Turkish Girl Buried Alive For Talking To Boys

The body of a 16-year-old girl who police say was buried alive by relatives in an "honor" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys has been discovered in Kahta, Turkey.

Turkish police discovered the body after acting on an anonymous tip. The tipster told police that the girl was killed after a family council meeting, and had been buried under a chicken pen. Police say that the girl had complained two months earlier that her grandfather beat her for talking to boys.

The girl, identified by police only by her initials M.M., was said to have a large amount of soil in her stomach and lungs, indicating she had been buried alive.

"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl - who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood - was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one anonymous expert said.

The girl had been reported as missing by her family. Police have arrested her father, mother and grandfather. Her mother has been released but her father and grandfather are awaiting trial.

The case is expected to bring further attention to the issue of "honor" killings in Turkey. Official figures indicate that more than 200 "honor" killings take place each year - almost half of all murders in Turkey.

Comments

[Versigh]

12:11 AM on 02/10/2010

The comments section is incredibly long and I didn't read it all, so forgive me if what I have to say has already been mentioned. Jenny White's blog about Turkey, Kamil Pasha, has a very interesting post about this case. Her premise is that the motive for the murder was not "honor" but revenge for the girl reporting her violent grandfather to the police for beating not just her, but other members of her family including her father.

http://kamilpasha.com/?p=1735

[allswellendswell]

08:15 AM on 02/08/2010

This is not about religion, really. It's about patriarchy. It's about men having full control of women because, like it or not, women in these cultures carry honor for their families. A woman expressing any minute hint of her sexual being goes in direct contradiction to the power base of the men. It's been like this for millennia and isn't about to change just because Turkish TV is full of scantily dressed women who've been surgically altered and painted to look like they're from somewhere in Northern Europe. And in so many ways, the are no different from the Quiverfull folks who believe women should surrender their reproductive lives to "God", and who end up home birthing 10, 12, sometimes 15 children, while submitting to husbands who are all varieties of losers.

[EuroMom]

02:56 PM on 02/08/2010

“This is not about religion, really. It's about patriarchy. It's about men having full control of women because, like it or not, women in these cultures carry honor for their families.”
I am almost exhausted trying to make this point here.
The interesting thing is this: until the early twentieth century “honor killings” were commonplace in many regions of (Xtian) southern Europe.
So, what changed?
While any religion can be hijacked to shore up these archaic traditions – it certainly isn’t the root cause.
In southern Europe, the religion has remained the same.
It’s society that has changed.
As women have become increasingly educated and empowered, the old patriarchal mores have been eroded.
This young woman is a victim of patriarchal / tribal culture. Nothing more, nothing less,

[SeesBeyond]

08:49 PM on 02/08/2010

Thanks for the Quiverfull reference. I had not heard of them before.

[Randolph Greer]

04:01 AM on 02/08/2010

This kind of act predates religion by thousands of years . It is more in keeping with the ancient practice of sacrificing virgins to insure a good growing season than to associate it with Islam . To be sure , some ancient primitive and pagan activities are later adopted into religious faiths ; but just because a faith adopts it , does not mean it is religious . The Christmas Tree is purely pagan in nature , but Christianity adopted it as one of its symbols as well . By that , I do not mean to suggest that "honor killings" have been adopted by Islam or any other faith . I know of no faith in which such appears .
So please , those who are always inclined to blame religion for every killing , refrain from doing so in this case because your are completely wrong . This came from primitive cultural tradition . To blame religion which has the blood of millions on its hands does not mean that a local mullah should be executed for a murder he did not commit . That would be an injustice .
This problem has a solution mentioned before . Education and severe penalties , including death , for those who sanctioned it . As I stated previously , this is the only kind of crime for which the death penalty really is a genuine deterrant . If they had been certain before hand that the grim reaper would knock

[Oleg1]

11:24 AM on 02/08/2010

Capital punishment is not a deterrent to a religious fanatic.
From Al Qaeda to Hamas and everyone in between, various forms of martyrdom is a focus of a religious indoctrination.

[Phalanxman]

03:23 AM on 02/08/2010

Every country, including the U.S., seems to have its "religious right," composed of zealots, extremists, and the intolerant. Aren't they great?

[SeesBeyond]

07:14 AM on 02/08/2010

Almost exactly mirrored by zealots, extremists, and the intolerant on the Left, wouldn't you say?

[Phalanxman]

03:28 PM on 02/08/2010

No, I don't think I would say that.

[mbsq]

02:37 AM on 02/08/2010

These are people who are not insane doing unspeakable things and thinking it is morally right and obligatory. An ironic punishment would be in order. Extreme public humiliation to remove the sense in anyone's mind that they are honorable.

[basenji]

02:17 AM on 02/08/2010

Turkey, which was secularized at gun point, will be allowed to join EU soon after Mexico joins the North American Union.

