woolwich

In the last week, we have heard the sentences of the two killers of Drummer Lee Rigby.  Michael Adebowale, 22, will serve forty-five years behind bars.  Michael Adebolajo, 29, will never again be a free man.

On 22^nd May 2013, Drummer Lee Rigby was walking through the streets of Woolwich, back to his barracks, when he was deliberately hit by a car.  Adebolajo and Adebowale got out of the car and dragged Rigby into the middle of the road.  The two then proceeded to hack away at Rigby’s body – Adebowale at the torso and Adebolajo attempting decapitation.  Adebolajo spoke to passers-by, telling them that our government will not protect us, that British soldiers are killing Muslims worldwide every day and apologising for what the women had to witness but where he was from, women endured these scenes on a daily basis.  This was all recorded on a phone, Adebolajo, unafraid that his hands were covered in blood and kept the knife he had used in one hand.  When the police arrived, the pair ran at the officers.  Adebolajo was shot down and Adebowale was surrounded.  He too was shot.  This all occurred in the light of day.  This was meant to be a spectacle.  Both had wished to die as martyrs but had survived for us to witness them be brought to justice.

Adebolajo had purchased a set of knives and a sharpening block the day before the attack.  I think I also heard somewhere that the pair had driven by the barracks a few times the night before.

I had friends from Nigeria messaging me and asking me what was going on.  I was scared.  I was scared as for what this meant for the everyday Muslim living in England.  The news constantly shows us what some new extremist or other has plotted and all Muslims are then lumped together as though this is how we behave.

Both Michael Adeboajo and Michael Adebowale were both born and raised in Britain in Christian households.  One thing that stood at the forefront of the statuses on Facebook and the tweets on Twitter, why was it brought up that these two men were Nigerian?  Everyone was asking what tribe they are, what state in Nigeria are they from.  Yvonne Ndege, a Kenyan journalist for Al Jazeera and based in Nigeria, also asked these questions.  I was really annoyed that she would join in this circus.  I tweeted to her;

‘Apparently Michael Adebolajo said nothing about what Boko Haram does to Nigeria, just the [British] government, Iraq and Afghanistan.  What Michael Adebolajo did was disgusting and barbaric and should in no way reflect Nigeria or its people.’

One status read, ‘Nigerians are British when they’re winning medals at the Olympics but when they slaughter someone in the street, they are no longer British, but Nigerian.  As far as I know, both Adebolajo and Adebowale have never been to Nigeria…I have been to Nigeria more than they have!  I have many Nigerian friends that are different religions and different tribes.  I felt that the media wanted to disassociate Adebolajo and Adebowale from anything British and focus on their religion, their skin colour and their last names.  I believe that if I went mad and committed a crime and crying out ‘Allahu Akbar’ every two minutes, the focus would be on my father being from Iran.  There would be no mention of my mother, people would probably not even know I had a mother, let alone mention that she is white and British.

Adebolajo, from what we have heard, was apparently a good kid.  He was liked by many at school and was intelligent and confident.  Adebowale was said to have been bullied as a child and still suffers from psychiatric problems.  In later years, the two had become involved in gangs and drugs.

Adebolajo had come across a stall in the street held by Al Muhajiroun, an extremist organisation, which has thankfully now been banned.  Adebolajo had wanted out of the life that he was in and wanted redemption.  The group was headed by Sheikh Omar Bhakri, the man I believe to be the puppeteer for Adebolajo and Adebowale.  Bhakri was even witness to Adebolajo’s recitation of the Shahadah*.

Sheikh Omar Bhakri used Greenwich Mosque to spread his hate and brainwash people.  Adebolajo and Adebowale I believe were to have met at this mosque.  The elders of the mosque became growingly concerned about Bhakri’s teachings and took legal action.  Bhakri is now living in Lebanon and is never allowed to return to the UK, but as you can see, the damage has already been done.  Bhakri is originally from Aleppo in Syria – I personally think Lebanon should send him back there.  It is an ideal situation for him at this time the way Syria is right now.  I hope this would make you question how weak this man is that he is not prepared to fight in his homeland – a man, living in a country that is not his own, who encourages people to commit terrorist acts, but has not done any of his own.  He has seven children.  How many of them do you think he would put in Adebolajo and Adebowale’s place?  There is a word for “men” like Bhakri and it has something to do with a cat.  He is happy to encourage other people’s children to do something like this.  One day I hope both Adebolajo and Adebowale see Bhakri for who he really is and what he has done to them and that Bhakri could not care less about them.

Adebolajo, as we have seen, was involved in a lot of demonstrations and became interested in Al Shabab in Somalia and wished to join them.  There are videos on Youtube that ask British Muslims to come and fight the cause.  Why Adebolajo did not go to Nigeria to join Boko Haram, I am not really sure.  To me, that would have made more sense but that is by the by.  Adebolajo flew to Kenya in 2010 to take the route to Somalia.  The British Government, although this was a man they had been watching, did not bat an eyelid.  There are some Muslims in the UK that wish to make Britain a Muslim country and to that I say, if you want to live in a Muslim country, book your flight and leave.  Adebolajo did the right thing.  He wanted to live under Sharia (Islamic Law) so he left the country.  Second mistake by the British Government: what the hell did you bring him back here for?!  Chances are, he would have died in battle, he would have got what he wanted (dying a martyr) and no one would have been killed in Woolwich.

Adebowale was not given life because he had a lesser role in the plot and because of his mental health problems.  He is also younger.  Adebolajo was the leader of the plot.  The Judge in their case said he has no prospect of rehabilitation.

I believe, in the eyes of Adebolajo and Adebowale, they did not kill Drummer Lee Rigby but killed the uniform.  They were killing a soldier, not the man.  If Lee Rigby’s family had lost their son in battle in Afghanistan, I believe the pain would be less than what they have had to endure.  They had to see it on the news, hear about it every day and then see these two men describe every detail of what they did in court.  No one really knows about the families of Adebolajo and Adebowale.  I am sure that many are looking at them and thinking, “it starts at home”.  They will have to live with this for the rest of their lives, knowing what their babies have done to them, a family and a nation.  I hope that they have peace from others.

God forgive me for this but there is something that makes me feel sorry for these two.  I followed the trial on Twitter during work (my managers will kill me), and, although I do not know Michael Adebolajo, I felt that he was in not the one speaking – not during his trial and not since his conversion.  I could imagine him sitting on Bhakri’s lap with Bhakri’s hand up his back and controlling his mouth.  I hope that one day the scales are lifted from their eyes and they see what really happened.

*The Shahadah is the first pillar of Islam.  It is a declaration to Islam.  The translation is, ‘There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet’.

So-Called “Honour”

A story was broadcast on all major news channels a few weeks ago that the twenty-three year old woman, who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi, had died in hospital in Singapore.  It was said that this was due to organ failure.  We still do not know the name of this woman, but her attack has sparked huge protests all over India and attracted media attention all over the world.  The story of this woman deserves all the attention from the media it can get.  Sexual violence is a growing problem in India with the authorities doing very little to step in and put a stop to it.

But there was another story that cropped up in India that was not given the attention it needs.  On 7^th December, Nilofar Bibi, a twenty-two year old woman from Kolkata, was dragged into the streets and publicly beheaded by her brother.  This heinous act was meant to restore the family’s honour after Bibi had left her alleged abusive in-laws and began living with a former boyfriend.  The family have also expressed their support of this act as they say he upheld the honour of the family.

An honour killing is the murder of a family member or a member of the community, with the belief that the victim in some way has brought dishonour to that family or the community.  These killings are related to parts of Africa and the whole of the Asian continent, however, they are very prevalent amongst the South Asian and Kurdish communities.

One of the situations we face at the moment, is that these crimes have now come across the waters and are in our own backyard.  I have read many, many stories about honour killings but the majority of those stories are those that occur in the United Kingdom.  Maybe this is because we are a small and developed country and it is very hard to hide a murder here.  We do not have the type of villages as in developing countries and our authorities are less corrupt (we hope).  It is very difficult to understand from a Western point of view why someone would commit murder when the victim did not exactly do anything wrong so the media will really focus on it.

