I was doing a search for women’s rights links when I stumbled upon a story about Du’a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd and a member of Yazidi religion. Du’a was a normal, pretty teen girl who attended college and she did what most teen girls do: she fell in love. For most people, this would be a joyous and exciting experience but for Du’a, it was a time of fear. The man that Du’a helplessly fell in love with was not a member of the Yazidi faith and inter religious relationships were forbidden in her religion.
The reason behind the events about to take place are not entirely clear. Some sources say Du’a was away from home for a single night and her family became furious. Other sources say her family was upset because they believed she had converted to Islam in order to marry the man she loved. Whatever the case may be, she was terrified. She looked to the police for protection but she was granted none. A local Yazidi leader was given custody of the girl and she remained in his care until she was convinced by her family that she could return home and resume life as before.
Also unknown is the course of events on the day of April 7th, 2007. It isn’t clear whether Du’a made it home to her family or not, but at some point on that day, she returned to her home town. A crowd which included many of Du’a’s male relatives gathered in the street and an unsuspecting Du’a was dragged into the middle of the crowd. She was stripped of clothing, beaten, kicked, and pummeled with bricks and pieces of cement. This horrific and heinous beating continued for 30 minutes, and it was all caught on film. That’s right…as Du’a has her face and body ravaged and torn apart, multiple people are filming the events with cell phones. One man is shown filming with a cell phone inches away from her bloodied face and offers no help whatsoever. Finally, the most merciful thing happens: a large cement block is dropped on the back of the young girl’s head, killing her instantly.
I had the chance to see this travesty unfold with my own eyes. When I clicked on the link to the video, I was unaware of how brutal, unnerving, and terrifying the video would be. The clip was 2 minutes long, 15 times shorter than the original, but the pain and torture that the young girl endured in those 2 minutes was more than I could handle. As the clip progressed, I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was real. The scene had to be from a horror movie.
The final scene of the clip shows Du’a corpse lying in a pool of blood spewing from her broken face and skull. By that time, I was completely in shock. I was literally horrified. That is the only word I can come up with to describe the feeling I was having in my chest and stomach. I had to know if this really happened, so I did started a new search to find out more about stoning and if it still occurs in the modern world. I needed confirmation that what I had just seen was fake. Surely enough the first article on Google concerning stoning is about Du’a and her very-real stoning and death. I was so touched by her story that I felt compelled to tell others about her.
As I watched Du’a lying on the ground, the comical photo that I was shown a few weeks ago of a good friend (also of Middle-Eastern descent, coincidentally) drunk and lying on the ground with a goofy grin on her face came to mind. The thought came to me: the friend in the photo could have been Du’a. My witty, intelligent, beautiful, hilarious friend whom I love could have been that bloodied and broken girl lying dead in the middle of the street. Du’a was someone’s friend; someone’s child; someone’s love. Du’a, unlike my friend, did not have the advantage of being born in the US where freedom is the law and violence against woman is not tolerated in any form. I began to wonder if she shared some qualities with my friend. Did she have a great sense of humor? Was she a smart girl? Did she have strong opinions of her own? Would she have excelled as my friend has if she had been born into our free culture? I choose to believe so.
Before I learned of Du’a, my friend and I discussed how lucky we felt that we were privileged enough to have been born in the US. She told me how grateful she is to be part of this society. I thank God she is.
Du’a and her story has made me proud to be a woman. Her bravery is an huge inspiration. She dared to love a man that she chose, not a man chosen for her by her religion, in a society where this act is an unspeakable crime. She has earned a permanent place in my heart.
I will fight in her name to banish honor-killings and violence against women. Thank you, Du’a, for the inspiration.
Never forget this image.
A couple of days ago, I received the bestselling book The Secret, concerning the law of attraction. According to the book, all you have to do to manifest your dreams is “Ask. Believe. Receive.” Absurd? In a way, yes. If you take it literally, it’s an asinine concept. But if you examine deeper, there is a lot more behind the theory of law of attraction than just asking, believing, and receiving. And it seems many people don’t understand that.
I started reading the book and decided to go online and do some research to see what people are saying about the book and the theory it contains. I was expecting some criticism but what I found was ridiculous. One article said that people are “worried about friends who purchase things and believe the money to pay for these items will come to them”. Others have ceased medical treatment because they feel they can will their bodies into perfect health. Who’s to blame for this? Naturally, everyone wants to blame the book for “false advertisement” but the truth is both the book and these individuals are to blame.
