The younger sister of Tulay Goren, a schoolgirl alleged to have been murdered in an ‘honour killing’ for falling in love, gave evidence from beyond the grave about the final time she saw her sibling.
Hatice Goren died in a car crash seven years after 15-year-old Tulay went missing in January 1999.
But in two video interviews recorded in the months after Tulay’s disappearance Hatice told the Old Bailey about the last time she had seen her.
She said her father Mehmet told eight-year-old brother Tuncay to kiss Tulay goodbye as it would be the last time he saw her.
“My dad said to my brother, go and kiss your sister, Tulay, because this is the last time that you are going to see her,” Hatice said. ”He went and kissed her and my dad was crying as well.”
The girl, then 13, wept as she described her sometimes troubled relationship with Tulay, saying: “Before I used to hate her, but now I like her because I miss her.”
Her father Mehmet Goren is alleged to have murdered Tulay after consulting with his brothers Ali and Cuma.
Mehmet, 49, of Navestock Crescent, Woodford Green, north east London, together with Cuma Goren, 42, of Evesham Avenue, Walthamstow, east London, and Ali Goren, 56, of Brettenham Road, Walthamstow, deny murdering Tulay on January 7 1999.
They also deny conspiracy to murder her boyfriend Halil Unal between May 1998 and February 1999.
The court heard that during an interview on March 23 1999, Hatice said her sister was “fun” although they sometimes argued over “clothes and things”.
She became upset when talking about Tulay and said: “I don’t want to talk about her at all, I just wanted to cry.”
In another interview on June 11, Hatice was asked about the night of January 6 after Tulay had been brought back home by her parents, having run away to be with her boyfriend.
Hatice said Tulay was going to jump out of the window and her father then “got her around the neck”.
She said the next morning her sister told the family that she wanted to go back with her boyfriend.
Hatice said: “She was upset and she was crying.”
There was a phone call from Ali, in which Mehmet was told to go out and call him from a phone box, she said.
Hatice said her father later told Tuncay to say goodbye to Tulay, before they went to stay with uncle Cuma.
When they returned home, she noticed Tulay’s jumper and two pairs of her shoes were left, which her father told her to throw away.
Hatice was asked about how her mother was, and said: “She is upset … she thinks that my sister is dead.”
Asked about her father, she said: “He is okay … he’s not upset really.”
Militants who control parts of Somalia’s capital city are beating women in broad daylight for violating their radical brand of Islamic law, according to local officials and witnesses in Mogadishu.
“Just today, Al-Shabaab dispatched men with whips to the streets around Bakara market and they are flogging any woman who is found not wearing socks,” according to a female maize trader at the Mogadishu market, who spoke Thursday.
She did not want to be named for security reasons.
In the past two days, more than 130 people, including women who were not wearing headscarves and men chewing dried khat leaves, have been detained for violating Al-Shabaab’s interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, according to witnesses and officials.
Hooded Al-Shabaab gunmen rounded up 50 women on Wednesday from Mogadishu’s Bakara market for not wearing the veil that is required for women under some interpretations of Islamic law, according to the maize trader.
“Most of these women were vegetable traders, so they are poor and can’t afford to buy veils for 600,000 shillings [about $23 U.S.],” she said.
She said she saw more women being detained Thursday.
Another 80 Somali civilians were detained in the southwestern town of Luuq, near the Kenyan and Ethiopian border, “because they turned deaf ear to orders we imposed on the town,” said the local Al-Shabaab commander Sheikh Hussien al-Iraqi.
Al-Shabaab is considered a terrorist organization by the United States because of its ties to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network.
It has been imposing stricter rules on Somali civilians living in the areas it controls.
Earlier this month, Al-Shabaab militants whipped women for wearing bras in an area of northern Mogadishu that they control, shocking residents who have been besieged by the ongoing insurgency. The militants believe the female undergarments are a deception to men.
— Buffalo News: “Accused wife killer gets more time to pay for psychiatric expert”
— The Buffalo News reports: — “Over the objections of the prosecutor, Muzzammil S. “Mo” Hassan today was given additional time to secure the money needed to pay for the mental health experts he hopes will help him prove he was emotionally out of control when he decapitated his estranged wife last February.”
— “Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk decried the “glacial pace” of the defense effort, but gave defense attorney James P. Harrington until Dec. 7 to report on the progress of the defense tactics.”
— “The judge warned Harrington that he can still preclude this line of defense if further delays are unacceptable.
— “Prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable complained of deliberate foot-dragging by the defense.”
