This is not about Islam, or even about sharia law; those were just the justifications of a mob. It is about the willingness of people to gossip, condemn and torture in self-righteous stupidity. Before we Westerners feel smug and superior, we must remember that it is those very feelings which make actions like these possible. In a town of 1,200, with at least ten churches, my animals were shot. I was constantly threatened. Gossip about me spread until I couldn't find a house to rent. I lost almost everything. I arrived here, almost 200 miles away, exhausted and terrified. My dog had a bullet in her shoulder, so I was accused of animal cruelty and of being mentally incompetent to take care of myself or my animals. I live without sewage, running water or heat in winter. Yet, I planted a garden; my nanny goat had two kids; I'm raising ducklings and goslings; I have a hen on a nest and two laying daily. I am trying, with PTSD and brain injuries from childhood, to start over at 54 years old. Yesterday morning, as I drank my coffee in the front yard while feeding my animals, a mother passed my place with two girls. The youngest, no more than three, pointed at me and said, “Mira! La Loca!” Look! The Crazy Woman. They don't know my name, where I came from, how I got here or anything else about me. And the gossip is already starting again. Can you imagine my terror and depression? Until we can see humanity as Us, not Us versus Them, nothing will change. As Soroya walked through the streets, through the crowds, to her death, I thought of Jesus on his way to Calgary. Two thousand years and nothing has changed. Stoning was first condoned by Jewish tradition, then so-called “christian” and THEN by Islam. Do not feel smug or superior. We do this every day, all over the planet. Men are the worst perpetrators, the worst gossips, because they, traditionally have more power. But women do not protect each other, do not protest, do not prevent. I want to be like Zahra.
Here's something you can do about it:
http://www.stop-killing.org/
