One woman makes the news, another one doesn’t
So here’s what happened, and we saw it:
A woman in Iran protested the outcome of the elections, and was shot by the Religious Guard. She died on the street. International outrage followed.
So here’s what happened, and we didn’t see it:
An Egyptian woman living in Germany sued a man for using racist and sexist slurs against her. She won; the man is fined 780 Euros. He appealed, and when she showed up in the courtroom for the second trial, he attacked her and stabbed her 18 times, to death, with a knife – in front of her 3-year old child. Her husband, who rushed in to help her, was shot by the guards in the courtroom and remains in critical condition in the hospital. International silence followed.
Can we all take a moment to think about what it means that the first death is immediately widely covered in European and American press, and the second death widely silenced?
Gepost in: English, Injustice, Internet, Middle East, Politics / Analysis | 7 juli 2009
Just saw the story, for the first time, minutes before reading your post. But I find it noteworthy that the article I read, on CNN International, ran under this headline: “Egyptians angry over German court slaying.”
As if that were the real story here.
Exactly. It’s not about the racism and sexism of the convicted guy, nor about the racism of the police-guards who managed to shoot the husband BUT NOT THE ATTACKER; no, it’s about ‘how the Muslims are angry because one of them happened to die in the Western world.’
Rather disgusting, really.
[...] The title is taken from a previous blogpost on qussa (with permission of the author of [...]
Interesting story. and you sum it up perfectly. But there is one factor that you didn’t take into consideration. The camera factor. Was the stabbing and shooting recorded? What made Neda an internet celebrity is that she died while being filmed…
In our age, when there is no picture, there is no story.