A 13-year-old girl stoned to death on accusations of adultery had apparently been raped, according to the UN.
The girl was put in a hole and stoned in Kismayu on October 28, in the first public killing by Islamic militants for about two years.
Local leaders claimed she was guilty under sharia law, while witnesses said they thought the victim was a 23-year-old woman.
In a statement, UNICEF said: "Reports indicate that she had been raped by three men while traveling on foot to visit her grandmother in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.
"Following the assault, she sought protection from the authorities, who then accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death. The child was victimized twice - first by the perpetrators of the rape and then by those responsible for administering justice."
UNICEF said the incident showed the vulnerability of girls and women in Somalia, which has suffered civil conflict for the last 17 years. In the latest cycle, Islamist rebels are fighting the government and their Ethiopian military backers.
A Human rights group identified the girl as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow and said she was killed by 50 men who stoned her to death in a stadium in Kismayu, in front of around 1,000 spectators.
Her father and other sources said that she had been raped by three men.
When the family attempted to report the rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayu, she was accused of adultery and was detained. None of the men she accused of rape were arrested.
A horrible tragedy, by any measure. If the rape had occurred in a good and civilized Christian country where laws are derived from the Bible, then this poor girl would still be alive today and the rapists would have been severely punished.
They would have been required to pay fifty shekels of silver each to the girl's father, and then, they would have all been forced to marry the girl and keep her as their wife for the rest of their lives.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29
If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
Obviously a more appropriate punishment. According to the Bible, you may only put the girl to death if she was married at the time of the rape.
Deuteronomy 22:22-24
If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman:
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die;
No comments:
Post a Comment