I really wasn’t sure I should post this, but I almost feel I have no choice. I stumbled across this the other day after reading an article on Memri by Saudi Human and Women’s Rights Activist Wajeha Al-Huwaidar on how a large portion of Middle East population views women. Wajeha said this vid was from Iraq, but after a little more digging I learned it was from Syria. Allegedly the 17-year-old girl was beaten and stoned to death for ‘falling in love” with a young man who did not belong to her particular sect or family/social group. Whatever. This is quite possibly the most brutal thing I have ever seen. Watch it at your own risk. I really have no comment on this vid, draw your own conclusions. I think it’s best that way.
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Finally got up the courage to watch the video of the girl being brutally murdered in Syria. This is by far the most heinous and thoroughly disgusting demonstration of “human” behavior I have ever seen. It took more than a bit of restraint to keep the lump in my throat from bursting forth into tears of rage and despair. (But alas, I’m at work. People don’t like it when the psychotherapists break down in hysterics, go figure. It kinda freaks ‘em out.) I found myself looking at the log on the bottom every few seconds, hoping it was almost over. Mostly I kept watching the girl, hoping she would die quickly. The “men” killing her didn’t seem to care much about that, knowing that would be the end result.
Part of me is glad I couldn’t understand what they were saying, except praising their god over and over, shouting exaltations to their deity as they believe they are doing his work, which I suppose is what they truly believe. That aspect of the murder makes it even darker and more twisted if that is possible. Were they shouting in ecstasy because they felt they were soaking in their god’s approval? Very hard to wrap my mind around that.
Does this demonstration show their true deep seated hatred of all women? If so, that is hatred in it’s most pure form. We have heard of how in some Mid-eastern cultures, women’s individual lives are considered less valuable the lives of animals, and they are considered property, having no level of self-determination in their lives. One might like to think that some individual men still see some value in the lives of women, and will treat them well even as property. This video, the behavior of these men, seems to indicate a far darker picture of the place of women’s lives in the hearts and minds of these men. To hate so thoroughly, one must place some kind of blame. Do these men believe that women, perhaps just by their very existence, do harm to men? Is it the fact that they desire women, feel out of control of themselves for having desire for something so valueless and disgusting to them? We learn that in these cultures men see the vagina as repulsive, yet by nature they find they have a desire for it in a very intimate and personal way. Is this would create psychological or cognitive dissonance* in the men who believe and feel this way.
We discussed the other day our reasons for wanting to watch it, or perhaps feeling the need to. It is not something someone like you or I want to see. You put it well saying that it is a responsibility as a member of society to really know what is going on in the world, and right too, in that you can’t fully grasp or understand something like this without seeing with your own eyes. It has opened mine, and made me want to close them again.
* Cognitive Dissonance is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. When we experience it, we either try to eliminate the discomfort by exploring its source within us, or we end up acting out. Guess what’s going on here. It demonstrates how powerful the men’s desire and repulsion are within them. Under this theory, the desire may feeds the repulsion. Denying oneself something desirable, especially a desire as primitive as the sexual impulse, also feeds the desire. Of course the men of these cultures don’t deny themselves sexual gratification by way of a woman’s body, but it seems they deny themselves most of the pleasure that can come with the union of two sexual beings.
Hi folksI am a 25 year old Syrian Canadian male and I must say that I am eternally appalled and disgusted by this lowest of low display of inhumanity and cruelty. and I want to thank john ford for bringing to light. I can tell you that the dialect is not Syrian as best as I can tell, but this is not why I am writing this comment. I am a muslim and no where in my upbringing did I learn that women are to be treated in any form of abuse, let alone this kind of inhuman and immoral display. I am honestly in absolute shock and disbelief. I lived in Syria many years and never have I witnessed anything close to women abuse be it in my household or outside. Nor did I ever learn in a mosque that this kind of behaviour is God’s will. In fact, it defies all islamic ideology. I guess I have been in the dark about things like this and you have opened my eyes. I am shocked that muslims aren’t shunned everywhere for these kinds of behaviours that are sadly done in the name of our religion.I am still shaken from the video. you’ve inspired me to take action. I hope you continue to expose things like this be it in the west or anywhere else in the world.