An honour killing can occur for a list of reasons; defying parental authority, becoming “too western”, women having sex or relationships before marriage, alcohol or drug abuse, disagreements over dowries or even gossip from other members of the community.  The victims of honour killings are mainly women.  Looking at the list of reasons above, the males in the family can pretty much get away with all of these things because it is usually believed that the girls carry the honour in the family.  A male is not killed because he dishonoured his own family but because he dishonoured the girl and her family and the murder would be carried out by the girl’s family, not his own.  I am not saying that this does not happen, but I am yet to come across such an instance.

Bellow are listed the twenty-seven true stories of honour killings in the UK.  Some of these stories vary in length due to lack of information.  This can be due to bodies of the victims that have never been found, convictions of the killers being early in the discovery of honour killings, lack of witnesses, and/or non-guilty pleas of the defendants.  I have chosen to only mention the names of the victims as I believe they should be the focus of this piece. 

Tasleem Begum was married off to an older man in Pakistan at the tender age of sixteen.  She was refusing to apply for a visa for her husband and it was then discovered that she had fallen in love with a married man.  In June 1995, her brother-in-law knocked her down with his car and drove over her, reversed back over her and drove over her again.  He was convicted of murder, but unfortunately was only given six and a half years at a retrial when he agreed to plead guilty.

Rukhsana Naz was only nineteen when she was murdered by her mother and twenty-two year old brother in March 1998.  Naz was only fifteen when she was married off to a man in Pakistan and she had two children from this marriage.  She had told her mother that she was pregnant with another man’s child and that she was going to divorce her husband.  Naz’s mother had kicked her in the stomach and tried to make her daughter have an abortion, but she was already seven months pregnant.  A week before the murder, Naz was forced to sign a will, which would give her mother guardianship of her two children in the event of her death.  Whilst her mother held her legs, Naz’s brother strangled her with a piece of plastic flex.  Once lifeless, her brother kissed his sister’s forehead and said, ‘I’m sorry’, then touched her stomach and said, ‘it’s not the kid’s fault, he’s innocent.  Both are now serving life sentences.

It was discovered that Amjad Farooq was having an affair with his married niece.  The girl’s husband and two other relatives kidnapped Farooq, dragged him into a field and hacked him to death in August 1998.  It was also said that an attempt had been made to decapitate him.  The girl’s husband and one of the relatives were both sentenced to life in prison whilst the other relative involved fled to Pakistan following the murder.  He was arrested on his return in 2005 but was only charged with the kidnapping and served six years in prison.

Surjit Athwal was lured to India in December 1998 under the impression that she was to attend a wedding.  This was set up by her mother-in-law and her husband as word had spread that Athwal was having an affair and planning to divorce her husband.  Her murderers still roam free in India whilst the conspirators are serving their time in prison, the minimum of twenty years for Athwal’s mother-in-law and twenty-seven years for her husband.  It is said that Athwal was strangled to death and then thrown into a river.  Her body has never been found.

Tulay Goren, a Shia Kurdish Turk, was murdered by her father in January 1999 for having a Sunni boyfriend.  It is believed that she was either smothered or strangled, but her body has never been found.  Goren was only fifteen years of age.  Her father was sentenced to a minimum of twenty-two years in prison.  This honour killing encouraged police to travel to Turkey to learn and understand the “honour code” and what is considered as an “honour killing”.

Shahida Mohammed’s father returned home from Friday prayers one day in June 2001 to find his daughter in her bedroom with her boyfriend.  Mohammed’s boyfriend jumped out of the window and her father then stabbed her with a knife nineteen times.  The couple were full-clothed.  Her father was sentenced to life in prison.

Nuziat Khan was trying to seek a divorce from her husband.  It was claimed that he had been abusing her throughout their marriage.  Her husband then strangled her to death in front of their three-year-old daughter in August 2001.  It is believed that Khan’s husband had fled to Pakistan and still remains on Scotland Yard’s most wanted list.

Yasmin Akhtar was brought to the U.K. from Pakistan at the age of twenty-one to marry a man thirty years her senior.  The marriage lasted for twelve years but she fled the home to a women’s refuge, claiming that she had been a victim of abuse for years at the hands of her in-laws.  Akhtar filed for divorce, enraging her in-laws, but the marriage was dissolved and she was moved to a secret location.  Akhtar then put in a claim of £250,000 from her ex-husband.  Her step-son, from her ex-husband’s first marriage, decided that enough was enough.  In March 2002, Akhtar’s ex-husband enlisted the help of three friends, kidnapped her from her home, and brought her to his shop.  She refused to drop the claim and her ex-husband strangled her with parcel tape.  The three friends were paid £10,000 to douse the body in petrol, wrap it in a carpet, take it to a near-by park and set it alight.  All four are serving life in prison.

Nurjahan Khatun was only married to her husband for a year before he murdered her, Khatun’s four-year-old daughter, Fahmeda (from her first marriage) and brother, Kamal Udin, in September 2002.  The marriage quickly became an unhappy one, with accusations from Khatun’s husband of fuelling her brother’s heroin addiction (not Udin), and of various affairs with women as well as men.  They would also argue about her husband’s legal status in this country as he had entered the U.K. from Bangladesh illegally.  It is believed that her husband had attacked Khatun’s daughter and brother first.  There was a serious wound on his neck and it is believed that Khatun had tried to defend Fahmeda and Udin – he was mentally and physically disabled.  Her husband used a dar, a sharp-bladed instrument used for cooking in Bangladesh, to hack to death his three victims.  He is now serving three life sentences.

The case of Heshu Yones is arguably the case that put honour killings in the U.K. on the map.  Yones was a sixteen-year-old Kurdish Iraqi and was stabbed to death by her father in October 2002 because she had an eighteen-year-old boyfriend who was a Lebanese Christian.  Her father also feared she was becoming too “westernised”.  Six months before her murder, her father had taken her to Iraqi Kurdistan and forced her to undergo a gynecological examination to prove that she was a virgin. Her father had beat her repeatedly over her relationship with her boyfriend and he had also found a secret stash of love letters.  He stabbed her eleven times in the chest and slashed her throat.  Her father then slashed his own throat and threw himself from a third-story balcony.  He claimed that Al-Qaeda had broken into the flat and murdered his daughter.  The police had found a letter in the flat from Yones to her father, telling him that he had a good punch for an old man.  He is serving life in prison.

Rexhap Hasani was a twenty-two-year-old Roman Catholic, Albanian asylum-seeker, who had fallen in love with a Muslim girl.  The girl’s father had tried to break up the relationship because he refused to accept the union.  Hasani had promised to have an Islamic wedding and even changed his name to one that was Islamic but this was not enough.  The girl’s father employed Hasani at his clothing factory and murdered him a week later in November 2002.  Hasani had been bound, gagged and beaten before he was suffocated death.  The girl’s father was sentenced to life in prison.

Sahjda Bibi was murdered by two of her cousins on her wedding day in January 2003.  It is said that one of them was angered that Bibi had refused to marry one of his cousins and had chosen to marry a divorced man who was the father of a child from his previous marriage.  The match was opposed by the family at first, but they grew to accept it.  One of her cousins stabbed her repeatedly twenty-two times and the other drove the get-away car to the airport so he could catch a plane to Pakistan.  Two months later, the knife-wielder was caught re-entering the U.K. on a flight from Dubai.  Both are serving life sentences.

Shafilea Ahmed was murdered by her parents for being too “westernised” and rejecting an arranged marriage to her cousin in September 2003.  On a trip to Pakistan, she rejected a proposal of marriage and then tried to drink bleach, which has now been seen as a suicide attempt.  It is said that the rejection would bring dishonour to the family.  Ahmed’s sister told the police that her father had put a plastic bag in her sister’s mouth and suffocated her.  Her parents are now serving life sentences.

