A TEENAGE girl was gunned down by 10 men with rifles after she refused to marry her cousin in a horrific “honour killing”.
The 18-year-old girl, said to be Eida Al-Hamoudi Al-Saeedo, is seen being shot in a disturbing video after she was taken to a desolate village on the outskirts of Al-Hasakah, a city in the north east of Syria.
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Eida is said to have tried to run away with her lover but her family and tribe followed her, according to Akhabaralaan.net.
Eida is seen in the shocking footage being dragged by three men who are carrying guns while she screams for help.
The video then shows the other men who are stood by a wall of an abandoned house and three shots ring out.
The teenager is then show lying on the ground and appears to be struggling to get up when one man points a gun at her head and shoots her dead.
Her body is then covered with a red blanket.
Syrian news site Alarabiya reports Eida was taken to the abandoned house by her father and brother as well as other members of the Al-Sharabain tribe.
‘HONOUR KILLING’
Eida was shot in an “honour killing” after she fell in love with a young man and refused to marry her cousin, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The man is said to have proposed to Eida but her family forbid the marriage because he was from a different tribe.
Eida’s family published the video on social media “in order to announce cleansing the shame according to their tribal beliefs’, the SOHR said in a statement.
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, where you call 999 and press ‘55’ if you can’t safely speak.
- Always keep some money or a bank card on you, including change in case you need a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to move towards an exit if you are inside the house and get your phone in case you need to call for help.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other potential weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available every day from 10am-6pm or email helpline@womensaid.org.uk
SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
It said: “SOHR strongly denounces this horrible crime calling for bringing the perpetrators on charges of murder and publishing the videos under the name of ‘honor crime’.”
The Violations Documentation Centre in northern Syria said Eida had been starved and beaten for a number of days before being executed by her family, who also identified Eida as the victim.
“[She was] brutally assaulted until the crime was completed by killing her with machine guns and pistols by more than one person,” a spokesperson for the center told the news site.
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“[The family] bragged about publishing a horrific video clip showing the murder of a girl by bullets, near an abandoned house in the countryside.
“They seemed happy with their crime as they took turns to abuse the body of the weak, frightened, terrified girl, and each of the 11 people who participated in the crime received a share of her blood,” they added.
The man who Eida fell in love with is said to have managed to escape from the tribe as the family “feared a reprisal” if he had been attacked.
The centre said in a Twitter statement: “Her sin was to love another man whom they couldn’t touch fearing of reprisal between the two families.”
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The video has been widely condemned by activists and women’s groups who have called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted and for the killing of women to stop.
Writer Sameh Shukri said on Twitter: “A new crime of honor and racism against women, killing a Syrian girl in the city of #Hasakah for accusing her of love and adultery.
“And the killer this time is not an ISIS who applies Sharia, but rather her clan and extremist youth who believe that with this crime they have become from the owners of heaven, whoever incites against women and spreads their hatred is responsible for killing the Hasaka girl.”
OUTRAGE OVER KILLINGS
Just days after the video had been posted on social media a 16-year-old girl is said to have been killed by her father in another “honour killing”.
The girl was identified as Aya Muhammad Khalifo by the Violations Documentation Centre.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the man strangled his daughter, who had been raped by a relative more than a year ago.
Hundreds of women took to the streets of Hasakeh on Tuesday to protest the “honour killings” with some wearing white t-shirts with the slogan ‘No to violence’ written in red on them.
The protesters gathered outside the home of the 16-year-old girl who was recently murdered.
Protester Evin Bacho, a member of the Kurdish feminist group Kongra Star said: “We condemn these crimes in the name of tradition or religion.”
She added the gathering was “against any family that gives itself the right to deprive a woman of her freedom”.
Another protester Intissar al-Hamadi said the perpetrators of such murders had to be held to account.
In the Kurdish areas of Syria, so-called “honour crimes” and “violence and discrimination” against women are officially banned.
