Family promises to kill teen lovers
August 2, 2011, 8:11 am
Young love has landed two teenagers in trouble, with the girl's uncle visiting her in jail to promise that her family will kill her.
Set in Afghanistan, it is a love story that could result in a tragic ending for teenagers Halima Mohammedi and her boyfriend Rafi Mohammed.
"The two teenagers met inside an ice-cream factory through darting glances before roll call, murmured hellos as supervisors looked away and, finally, a phone number folded up and tossed discreetly onto
the workroom floor," The New York Times reported.
"(Last) month, a group of men spotted the couple riding together in a car, yanked them into the road and began to interrogate the boy and girl.
"An angry crowd of 300 surged around them, calling them adulterers and demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged.
"When security forces swooped in and rescued the couple, the mob's anger exploded. They overwhelmed the local police, set fire to cars and stormed a police station six miles from the centre of Herat,
raising questions about the strength of law in a corner of western Afghanistan and in one of the first cities that has made the formal transition to Afghan-led security."
The Times said the riot last hours and resulted in the death of one man, a burnt police station, and juvenile detention for the two young lovers.
"Officially, their fates lie in the hands of an unsteady legal system. But they face harsher judgments of family and community," The Times said.
"Ms Mohammedi's uncle visited her in jail to say she had shamed the family, and promised that they would kill her once she was released.
"Her father, an illiterate labourer who works in Iran, sorrowfully concurred. He cried during two visits to the jail, saying almost nothing to his daughter.
"Blood, he said, was perhaps the only way out."
Her father, Kher, urged the government to kill both of the 17-year-olds.
"The teenagers, embarrassed to talk about love, said plainly that they were ready for death. But they were baffled by why they should have to be killed," The Times said.
A stoning ordered by the Taliban last year resulted in the death of two lovers who had eloped.
"The stoning marked a brutal application of Shariah law, captured on a video recording released online months later," The Times reported.
A provincial council has decided that Halima and Rafi deserve the government's protection "because neither was engaged, and because each said they wanted to get married".
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