Finnish police suddenly discover honor violence after being warned eight years ago.
A story that recently made its way into the Finnish news media involves an Afghani woman sharing her story of what happened to her nearly 10 years ago in Helsinki. Eva Tawasoli was only 16 years old at the time when her family came to Finland from Afghanistan as refugees. She told the Ilta-Sanomat that “suicide would be the only option for her to flee the mental hell caused by honor violence and her upcoming forced marriage.”
Tawasoli, a 29-year-old municipal politician for the Greens Party, is now running as a Greens candidate for the European Union parliament. Talking of her failed suicide attempt, she said it was a miracle that she didn’t die. Jumping off a bridge with her eyes closed ended only in her losing unconsciousness followed by a long rehabilitation process. She now hopes that by openly talking about the phenomenon that greater awareness will help others in the same predicament.
The discussion of honor-related violence crops up in the Finnish media every once in a while, just after an incident involving it comes to light. The latest instance of it occurred just over two months ago in the Haaga district of Helsinki. An Iraqi with a court restraining order which was supposed to keep him away from his ex-wife tried to stab to death both her and an adult friend accompanying her during child visitation rights. Hayder Abduljabbar Al-Hmedavia managed to wound both adults including his children in the altercation that took place outside the building. Managing to elude the police, Al-Hmedavia slipped out of the country and is still unaccounted for. Both Al-Hmedavia and ex-wife both came to Finland in 2015 as refugees.
The Finnish police seem to be totally caught off guard by the phenomenon. The Ilta-Sanomat reports that Finnish police are just now realizing the extent of it:
– “The high number of cases has surprised the police. Since there was no statistics in the past, it is only now that the police have understood the real extent of the problem. There are often many perpetrators of honor crimes. According to Koskela, this complicates the work of the police.”
This, however, isn’t true. Not even close. Back in 2011 the Finnish state news broadcaster YLE reported that over a 1000 immigrant women were victims of honor violence:
“As many as 1,000 immigrant women have been the victims of violent honor crimes in Finland. Although the issue has been discussed in recent years, co-operation between officials and communities is limited.”
The YLE report could be dated today, it’s that relevant. How is it that Finnish police could be so clueless to the extent of honor violence happening right under its nose unless there was a culture of denial existing within the upper echelons of the department? This is not a new development, but an old one, a cruel phenomenon that been allowed to metastasize due to unofficial policy, malfeasance due to political correctness.
In 2010, YLE ran an article telling how immigrant groups were ‘grappling with honor violence crime’. The state broadcaster interviewed the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare organization, a Finnish NGO that “promotes the wellbeing of children and of families with children”. The League told of “receiving about 100 suspected honor crimes over the past three years, and says the number of such incidents is growing steadily.” Also of interest was the notice of how Finnish men were unlikely to understand the differences in culture. Without discussing Islamic norms, the NGO’s Project Manager Marjo van Dijke stated it in the following way:
“A woman’s freedom determines moral expectations and behaviors related to morality and chastity and has created challenges for many Finnish men as they don’t know how to proceed and what they can do in practice,”.
Again, this has all been in the public record for some time now, yet the Finnish police were in the dark as to the extent of it? In 2011, a Finnish governmental task force called for urgent steps in preventing honor-related violence. The commission was chaired by Georg Henrik Wrede, then head of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s policy programme for the well-being of children, youth and families. That task force included not only government ministries, women’s groups but the police as well. The commission concluded then:
“there should also be education on how to help the victims of honor-related violence and bring perpetrators to justice. Those in need of training include police, prosecutors, judges, and teachers as well as health and social workers.”
Fast forwarding to today, it makes the statements coming out Helsinki’s spokesman’s office that the high number of cases has surprised them, ring hollow:
“Since there was no statistics in the past, it is only now that the police have understood the real extent of the problem.”
The Finnish police have had eight years to gather statistics on honor violence, why haven’t they?
Then there’s the Monika Women’s Safe-House NGO, the women’s group that helps women in distress. The Helsinki Vice-Mayor, Nasima Razmyar, who also chaired the NGO in 2017, insisted in the Ilta-Sanomat that “– The entire issue hasn’t been even researched properly.” Then what was in that report given by the government task force? Something was researched, why the obfuscation? Because it dealt with Islam?
Eleven years ago I contacted the Monika organization and talked with its director, Reet Nurmi. Our discussion surrounded her insistence in an interview concerning an Iraqi girl who fled her father due to fear of honor-related violence. She stated then that:
“emphasizes that religion is not to blame. The Koran does not permit violence towards women. What’s in question, is tradition and culture, something of which people are very slow to change their minds about.”