[MarcusT]

03:10 AM on 02/08/2010

In 2004 Turkish public opinion was very pro EU and the AKP used EU membership to build support. Although Sarkozy and Merkel's pandering to their xenophobic base probably didn't help, Turkish public opinion towards the EU plummeted in 2007 which the realization that the economic benefits to full EU membership were about to evaporate under a mountain of collective debt. Now, with the dominoes falling (Greece, Portugal, Spain, and wait until the new eastern members problems get press) and the Turkish banks inability to fully participate in the last global scam looking like a blessing-support is below 35%. I believe the next EU trend will be about who's able to get out, not in.

[youngvictoria]

11:17 PM on 02/07/2010

There is mistreatment of women that has been imported into the US from countries where women are routinely discriminated against, killed, or forced into roles that they do not want.

Many people, both men and women, look the other way when it happens in front of them.

[muscel]

07:17 PM on 02/07/2010

Actually, sometimes it's the female members of an "honor victim's" family who also condone these killings. No matter how politically correct we may try to be, this does happen among many Muslim communities, including communities in Europe. These killings are not based on the Koran, they are based on tribal customs and Shariah law.

[joeyfoto]

04:15 AM on 02/08/2010

muscel wrote: Actually, sometimes it's the female members of an "honor victim's" family who also condone these killings."

Sadly, that is correct. I learned that working in West Africa, when I learned that the strongest force FOR excision (female circumcision) was from women; where the men were indifferent or even in opposition to having their daughters subjected to genital mutilation, it was often the grandmothers who demanded it, even to the point of threatening their sons with expulsion from the family if they refused... Social pressure from female elders against young women makes the problem of advocating for change very complicated.

[SeesBeyond]

07:04 AM on 02/08/2010

"These killings are not based on the Koran, they are based on tribal customs and Shariah law."

And just where do you think that Shariah law comes from? Along with the Sura, it is derived from the Koran and stories of the life of the Prophet, and in all four schools of mainstream Islamic jurisprudence are considered to be every bit as much a part of of the fabric of Islam as the Koran. If you want to argue otherwise, you'll have to take it up with the scholars at Al Azhar and Qom.

[youngvictoria]

08:37 AM on 02/08/2010

The female members are concerned that their daughters and granddaughters will be looked upon as fallen women if they are allowed to behave differently. In their own way, they want to protect the reputation to the young girls from any scandal and innuendo. It is a sad story.

[lcr999]

06:31 PM on 02/07/2010

Obviously heinous.
However, before we totally condemn a religion and the culture of a whole section of the world, we should look at ourselves as well. A week doesn't to buy without a parent killing a bunch of his/her children on purpose. Just this weekend, a socialite in NYC killed her son and tried to kill herself. And a day doesn't go by that a woman(or a man) isn't victim of domestic violence, and yet untold numbers of women in denial go back for more each day. I don't understand the mindset of any of these.

The maternal instinct is one of the strongest and most primal. It is hard to imagine culture so strong to suppress it, But it obviously happens, not only in Turkey but also here.

[dm00]

06:22 PM on 02/07/2010

There are a few posters here concerned about some sort of religious bigotry being the result of all this. That's surprising, considering the fact that the religion of the murders is not identified in the story at all. As a matter of fact its a pretty big mystery what sort of religion people would have to belong to in order to get the idea that they should bury a teenage girl alive. I'm completely mystified as to what religion that could possibly be, as Im sure all Huffpost readers are after reading this story.

[SeesBeyond]

10:30 PM on 02/07/2010

"...its a pretty big mystery what sort of religion people would have to belong to in order to get the idea that they should bury a teenage girl alive. I'm completely mystified as to what religion that could possibly be, as Im sure all Huffpost readers are after reading this story."

You are kidding, right? I think readers who didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday, including most of HuffPo, already know the answer to this, and it ain't the Methodists or Presbyterians or Buddhists.

[MarcusT]

11:21 PM on 02/07/2010

Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American...

by Karen Tintori

[EuroMom]

06:23 AM on 02/08/2010

Bruna Morabito, Sicily 2006 -- shot for being in the “wrong” relationship and sullying her family’s honour
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article696820.ece

Bernadette Martin, Northern Ireland 1997 – shot for having a relationship with a young man from the “wrong side” of the sectarian divide
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/364724.stm

Maria Monaco, Naples 2008 – imprisoned in her home for 18 years for having a child “out of wedlock”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/2126016/Italian-woman-locked-up-for-having-baby.html

[Becca1121]

06:20 PM on 02/07/2010

"Honor" killings has to be one of the sickest oxymorons there is. How is talking to boys an unacceptable sin, yet burying a poor girl alive is OK? This murder is just appalling beyond words. I just hope that the father and grandfather get the punishment they deserve, and send a message that these crimes won't be tolerated.

