The tragic challenge of Saman Abbas, and the others
The Pakistani girl's body has not yet been found, but the clues and a testimony leave no doubts: she was murdered by family members because she did not accept an arranged marriage
Saman Abbas has disappeared now a month ago, unfortunately the hopes that she is still alive, as the father claims, hour by hour they are running out. We really wish we could believe she's still alive, but let us avoid illusions. There is strong indignation at the inability to protect the lives of girls, women who live in our country and want to live like us contravening the impositions of a patriarchal family that bases its beliefs on a fundamentalist reading of religion and archaic traditions. But indignation does not seem to have the strength to break the sort of cultural relativism that conditions the left, who for fear of being accused of Islamophobia makes choices - or no choices - that border on racism.
Just look at the photos released by the media of veiled and unveiled Saman, they look like two different girls, completely. The veil annihilates it, represses it, oppresses her. How not to understand it? How many Samans, Hina, Sana will have to be killed by their own families because they don't want to give in to the arranged marriage, the ban on dating Italian boys, to the compulsion to live a life that is not the one chosen for the problem to be addressed? Saman had already reported her parents for violence against her and had been housed in a reception facility, but when she was eighteen she was gone, she had returned home. Lured with promises and deception? Convinced that she can assert her age? Now it doesn't matter anymore.
In front of the dramatic epilogue, which now unfortunately seems certain, no one talks about feminicide, yet it is, in its own right as is the crime of honor.
After Hina's assassination I had received a letter from a young Moroccan who wrote to me: "I could be next". I still get shivers down my spine when I think about it, she wasn't next but there was one next and there will be more if a way is not found to protect these girls. Not only. It is also necessary to prevent families from bringing their daughters to their countries of origin for arranged marriages or for female circumcision.. It is a battle of civilization that starts from the ius alone but does not stop at formality: Citizenship entails rights and duties, such as that of fighting together to defend the rights conquered and obtain others. Just as women do in every corner of the world against the violence resulting from a patriarchal culture that has no borders.
But in the West, left except in France, it is considered more politically correct to support campaigns to defend the use of the hijab (velo). Also supported by brands that exploit modest fashion (islamic fashion) and moves a considerable turnover. If then to launch the #Handsoffmyhijab campaign on Instagram (Hands off my hijab) is the model Rawdah Mohamed, success is guaranteed. In fact, the Somali-Norwegian model has also become the fashion editor of Vogue Scandinavia.