Sanjit Dosanjh, Temple Jazac and Malcolm Calver were all victims of an attempted honour killing.  The plot was set up by Dosanjh’s father.  Dosanjh, a Sikh woman, had fallen in love with a Jewish man she met on the internet, Temple Jazac.  The pair had run off together but Sanjit’s father was furious that she was in a relationship with someone who was not of the same religion and culture.  Her father had decided to hire a hitman in September 2003.  The hitman he had approached was an undercover policeman.  The pair had met a few times.  The hitman was meant to shoot Malcolm Calver, the man Dosanjh’s father believed was Jazac’s father.  Dosanjh and Jazac would then be coaxed out of hiding by coming to the funeral and then the couple would also be shot.  Dosanjh’s father is now serving fourteen years in prison.

Major Singh Gill, a forty-five-year-old Sikh man, was beaten to death in August 2004 by six Muslim men.  This was a case of mistaken identity.  It was believed that Gill’s son was having a relationship with a Muslim girl. Gill was beaten with iron bars and hockey sticks.  One man is serving eighteen years in prison, another is serving fifteen years.  Another two men were found not guilty whilst two other men are believed to have fled to Pakistan.

Arash Ghorbani-Zarin was stabbed forty-six times by his girlfriend’s two brothers when they discovered their relationship and her pregnancy.  Ghorbani-Zarin was of Iranian decent and his girlfriend and the family are Bangladeshi.  The murder was ordered by the girl’s father in November 2004.  The boys were only nineteen and sixteen.  The girl’s father was sentenced to life in prison, the nineteen-year-old is serving sixteen years and the sixteen-year-old is serving fourteen years.

Samaira Nazir was a twenty-five-year-old business-women who was murdered by her father, brother and cousin in April 2005.  Nazir had fallen in love with an Afghan asylum seeker and had rejected some suitors chosen by her parents.  She was summoned to the family home where her mother, father, brother, two nieces and cousin were waiting for her.  Nazir told her family that she wanted to marry her boyfriend, then her brother and cousin began their attack and she was stabbed eighteen times.  Her cousin also slashed her throat three times.  The family said she was not to marry someone outside their caste.  A neighbour had heard the screams and went to the house but Nazir’s father shooed them away and said his daughter was having a fit.  The police were called.  When the police arrived, they found Nazir dead.  They were also worried the two nieces, aged two and four, had watched the whole ordeal.  Nazir’s brother is serving twenty years in prison and her cousin is serving ten years.  Charges were dropped against her mother and her father fled to Pakistan whilst on bail.  The family claim that he died there.

The sister-in-laws of Mohammad Shaheen had told their brother that Shaheen had sexually assaulted them.  There were also rumours that he had been involved in a string of sexual offences over the course of a nine-year period.  Their brother flew from Pakistan to the U.K. and shot Shaheen in the chest with a shotgun and killed him.  After the murder, the sisters helped their brother escape to Pakistan.  He was later found in Canada and extradited to the U.K.  One of the sisters served a two-year prison sentence for perverting the course of justice.  Shaheen’s brother-in-law is serving thirty years in prison before he can even be considered for release.

The story of Banaz Mahmod is probably one of the most famous honour killing cases in the U.K. to date, the reason being is that Mahmod went to the police on many occasions and told them that her father was going to kill her.  The police dismissed her as a dramatic teenager.  In 2003, when Banaz was seventeen, she was married off to a man who had recently arrived in the U.K. from Iraq.  One of her sisters noticed a bruise on Mahmod’s arm and at first she dismissed the questioning.  She then admitted she was being regularly beaten and raped by her husband.  A family meeting was called but Mahmod was told to return to her husband and be a better wife.  Mahmod returned to her parents’ home in September 2005 and reported her husband to the police – he was never prosecuted.  She was too afraid to leave the house because she believed her husband was having people follow her and her suspicions were right.  Mahmod began a relationship with another man.  When it was discovered in December 2005, Mahmod’s father went to his brother and the plot to be rid of Mahmod began.  Her uncle told Mahmod’s mother and her mother warned her daughter.  The first attempt on her life was on New Year’s Eve when she was summoned to her grandmother’s house, and to bring a suitcase.  Her father told Mahmod to drink alcohol and he was wearing surgical gloves.  She was so frightened she ran out of the house and collapsed in the doorway of a nearby cafe.  An ambulance was called and she was taken to hospital.  The police came and she told them what happened…they did not believe her.  An attempt to kidnap Mahmod’s boyfriend occurred not long after but his friends were there to protect him.  It is said that Mahmod was raped before she was murdered in the living room of her family home in January 2006.  Her uncle who had planned the murder was not in the house but was nearby to have removed the body and put it in a suitcase, the one which is believed to have been a part of the first murder attempt.  When her boyfriend had not heard from her, he contacted the police and an inquiry began and they started making covert recordings.  Mahmod’s father, uncle and a distant relative were arrested.  The distant relative had an accident not long before the murder and was using a courtesy car, which was already fitted with a tracking device.  Mahmod was found buried in a suitcase under a patio of a house.  She was wearing nothing but a pair of knickers and had a shoelace around her neck.  Because her body was found in April 2006, it was too decomposed to retain any more evidence.  In the recordings, the distant relative had bragged about raping Mahmod before killing her, whilst her uncle unleashed the idea of the first plot to murder her.  Mahmod’s father is now serving twenty years in prisons, her uncle is serving twenty-three years and the distant relative is only serving seventeen years because he pleaded guilty.  Not giving up on the case, the police managed to have two other men involved in Mahmod’s murder extradited from Kurdish Iraq were they had fled.  One is serving twenty-two years in prison and the other is serving twenty-one years.

Alisha Begum was only six-years-old when she was murdered.  Her brother was in a relationship with a girl and the girl’s family found out.  The girl’s two brothers and two other men carried out an arson attack on Begum’s family home in March 2006, with one of the men bursting through the door and pouring petrol in the hallway.  A match was lit and the fire raged up the stairs.  Many members of Begum’s family were forced to jump out of the upstairs windows as they were already in bed.  Begum was the only one who did not escape.  An eighteen-year-old involved is serving eight years in prison.  He bought the petrol which was used for the attack.  One of the girl’s brothers was acquitted one charge of murder and nine charges of attempted murder.  The girl’s other brother and his friend fled to Bangladesh.  The brother’s friend returned to the U.K. and was arrested and tried – he is now serving eleven years in prison whilst the fourth suspect is still at large and thought to still be in Bangladesh.

Uzma Rahan’s husband murdered her and their three children, Adam, eleven, Abbas, eight and Henna, six in July 2006.  Rahan’s husband discovered that his wife was having an affair with their babysitter’s husband.  Rahan also dressed too “western” and was ostracised from the community for being an adulterous.  When Rahan flew to Pakistan to mourn her father’s death, her husband sold the house they owned together, flew to Pakistan and dumped the children with her, he filed fake divorce papers and went travelling on the proceeds from the sale of the house.  The couple was encouraged to work on their marriage and bought another house back in the U.K.  Rahan had told friends, ‘Count the days before he kills me’.  Her husband beat his wife to death with a bat.  It is thought that Abbas walked in and saw the murder.  His father took him downstairs and then beat him to death.  He then carried Henna out of her bed and did the same – and then the same for Adam.  Before the murders, Rahan’s husband had booked himself a flight to Thailand; he cleaned off the bat and hid it in a shed, packed a bag and caught his flight.  The bodies lay undiscovered for a month whilst Rahan’s husband travelled from Thailand to Malaysia.  When trying to enter back into Thailand, Rahan’s husband was stopped at the border because he wanted in the U.K. and he was extradited.  When taken off the plane by the police and read his rights, he said, ‘I confess to the murder’.  He said he did not regret what he did to his wife but was upset about his children.  In court, he tried to blame the murders of his children on Rahan, but he could not keep up with his own lies.  Uzma Rahan’s husband is now serving four life sentences (one hundred years) in prison.

