USA, Domestic Abuse: A Reality Check and Troubling Teen Attitudes

Many teens blame Rihanna, say dating violence normal

Megan Twohey and Bonnie Miller Rubin (Chicago Tribune)

Ed Loos, a junior at Lake Forest High School, said a common reaction among students to Chris Brown’s alleged attack on Rihanna goes something like this: “Ha! She probably did something to provoke it.”

In Chicago, Sullivan High School sophomore Adeola Matanmi has heard the same.

“People said, ‘I would have punched her around too,’ ” Matanmi said. “And these were girls!” …

and, also from he Chicago Tribune:

Restraining order against ignorance

Kari Ansari (Chicago Tribune)

Aasiya Zubair Hassan is dead of decapitation.

When we in the Muslim community received this news we prayed for her soul and held our collective breath, waiting for the negative associations to surface in media reports. Sure enough, the term “honor killing” has risen like green scum on a stagnant pond, giving every Muslim-bashing blog and ultraconservative media outlet a proverbial field day….

… Now I’m even reading comments from people who worked with her on a professional level using the term honor killing to describe her death. Women’s groups who know nothing about the situation are throwing the term around as if they know what it implies and what it entails, associating it with the murder of Aasiya.

First, let’s get one fact straight. Islamic law does not allow a man to kill his wife, for any reason. There is nothing in the teachings of the faith that says a man should protect the honor of his stature in the community by committing violence against a woman….

… When Nicole Simpson was savagely murdered, her throat was stabbed numerous times almost to the point of decapitation; did we call this an honor killing? Did anyone say the alleged killer, O.J. Simpson, did it because he was black, or a Christian? No. There was a long, documented history of domestic violence perpetrated on Nicole by O.J. This murder of Aasiya is no different. Violence against women has no educational, racial, socioeconomic or religious bounds. Aasiya’s story should give us the impetus to do more to protect all women from domestic violence. We as a society should not sully the memory of Aasiya Zubair Hassan’s mission to build bridges of understanding between people by painting her faith with a broad black brush of mistrust and intolerance.