Freda Adler, a US author, educator and theorist states: “Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused.” Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow of Kismayo, Somalia learned this lesson the hard way – a way that ended in her death.
Imagine you’ve been raped by three men on the way to visit your grandmother, and that you are brave enough to report it. It is hard to put yourself in Aisha’s place isn’t it? Because rape is a disgusting, uncivilized sickness – one, we don’t like to talk about. The courage it takes to come forward is almost inconceivable. Even if the rapist is caught and brought to justice, his victims who survive suffer for the rest of their lives.
Aisha and her family came forward seeking help and healing. Instead she was buried up to her neck and stoned to death by more than 50 men in a stadium – as a thousand others looked on. She was dragged there, already bruised, violated and terrified at a time when she needed hugs and human compassion. Then, she was executed for “committing adultery.”
Note: While the images below are not from the actual stoning of Aisha, they are to help illustrate what the child went through.
WHAT?
They sent nurses in to check on her to see if she was still alive. Twice more they would pull her out, only to bury and stone her again. A relative and a few others tried to save her but were driven back by a spray of bullets whose leaded hate then killed a young boy standing nearby.
???
Yes, it gives you pause and you wonder who? how? why? Yet, there is something even worse to this already horrifying story.
Aisha was only 13.
Yes, a child on the brink of womanhood – she was only 13.
Do you remember when you turned 13- how the world was full of possibilities and dreams just waiting to come true? Do you remember how it felt to run and laugh with your friends, to have sleep overs, the glorious taste of ice cream, and thoughts of your first crush? If you have daughters or sisters, can you imagine their worlds being decimated and dreams devastated by this filthy crime? Sadly many of us know this kind of pain and destruction of our precious selves, because it terrorizes us in our own backyards. Childhoods end and the ghosts whisper of wounds that will not heal. But then add insult to injury, and execute this child-woman (or any other human) as if SHE is the common criminal. Shouldn’t you be able to trust in your government and hold hope for some compassion and common human decency?
To be violated against your will and helpless is a thought that turns the stomach and makes one want to look away. Real death and blood and gore makes you want to go climb inside your bedcovers and hide, telling yourself it will never happen to you and that there’s nothing you can really do.
But we cannot look away from any of it, or it will continue.
We HAVE to stand up together and be heard. One voice may only make a little noise, yet someone will hear it and join in. And then two sing out stronger until others add their voices in. Then a beautiful thing happens – unity builds a choir singing for change. And the song swells over the human consciousness until change happens. It may take a year, or a hundred years or more, but things can change – and your voice may be all that’s needed to tip the balance. If you wait, you’ll never know.
That’s why we (CSTS) are here and working so hard to help support Equality Now and our other favorite charities. That’s why Browncoats use our favorite movie as the backbone to doing good works. We want the song of change to go out and make a difference, so that no more children, women and men are inhumanely murdered for stepping up and doing the right thing.
Children like Aisha.
Tonight when you look at your children, your nieces, sisters and friends, think of Aisha and her family. Remember that without action, this kind of travesty will go on. If you do nothing, it can spread, EVEN creeping and tainting the lives of those you hold dear.
So do what you can and sing for all you’re worth, because as a certain Shepherd Book says, “I don’t care what you believe in, just believe in it.”
For just one of the many articles on this, click here: Somalian rape victim, 13, stoned to death
Warm Regards,
Anne Barringer
Can’t Stop the Serenity
2009 Global Organizer
Join the Facebook page here: Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow
Other accounts and links:
Commongate.com
BBC News
WordPress.com – Blogs about Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow
Mahalo.com
You can also help bring this atrocity to the world’s attention by digging this article:
http://tinyurl.com/pe5ac6
I have friends who live daily under the threat of death. Many of them can never return to the countries of their nativity, having been promised a sound and horrible death if they do. I thought that I had heard and seen the depth of depravity, until now.
The idea of a stadium watching this act of pure cowardice and inhumanity sickened me in ways I’ve never known. I had to remove myself to some private part of the house to sit in the sunlight and recover myself.