My 15-year-old relative was killed for refusing to marry her cousin

Bender

Absolutely awful, but part of their culture and legal system. Question for the historians: what precedents are set regarding changing a culture? What worked and what did not?

regularization

Isn't this the country the US and UK invaded in 2003 because of non-existent WMDs (shades of Iran today) and overthrew the nationalist, secular leader, so that it has now fallen more into the hands of Islamists? Incidentally Iraq's parliament told the US military to leave in 2020 and the US has refused. So this is going on under the continued US military occupation of this country.

rootedbox

Before we look all high and mighty on this.. Just a reminder "gay panic defense." is still used in court today in the USA to justify killing of gays. The most famous case was when Lucien Carr killed David Kammerer. The just called it an honor slaying. No person should ever be killed, and it should never be justified because its the social norm.

windowshopping

What can we do to help them?

kyleee

This could have been prevented if the UK let her in

rendx

"More than 30 [US] states nationwide have no ban on child marriage. And it is not an anomaly. According to the non-profit Unchained At Last, since the year 2000, the United States has documented 315,000 cases of child marriage within its own borders—largely sanctioned by the Church and courts. No federal law bans child marriage in America. Not one." "CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 1979. Afghanistan has ratified this treaty. The United States has not." "Today, the spectacle of America condemning child marriage abroad while refusing to adopt the international treaty that prohibits it is a moral and legal incoherence that undermines every word we say." https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/the-taliban-legalizes-child-ma...

lacoolj

Absolute trajedy. Can someone explain why this is on HN tho

jimjimjim

This is going to burn through karma faster than a blowtorch but it seems to me that just because something is a tradition doesn't mean it should be respected. The world changes, traditions should change to. And before anybody says "what right do I have to tell other people how to live", why not? why shouldn't I tell other people how to live? I'm sure those people would tell me how to live so I feel totally ok with thinking some people's traditions are reprehensible and I feel like those traditions should change.

lowpro

I drove through Iraq for a month in 2022. From Baghdad north to Erbil, then south to Fallujah and Najaf. Men and women rarely interact, like many Muslim majority countries. It is odd for most people to talk to the other gender who is not their direct family. Found the stereotypes we have in the west of women were the same there but more exaggerated. A tough existence.

ChoGGi

That's horrific, so was the cousin working at a Y Combinator startup or something?