Caneze Riaz was born in the U.K. and had an arranged marriage with a very conservative man from Pakistan.  Caneze was very confident, outgoing and well-respected in the community, her husband, however, could speak to English and worked low-paid jobs.  The couple had five children together: one son, Adam, seventeen and four daughters, Sayrah, sixteen, Sophia, fifteen, Alicia, ten, and Hannah, three.  Riaz and her children were very “westernised” which her husband did not like.  It is thought that he felt a lot of pressure on him as his only son was ill in hospital with leukaemia and the final straw came when Sayrah stated she wished to become a fashion designer.  When Riaz and the children were asleep, her husband had bolted all the doors, poured fuel all over the house and set the place on fire.  Riaz and her four daughters all died in the blaze whilst her husband escaped and was taken to hospital has he was badly burned.  The news was broken to Adam in hospital and was told that the main suspect was his father, Adam refused to see him.  His father died two days after the murders of his wife and daughters.  To make this story even more sad, Adam lost his fight against leukaemia six weeks after losing his mother and sisters.

Shawbo Ali Rauf was murdered by her husband and his family in May 2007 in Iraqi Kurdistan.  She was from Birmingham and an unfamiliar number was found in her phone whilst on a picnic, which somehow proved she was having an affair.  She was tortured and then shot seven times.  Her gold was also found to be stolen.  On returning to the U.K. many Kurdish women groups demanded Rauf’s husband be prosecuted…the police did nothing.

Yasmine and Sabrina Larbi-Cherif were murdered by Yasmine’s ex boyfriend in September 2008.  Yasmine had gone to the police before to report her boyfriend’s violent behaviour towards her and was too scared to tell them her new address.  We believe this is the reason the couple had split up.  Her ex-boyfriend went to the flat belonging to the sisters and began to beat them.  He then took a knife and stabbed them repeatedly.  He was so forceful that the knife broke, he then took a second knife and started stabbing the girls again and that broke too.  He reached for another knife and stabbed them to death.  Yasmine’s ex-boyfriend is now serving thirty-four years in prison.

Laura Wilson’s story is the first story of its kind in the U.K.as Wilson was not Asian but English.  Wilson had a child with an Asian man at the age of sixteen.  This man was already married.  However, Wilson was always in love with another Asian man and began a relationship with him, they were both seventeen.  Wilson decided that she would go to the homes of both Asian men and confront their families.  It is said when going to the family home of her baby’s father, his mother tried to hit her with a shoe.  Both men found that she was dishonouring them and their families and she needed to be silenced.  In October 2010, Wilson’s boyfriend had asked her to meet him down by a canal local to them.  He stabbed her continuously with a knife and then threw her into the water.  Wilson had multiple stab-wounds to the head, the police believe that her boyfriend continued to stab her when she was trying to climb out of the water.  The father of Wilson’s child was acquitted whilst the other is serving seventeen years in prison.

      *      *       *

At one point in my life, I had many Asian friends and there is a very good reason why this is no longer the case.  Many Asians immigrated to the U.K. in the 60s and 70s in search of a better life.  What seems to have happened is that although they sort of integrate, many traditions had values have stuck to them, and not the good kind.  Many Asians that I have met in England have not come from the big cities in their home countries but have come from the villages where practically everything is ruled by a backward-mentality of what is considered “honour”.  I have dated a Bangladeshi before and one of the reasons why our relationship terminated is because the family were not prepared to accept a girl who was not from the same country or culture, regardless of the fact that we were the same religion.

What confuses me the most about the family members that carry out these crimes is that they believe they are so justified in what they are doing, so why do they deny that they have committed murder when put in front of a judge?  People do not hide what they believe is right.  These people need to integrate into society more.  Everyone has morals, but my father never beat me if I had a boyfriend.  He would ask me a hell of a lot of questions and I feel sorry for the man who comes and asks him for my hand – the interrogation could last for hours!  But my father has never told me that I was wrong for dating anyone or for the way I dress.  Every man has pride, but why hurt people you love over something that does not matter?  This type of “honour” is purely created by what others think of them and if that is the case, people need to mind their own business and worry about what goes on in their own lives rather than gossiping about everyone else.

The Muslim Women Of Nigeria vs. The Authorities Of Saudi Arabia

One of the five pillars of Islam is to travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia and perform Hajj, if you have the means to do so.  It will be the most important journey that any Muslim will make in his or her lifetime.  But how would you feel if the most important trip of your life is cut short because the authorities will not permit you to enter the country?  Worst of all, what if you are not permitted to enter because of your gender?

Hundreds of Nigerian women were deported or due to be deported from Saudi Arabia on 28^th September on the grounds that they were not travelling with a male relative.  Some women allege that they had to sleep on the cold floors of the King Abdulaziz International Airport for five days with no blankets to keep them warm at night.  One woman stated:

“We were held like criminals in debasing conditions. We deserve human treatment and as women and mothers, we deserve to be treated with honour but the Saudis have shown that they have no heart.”

Hajj is a religious pilgrimage for Muslims.  Every Muslim is expected to perform Hajj once in their lifetime if one has the money to do so.  It is personal, between yourself and God, when this pilgrimage is performed.  When you enter the Holy Mosque in Mecca, or any mosque for that matter, women will enter at one entrance and men will enter through another.  You are in God’s house, this is your journey alone; no mother, no father, no husband, no friends, just you.

Saudi Arabia is the strictest country in the world in regards to the rights of women.  If you wish to dispute this claim, write on someone else’s blog.  Women are not permitted to drive, they must be covered at all times except in the privacy of their own home and are not permitted to leave their homes without a male escort that is related to them, i.e. their father, their brother or their son.

These Nigerian women were coming to Saudi Arabia for the express purpose of performing Hajj.  So who is to blame?  Shouldn’t these women have known that the Saudi Kingdom is very strict and they needed to travel with a male relative?  Why were they not informed of this when they received their visas?  Even if they did not know, shouldn’t they have checked the laws of the country they were travelling to in order to ensure they would not have any problems?

In every country bar Saudi Arabia, by law, a woman can travel as she pleases without a male escort.  Why have the Saudis not moved on after all these years and why are they still refusing to do so?  We live in a world where we can travel where we please.  Being male or female is irrelevant – I myself have travelled to countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, alone.  Not many people would travel to Saudi Arabia for leisure, it is hardly the party capital of the world.  Many, I can imagine, will only go for work or Hajj.  We have all heard the saying, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, but when the rest of the world cannot adhere to what one country is doing, why should we?  These women were covered as they should be, maybe this is something they do at home anyway, I don’t know, but they were clearly respectful of how the Saudis operate.  The Saudis need to move on, they behave like a country cannot progress because they refuse to give women any form of freedom.  It makes you wonder how powerful they believe women to be that they must be locked up and hidden in their houses and behind their veils at all times.  What is a Saudi man’s fear?

Or did the authorities do this for the women’s own protection?  I would not feel particularly safe being in another country when there were no men around to keep me safe, even my father would never let me travel to an Arab country alone or with girlfriends.  In Islam, there is a very strong belief that women need to be protected.  But to perform Hajj?  Maybe the Saudis are not very familiar with African women, but believe me, they can hold their own.  They have to be the strongest group of women I know, especially Nigerian women.  Are Saudi men that awful that the authorities had to stop these women from performing Hajj in case they were attacked or kidnapped?  And what of the treatment they received at the airport?  If they were not permitted to enter the country on the grounds that they were not with male relatives, surely these women should have been made comfortable and made to feel that they were safe and not left to sleep on the floors of an airport.

These women should have been granted entry to perform Hajj.  The relevant authorities could have been contacted in Nigeria to make arrangements for these women.  They were hardly in Saudi Arabia to start a riot.  These women were sent home after they had probably prepared all their lives to perform Hajj.  One woman said that her son had saved every penny to send her for Hajj and he will not be able to afford to do it again.  Saudi Arabia know that people from all over the world will travel to the country for Hajj and they also know that it is the most important event in any Muslims’ life to be there.  If Saudi Arabia cannot keep up with the pace, at least take baby steps.  If the Saudis are not prepared to negotiate on the simplest of things, this may deter people from doing Hajj and they will be a real shame.

