Shocked and sad

[BM06]

Just could not believe what i was reading how sad.:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248676/Turkish-girl-16-buried-alive-friendships-boys.html

[Old Daffodil]

I would only speculate on the real reason this girl was killed. Such a tragedy. Like many Turkish girls she had no chance of an education of any sort and never attended school.I cannot imagine what her life was like. There is a book on sale called "Impossible Fairies" which is an attempt to raise funds for the education of girls in Turkey. It is available in bookstores in Istanbul if you are visiting that city.|The book is the story of 45 girls from different locations in Turkey.The girls around Mugla seem to have a fair chance but it seems to be over to the east that it is different.

The book "Impossible Fairies" is a work financed by the Metro Group and Milliyet Newspaper which is hoping to finance the education of 80 girls in the "Daddy Sent Me to School" scheme.  A phone number 212 496 2000 is mentioned on in an article about the book.

[davidzz]

quote:Originally posted by Daffodil

 Such a tragedy. Like many Turkish girls she had no chance of an education of any sort and never attended school.

It is very sad and tragic that this has happened not only a life lost but the affect on the family members who have to live with this.

The daughter being well educated still may not have saved her but if the father had been it could have.

David  

[Old Daffodil]

In this instance you are right. But what about the girls who are still facing the same barriers as this young person did? An education would give them a chance to improve their situation in life and maybe that of their family at the same time.I am not saying girls shoul leave their families home but if this girl was being treated badly an education would have given her more of a chance to escape.

[scot]

I was shocked to read this.  Bruce

[nichola]

I believe more money is going into Education in east Turkey but it will surely take generations to see real change in attitudes and the availability of choices for future girls facing this situation.

I hate to say that a lot of this is rooted in religion and even in the UK we see honour killings.

Today in the UK female genital mutilation - some call it female circumcision - is carried out albeit illegally because of beliefs and traditions carried down through generations.

It wasn't that long ago that girls and women who conceived out of wed lock were locked up in institutions for life in the UK.

Not so barbaric but brutal none the same. It takes time, education and understanding on both sides before change comes.

[Old Daffodil]

Sometimes these girls are at risk from men within their own family and religion and honour are just a cover up.

[BM06]

nichola, i really do not get the paragraph on your post about women and girls being incarcerated for having a child out of wedlock in the UK some 170 years ago, this child went to the police for help and was told to return home three times,so the poor little might new that what was happening to her was not right, the Topic/ article is about a father burying his child alive.

[nichola]

It may not seem comparable that women were locked up for getting pregnant before they were married and not 170 years ago but much more recently. I read interviews with women who were being released in their fifties and sixties in my lifetime and I aint that old!

The point is that today that would be unheard of and considered not just unacceptable but laughable. At the time it was considered justifiable.

I was just trying to say that people generally believe they have justification for their actions. It's all relative depending on where you stand, what you believe in etc. and that it takes time to bring about changes in attitudes and behaviour. That after all is what we want so things like this don't happen.

The people that did this probably in fact almost certainly thought what they were doing was right. I am not condoning it I find it abhorrent but in order to move on and bring about change we need to understand what motivates and then challenge through education, persuasion and ultimately punishment this kind of behaviour.

I can give you an example from when I was in Urfa bus station a few years ago with my mum. There was this man beating up this woman. They were sitting on a bench and he kept thumping her and twisting up her arm. I along with loads of other local people (mostly men) were all there - watching. There this is acceptable behaviour, or is it?

I kept expecting someone (else) to go over and do or say something. Anyway a Police car came by and pulled up down the road. So I by now was pretty peed off so I strode over there and explained in my broken Turkish what was going on and that they needed to go over there and do something about it. Unsurprisingly they did not want to know.

I persisted and then before you knew it this little old man came over and began to support me and then there were loads of people doing the same.

The Police finally got out of their car and dealt with the situation. Now I'm sure that this bloke didn't stop beating his wife but at the same time he also learned that his behaviour wasn't acceptable and there are consequences.

More importantly the people around only needed a little prompt for them to actually stand up and speak out and say this is not acceptable and we want something done about it.

That small incident may have made a teeny weeny impact on the lives and behaviour of some of the people that were there and maybe next time they see a woman being beaten up in public they know that they have the support of the silent of majority to do something about it .