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| Europe |
| Germany: 'How many more women have to die before this society wakes up?' |
| 2005-02-28 |
| Shortly before nine o'clock one Monday evening earlier this month, Hatin SÌrÌcÌ left her five-year-old son asleep in their small apartment in the Tempelhof district of Berlin and made her way to a bus stop in the main Oberlandgarten Strasse. Minutes later, a volley of pistol shots rang out but no one came to help Mrs SÌrÌcÌ, 23, who was of Turkish origin. A bus driver discovered her body, with multiple wounds to the head and chest, about 40 minutes later and called the police. Last week, Mrs SÌrÌcÌ's three brothers, aged 18 to 25, who were arrested six days after the attack, were formally charged with the murder. They have pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody. Police are investigating whether Mrs SÌrÌcÌ was the victim of a so-called "honour killing" after she made the decision to leave the cousin with whom she had been forced into an arranged marriage eight years earlier. The police said that Mrs SÌrÌcÌ had frequently complained of being threatened by her brothers. If they are found guilty, Mrs SÌrÌcÌ's murder will be the sixth "honour killing" within Berlin's 200,000-strong Muslim community in four months. Shocking as that is, the reactions of some Turkish immigrant children at a school whose main gates are yards from the scene of the shooting has caused even graver concern. Asked by teachers what they thought of the murder, several 13-year-old pupils are said to have implied that they thought Mrs SÌrÌcÌ had "earned" her death. "Well, she lived like a German, didn't she?" remarked one. Mrs SÌrÌcÌ got married in Turkey at the age of 15 but returned with her son to her birthplace, Berlin, more than five years ago. She broke with her family, refused to wear the Muslim headscarf and lived with her child in a hostel. She had recently completed training as an electrical engineer and friends said that she simply "wanted to live her own life". The murder has shocked politicians, police and community leaders, and prompted criticism that successive German governments have ignored ritual injustices within immigrant communities for decades. "How many more women have to die before this society wakes up?" asked Necla Kelek, the author of a controversial book on arranged marriages. In an open letter last week, the headmaster of the school publicly denounced the attitude of his pupils. Other head teachers in Berlin, however, said that they were not surprised by the children's reaction. "This type of thinking is latent in their minds," said the head of another predominantly Turkish immigrant school in the district, who asked not to be identified. Their remarks, he said, reminded him of the spontaneous "victory dances" which immigrant pupils at his school had staged after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The five Muslim women killed in recent months were murdered by their husbands or partners because they had "insulted" the family honour by wanting to end the relationship. One woman was strangled; another drowned in a bath. In another case, a 21-year-old Turkish woman who was forcibly married to her cousin was stabbed to death on the street by her husband in front of their three-year-old daughter. Police records show that 45 "honour killings" have been committed within Germany's two million-plus Muslim community in the past eight years. Now that at least five have occurred in just four months in Berlin alone, the German authorities and local Turkish leaders are desperately trying to find out why. Karl Mollenhauer, a Berlin police psychologist, blamed Islamic religious leaders for failing to address the problem. Last week, he also suggested that the German authorities were at fault for failing to intervene in case they were branded racist. "We have silently allowed a parallel society to develop because of fears that we would sow hatred by talking openly about its injustices. The women have paid the price for this," he said. Serap Cileli, a German-born Turkish woman who finds homes for women threatened by "honour murders", said: "If I criticise the Islamic community over these problems, I find that the Germans criticise me for being anti-foreigner. At the same time, many Turks say I am fouling my own nest. "I am sad to say that we have a Turkish problem in Germany. Official claims that the majority of Turks are well integrated here are pure eyewash." |
| Posted by:ed |
| #11 rj -- when we lived in Germany ('91-'95)the only Churches that received State funding and tithes were Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish. All other denominations were on their own, including the Muslims. Barbara -- I agree completely. But then, we're American, and are funny about things like that. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-28 6:42:24 PM |
| #10 The murder has shocked politicians, police and community leaders, and prompted criticism that successive German governments have ignored ritual injustices within immigrant communities for decades. For consistency sake, those women should simply have applied the principles that our allies in Germany and France are always chastising the US for not applying: They should have had a dialog with the stabbers and shooters. Don't those stupid victims know that dialog is sophisticated and efficient? I've heard it's all the rage in European diplomatic circles these days... |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2005-02-28 3:46:55 PM |
#9 70% of Germans go on to post-secondary education, most of those remain in school until their 30s, and then refuse all jobs outside their trainingNo problem. Just don't pay them for not working. Problem solved. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-02-28 2:32:23 PM |
| #8 Question for the Germans out there. A portion of your paychecks are tithed to the church unless you fill out the paperwork and (a) end the tithe (b) Change the religion the money goes to. Is there any way for the Turks to realign their tithe to fund mosques or would that require a natinional organization to the mosques? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-02-28 2:30:50 PM |
| #7 ’How many more women have to die before this society wakes up?’ I dunno. How many ya got? |
| Posted by: BH 2005-02-28 11:32:40 AM |
| #6 First, Spain Then, Holland Now, Germany How long before they get to France? |
| Posted by: BA 2005-02-28 11:24:12 AM |
| #5 In the case of Germany, though, it is true, BaR. If I recall the statistics correctly, some 70% of Germans go on to post-secondary education, most of those remain in school until their 30s, and then refuse all jobs outside their training. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-28 11:16:49 AM |
| #4 Why does Germany need immigrants if there is ~10% unemployment? I'd suspect they'd claim that the jobs the immigrants take are those that Germans won't do. That should sound rather familiar. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-02-28 10:55:43 AM |
| #3 The German government. They are public schools in heavily Turkish neighborhoods. In an open letter last week, the headmaster of the school publicly denounced the attitude of his pupils. Other head teachers in Berlin, however, said that they were not surprised by the children’s reaction. "This type of thinking is latent in their minds," said the head of another predominantly Turkish immigrant school in the district, who asked not to be identified. Their remarks, he said, reminded him of the spontaneous "victory dances" which immigrant pupils at his school had staged after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-02-28 9:48:31 AM |
| #2 Any bets on who funds those schools where the kids say she deserved it? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-02-28 9:29:46 AM |
| #1 Many, many more is the probably the sad answer. Why does Germany need immigrants if there is ~10% unemployment? |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2005-02-28 9:09:27 AM |