Innocence Of Muslims – A Bit Of Education

If there is one thing in the world that will always upset me, it is racism.  I myself am mixed-race – my father is a Persian Muslim and my mother is an English Christian.  Growing up, I chose to follow Islam.  My boyfriend is Nigerian (think you would then gather that he’s black), his father a Muslim, his mother a Christian.  My best friend is Pakistani and Muslim; another of my close friends, from El Salvador and Catholic.  I have friends in every continent and of every religion.  Never have I understood how anyone can genuinely believe that someone is lower because of the colour of their skin, the country they originate from or who and how they worship.

Admittedly, I could not watch the whole of Innocence of Muslims.  I managed to watch approximately forty seconds of the video.  I saw a man making fun of our Prophet and his wives and I saw a man hit a Christian woman over the head and she fell to the ground…that was enough for me.  To watch it would be exceptionally upsetting and even to read what others have said I cannot bring myself to do.  Some would say that this would then be a stupid attempt to write about what I do not know…but let’s be honest, when have I ever cared what anyone else has to say unless I agree?  Write what you know.

One of the first rules of Islam, you believe in the three books; the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an.  All of their teachings are relevant to our way of life.  We may not necessarily agree with everything that is said in all three books, but that’s ok.  Everyone has a different way of thinking, even if they are of the same religion.  Do most of these people who claim Islam is evil know that Muslims believe in the virgin birth of Jesus?  Do they even know that Jesus to us is also very important in Islam?  Every prophet in the Torah and in the Bible are the same prophets we have in Islam.  The stories are exactly the same with the exception of the crucifixion.  We also believe that on the Day of Judgement, Jesus will return to the earth, the same belief that Christians have.  Who Christians call God and the Lord, we call Allah – the same, just a different name.

The Prophet Muhammad, it is true, had four wives.  Aisha was either nine or ten years of age when she married and the marriage was also consummated at this age.  When people hear that, shock and disgust cross their minds.  I am unsure of the timeline of when they were married but we do know that the Prophet died in 632.  Would I find it disturbing in the year of 2012?  Of course!  But this was THEN!  People love to focus on this man who is a huge figure in a religion that people came to hate after 9/11 and his marriage to Aisha is the easiest target.  The fact is, every one of every religion was marrying young girls in those days.  Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, was married between the ages of one and three!  Although her first marriage was never consummated, her second marriage certainly was when she was only twelve years old…in 1455!  Almost a thousand years later and in the West where people are more “civilised”!  So what are these people banging on about?!  You cannot take something that happened thousands of years ago and say that it is wrong, that is why it is called progression!  Tony Alamo, who was the founder of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in the U.S.A, is now currently serving 175 years in prison for interstate transportation of minors for illegal sexual purposes, rape, sexual assault, and contributing to the delinquency of minors.  Tony Alamo had many wives, I am not entirely sure of the exact number.  After his sentencing in 2009, five of his ex-wives were on The Oprah Winfrey Show, one of them was married to him at the age of eight.  This was a “Christian” man who claimed he was a representative of God.  Unfortunately, there are many more Christian sects that live in segregation that still practice polygamy and underage marriage.  This happens in every religion, all over the world.  Polygamy is huge in every African country, but if this were ever to be attacked, that would more likely be considered racism as it is no longer fashionable to be racist against black people.  That is not to say that it does not happen, far from it, but it seems that the new trend is racism against Islam and it seems to be acceptable.

We have seen in the last few days the protests all over the Middle-East and in Africa.  We have seen the attacks on mainly U.S. embassies, a British High Commission and even the German embassy in Sudan.  These people are no different to the mindless fools who hate Islam for 9/11 or 7/7.  Whoever these people are that made this video are to blame.  Unfortunately, the West is the easy target.  If an American makes an offensive video against Islam or says something bad about an Arab nation, it is called ‘freedom of speech’, but if an Arab was to say he wants to wipe Israel off the map or said something offensive about Christianity or Judaism, he would be branded a terrorist.  A peaceful protest to state your views is one thing, but raiding buildings and attacking others is idiocy and simply crazy.  Me?  I don’t have time to be burning buildings or arguing with idiots who would be too stupid to understand what I’m saying, from both sides – I just write about it instead.

The Unveiling Of Realism In Afghanistan Through Khalid Hosseini’s The Kite Runner And A Thousand Splendid Suns

    

The Kite Runner

‘The fragility of this relationship, symbolized by the kites the boys fly together, is tested as they watch their old way of life disappear.’ – Edward Hower on the personal plot of The Kite Runner.

In this particular novel, Hosseini shows us the two political devastations of Afghanistan: the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban when the Soviets were driven out.  There are certain actions in this novel that many around the world would have never even thought existed had it not been for this piece of fiction.  For example, during the Soviet invasion, when Amir and his father were crossing the border into Pakistan, a Soviet soldier agrees to let the lorry of Afghans cross, if he can spend half an hour with a woman.  Her husband pleads were the soldier, saying that they have already paid plenty of money to cross the border.  The soldier states, ‘every price has a tax’.  Clearly an abuse of power, Amir’s father starts an argument to defend the lady telling him, ‘I’ll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place,’ and they are interrupted by another Soviet commander in higher authority and the lorry is allowed to pass.

Another explicit action that we see under the Taliban when Amir goes to the football stadium, a man and a woman are stoned to death:

‘The Talib, looking absurdly like a baseball pitcher on the mound, hurled the stone at the blindfolded man in the hole.  It struck the side of his head.  The woman screamed again.  The crowd made a startled “OH!” sound.  I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands.  The spectators’ “OH!” rhymed with each flinging of the stone, and that went on for a while.’

Describing the talib like a baseball pitcher is quite ironic.  Baseball is a game of fun, whereas to the Taliban, this is an abuse of power, a game where they feel they are high above others and have the right to make the law barbaric and take it into their own hands.  They must enjoy doing this to people else they would opt out.  Since 9/11, the Taliban have been exposed for what they really are and what they have been doing to their own people in the name of Allah.  As with many things I will find writing this piece, would Khaled Hosseini have had the same success with his novels if 9/11 had never happened and if the invasion in Afghanistan had never happened?  Although his work is fiction and to a western mind it is extreme behaviour, all these small stories and these small goings on in his novels can easily be someone’s reality.

For Hassan’s birthday, Amir’s father buys Hassan a brand new kite for the two of them to fly.  Kite festivals are famous throughout South Asia.  In Afghanistan it is known as Gudiparan Bazi.  The aim is to cut the oppositions’ kites down by entwining the two strings and using the glass within the string to cut the down and eliminate them out of the competition.  Hassan, a very talented kite flier helped Amir bring down the remaining kites and as the last one was cut, Hassan ran to catch it as he always seemed to know where it would land.  It was a big deal for a boy to be named the champion.

An Afghan, Hosseini also sheds light on a racism within the country and amongst its own people.  The Hazara are a Persian-speaking ethnic group, mainly in Afghanistan but are also in Pakistan and Iran.  They are regarded as a lower caste, mainly as they look different from your typical Afghan, believing they have a lot of mixed blood.  Under the Taliban, they were harshly discriminated against.  As in the novel, Hassan was branded ‘a liar and a thief like all Hazaras’  Hassan was not believed to be a “true Afghan” by the boys who bullied him.  Although Hassan was always strong and stood by his friend, the demeaning act forced on him lowered him and the same was done to Sohrab.

Amir has always felt his father was not proud of him.  He would overhear conversations of how his father wished he could be more like Hassan, strong and brave.  When Amir and his father leave that life behind and Amir graduates from college and marries, we know his father is proud, but he never tells Amir the truth about his half brother.  Every parent will always say ‘I love all my children equally’.  In the beginning of the novel, we are led to believe that maybe Baba does favour Hassan yet Baba let Ali leave with Hassan and never told Amir the truth about his half brother.  I am unsure if this is due to a case of honour and keeping the family name clean or did Amir become the favoured child?  I believe in the former.  I do think Hassan was favoured in the beginning but I believe Baba was very proud of how Amir turned out and did not want to ruin things for him and undo everything that Amir knew of his life.

