Sunday, August 21, 2005

Why was US journalist, Steven Vincent, Shot in Iraq? The Iraq correspondent of the Hariri newspaper Al-Mustaqbal has the most comprehensive and detailed account of the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Steven Vincent. It is based on an interview with a human rights activist in Basra, and it confirmed what we have heard before. That his murder was not political, but that it was based on the clannish traditions of "honor"--how much I hate that notion, even in Hegel's Philosophy of Right--lest you think that it is some Eastern or Arab thing--where he says in the note to Section 164: "On the relations between a man and a woman, it should be noted that a girl loses her honour in [the act] of physical surrender, which is not so much the case with a man, who has another field of ethical activity apart from the family. A girl's vocation [Bestimmung] consists essentially only in the marital relationship"--and about the love affair between Vincent and Nur (his Iraqi interpreter). Apparently, Nur did not know that Vincent was married, and he apparently did not tell people in Iraq that he was, because Nur started to introduce him lately as her fiance. And both Vincent and Nur were kidnapped and shot, and Nur told the local police the reasons, but some in the British troops wanted to politicize it for obvious reasons. Oh, and please before you rush to fetch your nearest copy of The Arab Mind remember that "honor" crimes occur here in the US too, even though they are not categorized as such. Between 40 to 60 % (nobody really knows) of female victims of homicide in the US are killed by a husband or boyfriend.