Reaction to Kurdish Girl Stoned to Death
Sometimes I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race. Sometimes I find myself crying like a baby and howling to the wind in despair. Sometimes I think to live in this world as we know it is hopeless. Nothing changes. Mans inhumanity to man goes on.
I came across the cellphone videos of the brutal killing of a 17 year old Yezidi/Kurdish girl in a "honor killing" (see the story and video below)and it stunned me. I don't think I've ever seen such sickening mindless brutality. But I thought "the world should know about this" so I posted it to YouTube where it was promptly removed after 20 minutes. So I thought on it some more and then recorded a video of myself watching the Stoning video here on my site. I called it "YouTube Censors Stoning Video" and it quickly became one of the most watched and most commented videos over the past two days. At last count some 6,500 people had watched it. Most share my horror and abhorrence. But some have criticised me for posting the original cellphone videos again on YouTube. This time they lasted a day and were seen by over 2000 people before being removed for "Inappropriate Content".
"The Daily Reel" vlog site ran a feature on it and said "...one angry YouTube user is crying foul, trying to raise awareness (and possibly self-promotion), by creating another YouTube post titled "YouTube Censors Stoning Video," which includes links to his own site -- which also includes the offensive clips. Human-rights activism or exploitation, you decide."
A prominent YouTube "celebrity", Blunty3000, wrote "...tell me exactly WHY do we need to SEE it happen? what do we gain from WATCHING this girl die? ESPECIALLY from footage taken from people standing by and watching it happen. I'm revolted you're so anxious to have everyone watch this horrifying event. Tell the story, please, but the video is purely unnecessary and vulgar." And there have been other derogatory comments questioning my motivation.
The thing is. After I posted this, BoingBoing picked it up. As did FoxNews, The Sydney Morning Herald, Digg and God-knows-who-else. It's out there.
Over the past two days I've had over 7000 vistors to this site - most of them coming to that video. I've had to purchase more Bandwidth to keep up with it. But the few comments have been encouraging. People are actually applauding me for doing it. So what I'm feeling now is "What can we do to stop these "honor killings" happening? Is joining or donating to Amnesty enough?
Should we be signing the petition to the Kurdistan Government that's going around? Maybe we should be making a collaborative video to send to the Yezikis, for a starter, telling them what we think of "honor killings"? Have you any ideas? How do we stop hundreds if not thousands of years of cultural custom? How do we stop this madness?
The videos are here - Kurdish girl stoned to death
Malcolm Lambe
The YouTube vid YouTube Censors Stoning Video has had nearly 20,000 views in two days. I'd like to see it getting over 20 Million and something done about these appalling 5000 "honour killings" a year. But this is a start. Thanks for the (mostly) support.
Malcolm Lambe
More comments on this here at this page.
47 Comments
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (47)
i hope she pass on a better life, and those people burn in the hell.
good bye Doaa rest in peace!
I've gone to your site and read some words from mostly the war topics. I know the comments were posted some time ago. Please understand, WE THE PEOPLE of the US were duped in a very emotional time and are angry about the situation we are now in...at least about 70% of us! My brother in Law goes tiredly into his third tour in Iraq in two weeks. He is not happy and does not speak of his experiences in such terms as expressed on the "War pornography" site. I think that is the thinking of some sick individuals. Most of us are horrified with what is happening and angry with our impotence...(Everyone knows our elections were stolen yet no one could do a damn thing) We are a caring and loving people, but pushed to exhaustion and told lies (or kept from the truth) young men and women will submit and do what they are told. And suffer as soldiers do, with their nightmares, for the rest of their lives.
Thank you for shedding light on this. It is a sobering reminder of where we SHOULD be and what we should be doing.
thanks.
we need to keep our heads thinking; what we have to do?
´cause these kind of things happen in the whole world. no exception.
God, to exist, need human people.
But we don´t need him. We don´t have to.
"is it too late for us all?"
i hope not. but this act of brutality is not new or singular and is not confined. It is infact in every aspect of US that make up the world we live in. It is masterfully covered up and even justified in most cases but here in the stoning of a 17 yr old girl - it is the unmasked, naked un-cut version we see.
There is an old saying and i definately cant remember it acurately, but it goes something along the lines of "evil can only succeed when good keeps silent"
at this point in time, in my feelings and observations, it is only evil that is talking on ALL sides.
PS. i know exactly how you feel solfish39. many many more of us feel the same but we must find our voice again, together.
It is indeed a sad world we inhabit.
However, the ability to quickly upload images/ videos onto the net negates the out of sight out mind mentality. Now people who give a shit can voice their outrage at what was previously unseen. This is a good thing! Human rights activism for sure, may this sort of thing continue to gain momentum.
And how the hell are you?
Brain still AWOL, may need to replace it at this point.
What's yer fillum about and do you know what happened to all the old STS crew?
Congrats on your 2nd by the way!!
Even so I am glad you posted this. Something needs to be done, it's insane that anyone could do this to another human being. It doesn't matter what religion these people were, with many in the Arab world there is a huge lack of respect for women and they need to learn that they are not dogs and properties of their families.
Because this video is on the Internet attention has been raised and I will keep scanning the news until I hear these killers are being convicted and rotting in jail. Hopefully this will teach a lesson that these things can't be done without consequences.
-Kat in the USA
If I still have your address?
I think I have rebuilt my PC's / network about 40 times since I last @ WtW.
I wish there was more I could do, not only for Doa's justice, and to help reduce the possibility of something like this happening in the future, but also to help those girls who would like to escape their oppressive cultures where they have so few rights and protections.
I am reminded of the movie that came out years ago, based upon a true story, called Not Without My Daughter. If anyone knows what a wage earner half way around the world can do to help, in any way, please post here.