When reading about the actions of Amir after witnessing the rape of his best friend, I was reading with my mouth open in disbelief.  How could he stand there and watch?  How could he do nothing after the times Hassan had helped him?  Then on reflection after I set down my book to sleep, I thought, what could a twelve year old possibly do?  Amir probably had never even heard of, let alone seen a sex act at such a young age.  He must have been so scared that he was paralysed.  Amir tells the reader, ‘I ran because I was a coward…Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.’  The metaphor of the lamb shows Hassan as an innocent child.  It also fits in perfectly with the Islamic slaughter to have halal (pure) meat, however, this is also ironic that Hassan’s slaughter would make him impure.  Throughout the book, we know Amir lives through his guilt of not helping Hassan.  Helping Sohrab was Amir’s second chance.

USA Today reported that the four boys present for the rape scene in the film of The Kite Runner were flown to the U.A.E. as a precaution against violent attacks on them.  The father of one asked that the scene be cut altogether but was reassured that nothing bad would come of it.  The film’s release date was delayed for six weeks while officials took the children out of Afghanistan.  Although the film was not due to be released in Afghanistan, pirate copies would at some point make their way across the border for Afghans to see.  I bought my copy of the film from Pakistan so it is not difficult.

What I love most about this book is the strength of the friendship between Hassan and Amir as children.  Hassan was raped all because he promised his friend that he would bring the kite to him, telling his friend throughout the novel, ‘for you, a thousand times over’.  The Taliban shot and killed Hassan because he refused to give up the home of Amir, the place they spent their childhood together.  Although the reader is led to have mixed feelings about Amir, his character is forgiven when he takes his chance to redeem himself and returns to a home that he no longer knows, to save his nephew from which he could not safe his brother.

When Amir enters the Taliban quarters to find Sohrab, Assef turns on some music and instructs Sohrab to dance.  The Taliban set rules for the people but believe they can make exceptions for themselves.  Rape and abuse is completely acceptable to them.  Coming from people who are in theory supposed to be very religious Muslims, they would disgrace anyone belonging to that religion.  Dancing and music were also banned yet they play music and ask a child to dance for entertainment.  When Assef attacks Amir, Sohrab is the one to defend his rescuer, like his father did before him.

 The Kite Runner shows us the two very difficult periods that the country has undergone in recent history.  The Soviet invasion stripped the country of any wealth that Afghanistan could possibly have had.  It is very well known that the Americans helped the Taliban gain enough strength to remove the Soviets from Afghanistan and help them to rise to power and gain control of the country.  When Amir returns to Afghanistan, he sees what the country has been reduced to.  Everyone is struggling.  The majority of the people in the West hear of the restrictions on women in Islamic countries but the novel shows us that men also suffer too.  Hosseini’s next novel gives us more of a focus on women.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is divided into sections.  The first focuses solely on Mariam, the second on Laila, the third second shows how the lives of these two women are intertwined and the forth section is for Laila.  This book deals with gender issues in Afghan culture more directly.

This novel particularly shows the reader the drastic effect that the Taliban had on women.  It also gives insight into what women may come across living in an Islamic country.  Rasheed sounds like a conservative man and one of many, many Muslim men that like to exercise his rights as a man in a Muslim country who will always have authority over his wife or wives.  For example, domestic violence is unheard of in Islamic countries as what a man does in his household is nobody’s business but his.  It is even accepted that the Taliban can beat women publically in the street if they do not abide by their laws.  Jalil has three wives and an illegitimate child.  Jalil did listen to his wives which was why Nana and Mariam were kept at a distance.  This also explains why Mariam was sent away to Kabul so quickly.  However, I believe Jalil was a kind man, although he did not do right by Mariam in regard to her marriage, if Jalil had never made an attempt to have contact with Nana and Mariam, he would have no legal obligation to take care of them.

Aside from wearing a burqa when leaving the home, women were not permitted to leave the house without a male escort who must be a very close relative, i.e. a husband, father or brother.  Even in public buildings where women would only come into contact with other women, they were expected to keep their burqas on.

I have found through different readings, such as Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi and through friends and acquaintances that it is not uncommon for a male member of the household to take advantage of a female worker, not just in South Asia but all around the globe.  The wife or wives of these men merely just have to accept what has happened.  Jalil coming from a family with money and probably good social-standing within their community, would have had to turn Nana and the baby away and keep them in a place that was far from the city and his family life, but also be accessible.  Many men in these circumstances would have accepted no responsibility for mother and child.  There is no law that requires them to do so.  However, Jalil always made the effort to see his daughter every week, but Mariam came too close for comfort on her fifteenth birthday.  Although in the novel we only hear of Mariam’s side and what is going on outside her father’s home, I believe that the women in Jalil’s life were holding him back from letting him see his daughter.  When Mariam originally asked if she could meet her siblings, I believe Jalil was hesitant because of his wives.  The three wives managed to have enough influence to make sure that Nana was sent away, and now the bastard child had shown up on their doorstep.  I think if it was up to Jalil, he would have made sure he provided for Nana and Mariam would be a part of the family.

Nana, a servant in a rich household, gave in to the advances of this man.  Whether because she felt obligated to or because she had feelings for Jalil we do not know, but we know that she gave birth to his child.  From the way Nana talks about Jalil, I believe she fancied herself in love with him because she constantly puts him down and everything she says about him is negative, which I have gathered that she must have felt let down by him.  Maybe she believed he would have married her and given her a good life:

‘“He betrayed us, your beloved father. He cast us out…He did it happily.”’

This anger Nana has for Jalil she seems to take out on her daughter, calling her ‘harami’ in every chapter from one to five.  If Nana was not saying unkind things about Jalil to Mariam then she would say unkind things to her:

‘“What a stupid girl you are!  You think you matter to him, that you’re wanted in his house?  You think you’re a daughter to him?  That he’s going to take you in? – I’m the only one who loves you.  I’m all you have in this world, Mariam, and when I’m gone you’ll have nothing.  You’ll have nothing.  You are nothing!”’

Having a child out of wedlock was shame enough for any woman, but to then be sent away just added to her despair.  She must have wondered, ‘how will I raise this child alone?’ and ‘who will associate with me after what I have done?’  Nana believed Mariam was all she had.  She was her mother.  Jalil caste her out and when Mariam left, I suppose Nana believed that Mariam preferred a life with her father and to have all the things Nana could not provide for her.  In her mind, she had lost everything and therefore took her life.

The marriage between Mariam and Rashid was the makings of Jalil’s wives.  The three barely acknowledged Mariam and wanted her out of the house as soon as possible.  Jalil seems to not have much of a backbone since he cannot stand up to his wives and put his foot down to keep his daughter at home with him.  A marriage is quickly arranged and Jalil tricks his daughter into saying yes to the marriage.  The wives had worked their magic yet again, and Mariam is out of their lives.

In a time and place where it is still considered a woman’s fault if she cannot carry a child full-term or gives birth to a girl and not a boy, Rasheed becomes agitated at his wife’s seven pregnancies and the seven miscarriages.  Rasheed then takes his anger out on Mariam and abuses her for not carrying out the “simple” role of a wife.  Mariam should remember something her mother told her when she was young and it is a perfect quotation for this book:

‘“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter:  Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.  Always.  You remember that, Mariam.”’

This is a strong and powerful simile and would put fear into any woman.  A compass needle always points north.

The Soviets are here to devastate Afghanistan and both Laila and Tariq’s families have decided to flee.  Many fled to their neighbouring countries, usually Iran or Pakistan.  When the Taliban came into power, many crossed the borders to escape.  When the Americans invaded Afghanistan on 7^th October 2001, many, many more Afghans went to their neighbours.  Although closer in culture with the Pakistanis, the majority of Afghans speak Farsi, the language of the Iranians.  So many Afghans were going into Iran that the Iranians refused to accept anymore into the country.  Pakistan is statistically poorer than Iran so there would be more job opportunities and a better start at life in Iran, however, Iranians in Iran look down upon immigrants, especially South Asians and beginning a life there I can imagine would be difficult.  I witnessed this myself on my last visit to Iran in March 2008.  You could spot an Afghan a mile away; clothes always shabby, slightly darker, doing manual labour.  When in the bazaar with my cousins, if they saw an Afghan they would tell me to keep an eye on my bag.  Statistically, Iran contains more Afghan immigrants than any other country.