That is of course totally untrue:
Quran- 4:15 “If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four (reliable) witness from amongst you against them; if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them. Or God ordain for them some (other) way.”
Quran-24:2 “The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication—flog each of them with hundred stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by God, if ye believe in God and the last day.”
Quran-17:32 “ Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils).
Quran-33:33 “stay quietly in your houses, and make not a dazzling display.”
Now some sahih hadiths:
Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 63, Number 196:Narrated Abu Huraira: A man from Bani Aslam came to Allah’s Apostle while he was in the mosque and called (the Prophet ) saying, “O Allah’s Apostle! I have committed illegal sexual intercourse.” On that the Prophet turned his face from him to the other side, whereupon the man moved to the side towards which the Prophet had turned his face, and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! I have committed illegal sexual intercourse.” The Prophet turned his face (from him) to the other side whereupon the man moved to the side towards which the Prophet had turned his face, and repeated his statement. The Prophet turned his face (from him) to the other side again.
The man moved again (and repeated his statement) for the fourth time. So when the man had given witness four times against himself, the Prophet called him and said, “Are you insane?” He replied, “No.” The Prophet then said (to his companions), “Go and stone him to death.” The man was a married one. Jabir bin ‘Abdullah Al-Ansari said: I was one of those who stoned him. We stoned him at the Musalla (‘Id praying place) in Medina. When the stones hit him with their sharp edges, he fled, but we caught him at Al-Harra and stoned him till he died.(See also Bukhari: Volume 7, Book 63, Number 195.)
Sahi Bukhari: 8:6814:Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah al-Ansari: “A man from the tribe of Bani Aslam came to Allah’s Messenger [Muhammad] and informed him that he had committed illegal sexual intercourse; and he bore witness four times against himself. Allah’s Messenger ordered him to be stoned to death as he was a married person.”
Sahi Muslim No. 4206: “A woman came to the prophet and asked for purification by seeking punishment. He told her to go away and seek God’s forgiveness. She persisted four times and admitted she was pregnant. He told her to wait until she had given birth. Then he said that the Muslim community should wait until she had weaned her child. When the day arrived for the child to take solid food, Muhammad handed the child over to the community. And when he had given command over her and she was put in a hole up to her breast, he ordered the people to stone her. Khalid b. al-Walid came forward with a stone which he threw at her head, and when the blood spurted on her face he cursed her.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol 2. pg 1009; and Sahih Muslim Vol 2. pg 65: Hadhrat Abdullah ibne Abbaas (Radiallahu Anhu) narrates the lecture that Hadhrat Umar (Radiallaahu Anhu) delivered whilst sitting on the pulpit of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wa Sallam). Hadhrat Umar (Radiallahu Anhu) said, “Verily, Allah sent Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) with the truth, and revealed the Quran upon him. The verse regarding the stoning of the adulterer/ess was from amongst the verse revealed (in the Quraan). We read it, secured it and understood it. Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) stoned and we stoned after him. I fear that with the passage of time a person might say, ‘We do not find mention of stoning in the Book of Allah and thereby go astray by leaving out an obligation revealed by Allah. Verily, the stoning of a adulterer/ress is found in the Quraan and is the truth, if the witnesses are met or there is a pregnancy or confession.”
Al-Bukhari:The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever guarantees me that he will guard his chastity, I will guarantee him Paradise”.
Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, An-Nisa’i and others: Abu Hurayrah reports that the Messenger of Allah said, “No one commits adultery while still remaining a believer, for faith is more precious unto Allah than such an evil act!” In another version, it is stated, “When a person commits adultery he casts away from his neck the bond that ties him to Islam; if, however, he repents, Allah will accept his repentance”.
Al-Bayhaqi:The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “O mankind! Beware of fornication/adultery for it entails six dire consequences: three of them relating to this world and three to the next world. As for the three that are related to this world, they are the following: it removes the glow of one’s face, brings poverty, and reduces the life-span. As for its dire consequences in the next world they are: it brings down the wrath of Allah upon the person, subjects him to terrible reckoning, and finally casts him in hell-fire.”
I stated then that “Reet Nurmi informed me that she didn’t have any kind of personal knowledge of the Koran, and that her only information about it, came from Muslims themselves. They, both male and female, tell the same story, that the Koran does not allow violence of any kind towards women. I could hear the light bulb click on in her head as we talked, she kept saying that she had no idea about these Koranic verses, nor about the Hadiths.
So why hasn’t the Vice-Mayor of Helsinki, Nasima Nazmyar, taken a larger role in highlighting the violent verses in the Koran and in respected hadiths as detrimental to women in Finland? Is the Monkia organization still insisting that honor violence is “a tradition and culture, something of which people are very slow to change their minds about.” If so, why?
