Let's Watch A Girl Get Beaten To Death

So my usual bill of fare is somewhat lighthearted and frivolous, with the occasional rant thrown in. Today though I came across a link via Gamers With Jobs to a recent post by the excellent Joss Wheadon (already my hero for such excellent productions as Buffy, Firefly and Serenity).

Last month seventeen year old Dua Khalil was pulled into a crowd of young men, some of them (the instigators) family, who then kicked and stoned her to death. This is an example of the breath-taking oxymoron “honor killing”, in which a family member (almost always female) is murdered for some religious or ethical transgression. Dua Khalil, who was of the Yazidi faith, had been seen in the company of a Sunni Muslim, and possibly suspected of having married him or converted. That she was [tortuously] murdered for this is not, in fact, a particularly uncommon story. But now you can watch the action up close on CNN. Because as the girl was on the ground trying to get up, her face nothing but red, the few in the group of more than twenty men who were not busy kicking her and hurling stones at her were filming the event with their camera-phones.

I'm not going to bother to rant much on this topic. Anyone who knows me could anticipate my utter disgust over such an event in any case. But do read his page, I like the call to action he makes at the end. Go on, give it a read. And then go home and hug your wife and/or daughters if you have them.