When Mariam and Rasheed take in Laila after the explosion that killed her parents, Rasheed sees his golden opportunity and pounces.  Under Islamic law, a man can have up to four wives but must have permission from his previous wives before he takes another.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case in many Islamic countries and Rasheed tells Mariam that he will take Laila as his wife to avoid scandal.  Rasheed clearly wanted someone who could bear children and who better than the beautiful, green-eyed and youthful Laila?  We already had one character who was shamed and forced to raise a child by herself, so it is now for Hosseini to put a spin on this story and get the already pregnant Laila to accept the proposal from Rasheed.  Hosseini executed this with no fuss:

‘Later, in the dark, Mariam told the girl.

For a long time, the girl said nothing.

“He wants an answer by this morning,” Mariam said.

“He can have it now,” the girl said.  “My answer is yes.”’

The rivalry that occurs between the two wives I assume would be very common in any marriage like this.  Any woman would be jealous even if it was their ex-partner with a younger and prettier model than herself.  The husband has a new “toy” and it is all shiny and new and more interesting.  Although this is not the life that both women would have chosen for themselves, Laila has taken the life destined for Mariam.  Laila can bear children and receives attention from her husband.  However, as the elder and the first wife, Laila must respect Mariam.

Rasheed shows some more backward behaviour upon reading his disappointment of a daughter.  Laila is now in the same boat as Mariam, though Laila has a second chance to produce a son for Rasheed.  The two women learn they have no one if they do not have each other and rather than forcing the characters together, Hosseini waters the seed which forms their relationship that grants their survival.  Rasheed starves the two women after they try to disobey him by running away, wielding some more of his manly power to get his way.

Hosseini now brings us into a different era, the rise of the Taliban.  Rasheed is not bothered by the Taliban as all he needs to do is grow a beard and attend mosque.  When going into labour, Laila arrived at the hospital with Mariam, Rashid and Aziza and they are turned away as the hospital no longer treats women.  Men could not practise on women as only a woman’s husband has the right to see her and touch her.  They then go to a hospital for women where there is hardly any equipment or medicine:

‘”What do you want me to do?  They won’t give me what I need.  I have no X-ray either, no suction, no oxygen, not even simple antibiotics.  When NGOs offer money, the Taliban turn them away.  Or they funnel the money to the places that cater to men.”’

The doctor has to wear her burqa during procedures:

‘”They want us to operate in a burqa,” the doctor explained, motioning with her head to the nurse at the door. “She keeps watch.  She sees them coming; I cover.”’

Laila is having complications and without any anaesthetic, has to have a caesarean.  This shows the kind of suffering women have to endure under the Taliban.  They are not just second-class citizens but underdogs.

Any mother can relate when reading what Laila endures and risks to try and see her daughter in the orphanage.  Without a male relative to take her, Rasheed being the obvious option, Laila is forced to return home many times without seeing her daughter as the Taliban stop her and beat her.  Aziza is another man’s child, Rasheed would make Laila suffer for that.

Mariam’s life was doomed from the moment she was conceived.  Nothing positive seems to happen to her throughout the novel.  All Mariam had to hold on to was her friendship with Laila.  Mariam sacrificed herself for her friend.  Laila had two children and a man who loved her to live for.  All Muslims in the novel, and as a Muslim myself, I hope that Mariam had a better life in the hereafter.  She was put through enough throughout her life, and in the West we can see the death of Rasheed as a clear case of self-defence and provocation, the Taliban would not have recognised this.  Killing her husband, when Mariam was sentenced, the Talib told her that he did not believe her to be a bad person but that she did a bad thing.  Maybe this was Hosseini’s way of saying that when there is a group of bad people, not every person individually is cold-hearted and evil.

Conclusion

Mariam’s father has suffered the same problems as Amir’s father.  Both are very wealthy business men that lose everything under the Soviets.  Both fathers also have a sexual relationship with a maid in their households that result in illegitimate children, Mariam and Hassan, who have a rough upbringing and who are both killed.  Laila and Amir have good upbringings and find themselves in not the best of circumstances but they manage to both pull through.

In both novels, we see the deaths of two women through sharia in Afghanistan.  In The Kite Runner, a woman is stoned to death.  Mariam is killed by firing squad.  Barbaric to the West, anyone would be shocked at reading this.  The Taliban seem to enjoy giving the harshest punishment possible.  I do not believe it deters anyone from committing such crimes, the Taliban will just find something else to punish a citizen for.

One of the main points of these two novels is that in The Kite Runner the main characters are male and female in A Thousand Splendid Suns.  We see in both how the Soviet invasion and the Taliban has affected our characters.  We also so how Taliban rule has different effects on men and women.  This may also explain why women have told more stories about their lives under the Taliban as there is a lot more to tell and I am sure a lot more that we do not know about.  We also see select individuals from the side of the Taliban who seem to be kind and understanding towards people, who tend to show kindness and mercy on others.

Amir and Hassan began in the novel as best friends.  This relationship then broke down but became a much stronger bond when Amir is told that Hassan was his half brother.  As a result, Amir gains not only a nephew, but a son.  Mariam and Laila started as rivals then became great friends.  Mariam was like Laila’s mother.  Then if Laila was to give birth to a girl, she would become the mother of Mariam.  Our two humble characters also died in similar ways.  Hassan was killed by the Taliban because he wanted to protect his best friend’s home.  Mariam was sentenced to death because she insisted that she should protect Laila so that Laila could leave Afghanistan and have a family.  Amir completed his family thanks to his brother.

The reader, in both novels, are taken to the orphanages.  Aziza and Sohrab both have to stay in an orphanage and both our hero and our heroine struggle and fight to get to their children.

Khaled Hosseini himself says that his books and other writings from Afghanistan has given people the opportunity to sympathise with the people of the country and especially women who he says have suffered the most ‘especially in the last fifteen years’ and I completely agree.  I have been reading novels by women of different backgrounds from all over the world and I read of their struggles and what they have been through and a lot of it are things that just happen to them in day to day life and that I feel is very hard for people to get their heads around.

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Nigeria – What I Know

The first picture I took in Nigeria

What does the average Westerner know about Nigeria?  It is in West Africa, there is a lot of fraud, corruption, poverty and Boko Haram.  All this I knew, but going to the University of Buckingham, I was also introduced to a very wealthy side of Nigeria.

Although my boyfriend and I were in university together, we had barely, if ever, been in the same room as each other.  Striking up a friendship over Blackberry Messenger after he had moved back to Abuja, a relationship developed.  Deciding to go away together, plans were unravelling week by week because of various obstacles.  In the end I had to confront him and tell him I did not want to waste anymore time.  It was decided that I would go to Nigeria.

This is Africa, I never had been before, had no idea what to expect, every precaution had to be taken.  I had only four weeks from making the decision to go, to flying out.  I had so many vaccinations I had more needle marks than a heroin addict.  Having been to Pakistan the previous year and ending up in hospital for a stomach infection, I was not taking any risks going to an African country.  I had the best malaria tablets on the market, I bought tablets to keep my stomach healthy, tablets in case I did become sick, Dioralyte so I stayed hydrated, allergy tablets in case of I-can’t-remember-what, mosquito repellent in the form of lotion, spray and wipes, and a stick to rub on if I was bitten.  After all that, I used the malaria tablets (would have been an idiot not to), I used the tablets for my stomach for a few days (in all fairness, I should have stuck to them as I was starting to feel weak towards the end of the trip), the mosquito repellent wipes and the stick for the bites I received because I never thought to use mosquito repellent when we went out at night, only before I slept when the air conditioning would repel them anyway.