Common sense tells us that if you have a serious medical condition, we don’t stop medical treatment because of a theory in a self-help book, or any other source. Common sense also tells us that we shouldn’t spend money we don’t have. But sadly, common sense has taken a leave of absence in present times.
People are naturally stupid. Let’s admit that right here and now. We have to be taught every thing but eating, sleeping, breathing, and normal bodily functions, and a lot of people aren’t taught much of anything, including common sense. That is why writing a book about a serious, potent, and easily-misunderstood theory in terms that even the biggest moron can understand is dangerous and idiotic in itself. The people who read this book do not understand that there is more to the law of attraction than this book will lead you to believe. In my firm opinion, you have to have intelligence to fully understand and effectively integrate the law of attraction into your life. Think about it. All of the most successful people in history were extremely smart. That is why they are successful. They KNOW what they want, they KNOW how to get it, and they obsess and fuss over it until they get it. They used common sense. They didn’t rely on one source to get what they want. When you do that, you are setting yourself up for failure.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but I am already planning to experiment with the theory in the book. For the next 2 weeks, I will try the author’s method. After two weeks, I will try my own method (whatever the heck that might be). Let’s see how it turns out…
Rules1. Each player of this game starts off with 15 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself.
2. People who get tagged need to write a post of their own 15 weird things/habits/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
3. At the end, you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names.
4. No tag backs!!
1. I am obsessed with keeping my feet clean. I cannot go to bed with dirty feet or I can’t sleep.
2. I had my first crush at the age of 2 (yes, it’s possible). The crush was Johnny Depp.
3. My IQ is 132, yet I’m dumb as hell.
4. I started my first period at Universal Studios in Orlando.
5. Watched a horror movie by myself when I was 4 years old.
6. I love Peeps candy. I even have a set of stuffed Peeps.
7. I like to imagine myself as a 1940’s pin-up quite often. I even do the hair and make-up.
8. I share a birthday with Elizabeth Taylor. She’s 3 centuries older than me though.
9. I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome)
10. I became an aunt at the age of 5.
11. My stomach is very squeamish.
12. I was named after a flower, because my mom is a hippie.
13. I sneaked out of the house when I was little and ate cat food.
14. I have a terrible fear of heights and very large structures.
15. I seriously have ADD
And I’m not gonna bother tagging anyone. If you want to do this meme, go for it!
“I was happy in my harbor
When you cut me loose
Floating on an ocean and confused
Winds are whipping waves up like sky-scrapers
And the harder they hit me
The less I seem to bruise
And when I find the controls
I’ll go where I like
I’ll know what I want to be
But maybe for now
I’ll stay right here
On a silent sea”
-KT Tunstall
I’ve had a whole buncha vanilla latte today so my brain is working again. Now is a perfect time for me to make my first “official” entry in this new blog.
Everyone asks how I’m doing and they get the usual answer: “I’m fine”. While I am “fine” on a shallow level, the term does not touch my true psychological, physical, and spiritual states. I have good and bad days and even good and bad hours and minutes through out the day. Sometimes I have days where I drift in a mental fog, yet I am able to appear as a perfectly-functioning person. This is a big step considering I haven’t able to mask my insanity for most of my life. 
A lot of people have asked about my grandma’s health and when they have, I’m not sure how to respond. She has good and bad days, just like any other person with a major illness. Her body hurts nearly all the time and the doctor has prescribed liquid Morphine to ease the pain. Tomorrow, her body will be marked for radiation treatments. This means that the doctors will decide what areas of her body they will apply the treatments and they will mark those areas. Since the cancer is in her throat only (let’s hope that is truly the case), the doctors will most likely decided to apply the treatment to her chest and throat area. She will have treatments every day for the next 4 weeks.
My grandma is taking everything with a lot of grace, dignity, and optimism. She is a woman of faith and she is not afraid of dying, but she believes in the possibility of a full recovery. The rest of the family is handling this situation much better than I expected, my mom especially. She is hurting, but she isn’t letting it take over her life. I am so proud of her, my aunts, and grandma for their strength. 
Ok, enough with the depressing stuff. I am trying to decide what exactly I am going to do with this blog? Should I post about everyday life? Should I save it for writing prompts? Should I post about emotions and feelings? Loads of possibilities….
Charlie looks a bit like a baby Ricky Gervais. His giggle at the end is priceless.
Setting up this site only took me 3 hours; actually days less time than I expected. I was sure the entire weekend would be hours and hours of coding and embedding and programming and yada. But no, lovely WordPress has created software that even I, the most HTML/FTP/SQL illterate person, could handle. *hugs WordPress and gives it a big ol’ sloppy kiss*