[RIP2]

09:51 AM on 02/08/2010

Certainly, we find these kinds of actions reprehensible however when a young girl here in America ran away for home saying that her family would commit an "honor killing" on her, the judge and the courts have insisted that she "meet with her parents regularly to "repair the relationship". I mean can a court change centuries of cultural endoctrination?
Of course also, in our country a few years ago an 11 year old boy was beaten to death because he whistled at a "white" woman. Is this the more we humans change , the more we stay the same?
Those of us who can must continue to work to educate all humans on the sanctity of life.

[SaltyLassi]

11:49 AM on 02/08/2010

quite hypocritical and selfish. The family is worried to pieces over their neighbors not liking them than the life of their daughter.

[annie tx]

05:35 PM on 02/07/2010

The one ray of hope for humanity is that the father and grandfather have been arrested and are awaiting trial. It is imperative that societies behave in a civilized manner even in the horror of primitive barbarity. Hopefully true justice will prevail.

[Faelsun]

04:55 PM on 02/07/2010

Well this is just an example of hypocrite's with religion with no laws to protect their victims.
Honestly the only thing keeping Our own Primitive Cult worshipers from killing girls for the same thing is our legal system. I mean really if you gave the Southern baptist church half a chance they would not hesitate to cut peoples heads off for imagined sins.

[SeesBeyond]

10:32 PM on 02/07/2010

You are sick for making such a suggestion about that which you obviously know very little.

[joeyfoto]

04:04 AM on 02/08/2010

Sadly, it is you who knows very little about the historical abuses of women within Christianity. You judge our Christians in an environment where they are not free to exercise the hateful aspects of their religion, without the restraint of law. Study the history of Christian abuse of women, which continues today.

This is in no way an attempt to indite the millions of decent Christians who have no abusive inclinations, just as there are millions of decent Muslims who share that respect for women, BUT you can not deny the fact that a hateful strain of abuse exists in both religions (also among Hindus) — not when even a cursory study of history shows you to be so terribly wrong.

[ZeusSuperman]

04:14 PM on 02/07/2010

Just goes to show what having an under-educated patriarchy will do for you. Can't be a good thing to be making decisions based on an incredibly narrow base of knowledge and a fear of sexuality. And yes, it's quite easy to decry this horrific act, but I do not see those of us in the West as being in some moral Ivory Tower. Look at what happens when we bring 'punishment to the deserving'.
http://images.brisbanetimes.com.au/2009/08/05/664656/420hiroshima-420x0.jpg
http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/_/images_4/us_terror_state__/family_children_killed_by_us_bombing.jpe

[joeyfoto]

03:44 PM on 02/07/2010

What they do in the back-waters of Turkey — albeit horribly offensive to Humanistic sensibilities — would be of little immediate concern to us, if it were not for the fact that Turkey is in line to be admitted to the EU.

Turkey wants to be part of the Western world. While much of Turkey has a modern consciousness, it is imperative that Turkey be put on notice that this sort of odious behavior threatens their entry into the European world. They will then handle this matter and those like it with the utmost seriousness, instead of excusing it to placate their own reactionaries.

Sadly, the economic crimes of American financial parasites, have so weakened the stability and attractiveness of the EU and, in fact, of all Western values, that the Turks are now tempted to enter China's financial sphere, where these remnants of hideous cultural backwardness, are of no importance. America's derivative criminals cost us more than money.

[KatarinaNolte]

10:05 PM on 02/07/2010

Anything that happens to a girl or a woman anywhere in the world affects us all, as do the choices of women within the Western World.
As long as we keep distracting ourselves with worries about our hair, nails, cellulite, the latest fads, and other stupidities, these kinds of atrocities will continue to occur.
History has proven that patriarchy is reinforced and manages to survive globally through a combination of repetition and the uglier forms of human creative capacity.
This is the reason why 'the world shrugs' as if it's no big deal.
Turkey will never become a part of the EU. They have been knocking on that door for decades, back when the EU was still the EC. Their culture causes enough damage in the West without the doors being opened beyond immigration laws and consecutive importation of dozens of relatives per immigrant.
The problem is that the ones who have the most power in this matter are successfully being made unaware of it.
Hopefully some day soon women will wake up to the fact that we, the women, create this world and everything in it, and therefore it is we, who can change it by assuming responsibility for our creation and taking charge of it.

[CologneCitizen]

04:33 AM on 02/08/2010

I don't know where you get your info, but Turkey will NOT join the EU. France and Germany are totally against it and will avoid it.

[KIVPossum]

05:20 AM on 02/08/2010

Not sure about that. One of my friends is here in Moldova with the E.U. contingent to help the government get it's act together. He's been an E.U. diplomat for over a decade. He's German. He thinks Turkey will come in within the next 6 years. Gives the same time table for Ukraine, and a 10-12 for Moldova.