Experience of Nigeria Part 1: the Nigeria High Commission in London.  What a bunch of rude assholes!  I walked to the door to find that the reception desk is the front door.  I told the guy at the door I was there to apply for a visa, he then stuck out his hand to me…I did not know if this guy wanted a high-five, my hand in marriage, no idea, so I had to ask him what he wanted, which turned out to be my online receipt for paying for my visa.  He then asked if I had my postal order, regardless that I was there in person to get a visa, a postal order still had to be paid – cheats or a hustle?  With my Botswana girl in tow, I proceeded down the stairs to the basement but she was refused entry as only applicants are apparently allowed to enter the Cave of Wonders.  I found out later that whilst I was applying, two Nigerian women entered the high commission but only one was an applicant, and it was questioned by my friend, which she was told that because they were Nigerian, they would always have business there.  The heat in that basement I believed to be a preparation for Nigeria; you will sweat like there is no tomorrow.  The process inside was pretty straightforward, I handed over all my documents and he told me to come back next week to pick up my passport.  The following week and two days before my departure, I was smarter, I dragged a Nigerian with me, also to have him refused entry…I don’t get it either.  I was sat there for about ten minutes before my number showed on a screen and I waited in line to get my passport.  It was handed to me and I was told to have a great trip…so I was really going.

Saying goodbye to my mum at the airport was really hard.  I know she was petrified.  She had no idea where she was sending me, who she was sending me to, was I going to get sick, would I be kidnapped, I hardly cried because I could not show her that I too was nervous.  My mum waited for me to go through all my security checks until she could no longer see me, gave me my last wave (still crying) and I walked through to the departure lounge.

I could not be bothered to look out of the window when leaving Europe, I watched Mirror, Mirror instead, slept a bit, then I looked out of the window and all I saw was sand – no houses, no little dots of people, just sand.  Eventually I realised we were flying over the Sahara Desert.  Then things began to turn green…I saw houses and roads and cars…I always assumed Nigeria was brown like dust.  We were entering Abuja.

The airport was actually really nice – quite quiet and I had no idea where I was going, although one gentleman somehow knew I was not a Nigerian national and pointed out where the foreign passport holders go.  I was dragged to another line, passport stamped, and I was in search of a trolley to grab my own bags and leave.  Everyone instructed me not to get a porter, but these people were smart and the porters all had hold of the trolleys so I had no choice.  At the nice airport, the floor tiles were broken where my porter had to get my bags.  Walking out, I had to show my passport again, my luggage ticket and was questioned what was in my bags.  I was so anxious, confused, excited, my response was ‘clothes and stuff’.  Afterthought…what the hell did this man think I was going to respond with?  “Grenades and equipment to make molotov cocktails, Hezbollah have sent me to train with Boko Haram”.  After practically throwing myself at my long-lost-love, he kept hold of me and instructed the porter to follow us to the car.  Once the bags were in, the porter tells me that he has done his job…I think he thought I did not have to pay him.  Although I had changed dollars especially to give to the porter, my man had told me that he would handle it.  I have no idea how much he gave him, but the guy told us that we had wasted his time.  Lesson No. 1, Nigeria’s a hustle.  Must not forget to mention the smiley officer that came to my boyfriend’s window to ask who the white woman was.  These people are not discreet.

Leaving the airport and entering the motorway, the first thing I saw was the man selling the live turkey.  Like in most developing countries, there were many people selling their wares in the middle of bumper-to-bumper traffic.  The doors at this point were locked as we noticed that these people were surrounding the car like zombies in Resident Evil.  I just kept my eyes inside the car.  I did not want to say no to them and sound rude, plus I could not take my eyes off who was in the driver’s seat, I was finally with him.  One guy followed us for a while though, I am not sure if he really believed the windscreen wipers needed changing that badly or not, but he kept placing the wipers in front of us.  Traffic began to flow nicely which left enough room for a van with approximately twelve bullet holes in the back of it to move in front of us, even my man was shocked.  At that point, was really nervous, yet I still felt safe.  I was then distracted by a man selling a chimp at the side of the road.

The houses are beautiful, the roads are just like home, minus all the painted markings, no one really needs them.  The scenery is green and the city is modern.  Nothing I expected at all – except the weather.  The nurse told me before I left that I should not wear an SPF lower than thirty…it rained every day!  It was very warm but the sun was rarely out.  I took many videos of the thunder storms and would watch the sheet lightning light up the sky.  At one time I was on the balcony of one of the houses we hung out at and there were three storms in three different areas.  Sometimes you could drive down a street whilst it was raining, turn the corner onto the motorway, and there is no rain.

It was important to my boyfriend that he kept me in front of him at all times if he was not holding my hand.  Him, his brother and his friends were not prepared to take any risks with me.  Kidnappings in Nigeria are common, although it is not common in Abuja.  Middle Eastern blood or not, I was not black, only white, kidnappers would take me and then ask for a ransom.  I did ask what was the likelihood of me being kidnapped, I was told in Abuja and Lagos, highly unlikely.  At one point, my boyfriend and I were asked if we wanted to travel to Benin City.  My boyfriend said he was not sure about me being there and I was then offered to have two soldiers and their Kalashnikovs to follow me if we agreed to go…anywhere that men need to follow me with Kalashnikovs is not going to be safe.  My boyfriend then mentioned it to his mother and she flat-out said no and said that I would be kidnapped.  It is known that kidnappers have no intentions of hurting their hostages, they only want money.  Rumour has it that anything you ask for, you are given, even if you want Chinese food in the middle of the night, they will get it for you.  During a fuel shortage, our car had broken down in the night.  It was myself, my boyfriend’s brother and one of our friends.  We had a choice of trying to walk home, as we were not that far away, or go to the police station round the corner.  Because of me, these options were taken off the table immediately, I was made to wait in the car while the boys hauled down a taxi.  Another night, my boyfriend and his friend had gone out to fetch food to bring home, but my baby had left his wallet behind.  My boyfriend’s brother and I were to get a taxi to the eatery but since it was not far, in the end we walked.  I was walking without my entourage, at night, through the dark streets of Abuja and I was safe.

Basic rules needed to be followed, not drinking the water, avoiding ice and salad etc.  Aside from those rules, I ate everything, I drank everything.  It was very common for people to finish work and go to a beer garden or a bar and have a few drinks before returning home.  Many a time, people were perplexed that I would always ask for a Coke or a Fanta.  One time I was at a bar in my friend’s compound, even the elders there kept asking if I was sure I did not want some Johnnie Walker to go with my Coke.  On my last night, I finally got to have a cocktail that was not destined to burn my throat as it worked its way down, not before I was made to do straight shots of Jack Daniels when playing Categories (eww).

People were always very kind to me and made a lot of effort to talk to me.  My boyfriend’s friends who I had not known previously made me feel very welcome and never let me feel out-of-place, nor did the elders in their families.  I was always very comfortable and although I was quiet a lot of the time when conversations strayed from anything that I knew about, I was really happy.  Strangers who probably thought it inappropriate to speak to me would usually speak to me through my boyfriend, including the police officer that practically proposed to me when we were just trying to pick up our friend.

On my last night, my boyfriend took me to a shopping mall with a movie theatre upstairs.  There were queues of cars waiting to get in not only to this mall but another one we had driven past earlier…Boko Haram has really screwed up the place.  The car was checked, I was searched on my way into the building, I felt like I was at an airport.  I asked many people what their intentions were, the answers were conflicting, but I believe these terrorists probably themselves are unsure of what they are trying to achieve.  Muslims and Christians alike are targeted, most likely because the majority of Muslims disagree with what they are doing.  Nigeria is just getting on with life, trying to make a living and enjoy themselves, no one has got time to be arguing about religion, which religion should dominate which part of Nigeria – it is just white noise.

Whenever I travel, even when I visit London for a couple of days, I become really homesick.  I never missed home once.  I could not look my boyfriend in the face and speak to him on our last night because I knew I would cry.  I cried packing my suitcases; I cried before I left the house; I cried at the airport…now all I can think about is going back.  He is the main reason I want to go back, but this piece was to explain my experience of Nigeria and the people, my experiences with my boyfriend and his family are meant for my heart, my nearest and dearest, not for the world.  God willing, for my birthday, I will be back in Nigeria.

‘Differences are not inte…

  ‘Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.’ – Archbishop Desmond Tutu