I am back...

[xp_dust]

Hey everyone,

I am back from Attilan. After ending up in some trouble, the teachers there and I decided it would be safer for me to come back here. And before anyone asks… some former friend decided he wanted to marry me and some other former friends decided to help him to the point of kidnapping me and attacking me in my room at the school in Attilan…
  
I looked around the journals and saw that we have a some new faces since I was here for the last time. I am Sooraya Qadir. I am originally from Afghanistan until a good man saved me from my owner and brought me to the States in 2006. Since then I have studied here and in Attilan, with about a year’s break to spend time with my mother, who still is in Afghanistan. I look forward to getting to know all of you.  You can recognize me from the headscarf, unless there is another Muslim girl around… ;))

I hope to finish my last two high school courses here and to go to college in September 2012. Not sure yet what I want to study, but I still have time to figure that one out.

Before I forget, Leyu told me to say hi to everyone on her behalf.

Comments

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

Not matter how heinous the crime, violence as punishment further reinforces the belief that violence ought to be used to gain the results one desires. It may only reinforce the conditions that produced the crime so grotesque as to inspire you to act.

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

I tend to not use violence as the solution in cases like this, so much as...nudging their karmic consequences, shall we say. Through the judicious use of technology.

(If you would like to understand my motivations, just watch the movie Sneakers.)

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can stop you, but please be careful. I don't want to see you hurt...

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

I'm always careful, Sooraya.

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Violence would be over too fast for these guys. Pain is temporary but some things are forever.

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

I believe it is possible you are not considering the larger sociological or cultural impact of a reaction intended to punish. While you are being unspecific as to your plans, I suggest to you that something which is not articulated may be kept as such because it would not be considered justice.

Arranged marriages are still common even in India, to some degree. You will not be approaching homo criminalis but a cultural reality that individualization of punishment will not address and may reinforce. I advocate collecting evidence so the culprit can be prosecuted by local authorities or, if they refuse to act, to international authorities.

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

The way I understand it, arranged marriages are normally done by consent and if one or the other really doesn't want it, it doesn't happen. There's a long way between that and grabbing a girl off the street to try and force her into it.

I'm sure more than one person already has that in hand, and Doug will hand over anything incriminating he might find to the right people.

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

That is correct. If you are going to gather information to be used in prosecution then I do not understand the ominous tone.

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

Because Doug and I are going to have some fun with them while we gather the information. Violence won't come into it unless they start it, but like Doug said, they're going to experience a little karmic retribution.

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

I still do not understand the implication you're making, if it is neither violence nor simply building an amount of evidence for prosecution. I also suspect you mean something different by Karma. My apologies.

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

In Islam a girl has a wali, a kind of guardian who helps her with marriage, and usually this is her father or another male relative. If you are an orphan or don't have any other family, usually a high Muslim offical will take on that role. He can arrange a marriage for her. And Sayyid cast himself into that role. Some details of how this works vary through the different schools of thought though.

What he forgot, is that a girl has to consent first. I definately didn't consent.

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

I do not approve of marriage for any reason but love, personally. In this case I only fear the response to injustice being itself unjust and perpetuating the cycle. I am very sorry for what happened; I have myself been abducted for a time. It is certainly terrible.

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you are very kind.

I don't mind the idea of wali very much. I like the idea of someone who I can rely on with more experience on those matters then I have. But I do want the right to say yes or no...

[x-korvus.livejournal.com]

Certainly not an unreasonable desire.