— “But Harrington insisted that, until an Oct. 13 settlement was reached in the Hassan family estate case, there was a problem with ensuring enough money to pay for the criminal defense.”
— “Though the estate case is several weeks away from a formal settlement, Harrington told the judge that Hassan is now assured he will have enough money to finance his defense, including pay for his psychiatric experts.”
— “The bulk of the estate will go to his four children. Hassan, 44, did not speak during the brief court session that ended about 10:15 a.m. Hassan, who has been jailed since he surrendered to police about an hour after the Feb. 12 killing, did not speak at court. Harrington declined comment as he left court.”
— “The brother of Noor Almaleki, whom police say was run over by her father last week, has told a local television news station that the father and daughter have been in conflict the past couple of years.”
— “Noor Almaleki had married a man in Iraq but returned to the United States and moved in with a boyfriend and his mother in Surprise. The father was furious about the arrangement, according to the brother.”
— “Noor, who underwent spinal surgery, remained unconscious Monday as her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale, continued to elude police.”
— “Peter-Ali Almaleki told CBS 5 News that his sister went ‘out of her way to disrespect’ her traditional Muslim father.”
— “On Oct. 20, Peoria police were called to a Department of Economic Security parking lot and found that Noor Almaleki and her boyfriend’s mother, Amal Edan Khalaf, had been run over. They believe that Faleh Almaleki struck the women while driving his 2000 silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, license plate ADS-9192.”
— “Khalaf reportedly was improving but Noor Almaleki remained in ‘life-threatening’ condition, according to police.”
— “Family members told police that the father was upset that his daughter failed to live by traditional Muslim values.”
— KPHO Phoenix CBS 5 Reports “Family: Anger Fueled Dad’s Attack On Daughter”:
— KPHO reports: “Peter-Ali Almaleki told CBS 5 News in an exclusive interview Saturday that for years his father and sister have been at odds.”
— “He said much of the conflict stems from his sister choosing to not follow in the family’s Muslim traditions but he added he had no idea what led his father to run over his sister.”
— “He said part of the hurt is the tension between father and daughter for the past two years. ‘The people she’s been living with is what triggered my dad’s anger,’ he said.”
— “‘The past two years she’s been going out of her way being disrespectful and the person, the boy that is supposedly her boyfriend, now I don’t like him,’ said Peter-Ali Almaleki.”
— “And for a traditional Muslim family, he said that disrespect was the ultimate insult to his father.”
— “‘Different cultures, different values,’ he said. ‘One thing to one culture does not make sense to another culture.'”
The 2009 report by the World Economic Forum has listed predominantly Islamic nations in the bottom of their 2009 annual Global Gender Gap (GGG) Index. This included such major nations as Pakistan (ranked 132 out of 134), Saudi Arabia (ranked 130 out of 134), Iran (ranked 128 out of 134), Egypt (ranked 126 out of 134), and Turkey (ranked 129 out 134). Yemen, which is 99 percent Islamic, was the bottom ranked nation as 134 on the Global Gender Gap Index. The only nation not predominantly Islamic in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap index was Benin.
(NOTE: In “Updated Later Reports” below, R.E.A.L. has provided links to reports in later years for comparison purposes by other researchers.)
In addition, the 2009 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index report does not include rankings on a number of significant and predominantly Islamic nations where women are oppressed. Somalia (population of nearly 10 million) was not included in the index. Endless numbers of reports of the stonings and extremist abusesof womenhave been reported in Somalia in the past year, including the stoning to death of a 13 year old girl based on “Sharia law” in October 2008. Sudan (population of nearly 41 million) was also not included in the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index. Among other nations, Afghanistan (29 million) and Iraq (29 million) are also not included in this Global Gender Gap Index. With the index not reporting on these 109 million, the desperate fate of an estimated 50 plus million women are not included in this Global Gender Gap index report.
Even with these significant exclusions from the Global Gender Gap index report, the bottom 10 index nations (excluding Benin), which are all predominantly Islamic nations, represent a population of over half a billion individuals. These include Yemen (134 out of 134), Chad (133), Pakistan (132), Saudi Arabia (130), Turkey (129), Iran (128), Mali (127), Egypt (126), Qatar (125), Morocco (124). If women represent half of the population in these nations, then these bottom 10 predominantly Islamic nations demonstrate the ongoing oppression of an estimated 250 million women.
In March 2009, IPS interviewed WEF’s Global Gender Gap (GGG) co-author Saadia Zahidi about the findings of these gender gap reports. In the IPS interview, the reporter asked Saadia Zahidi why wealthy nations such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states were not among the nations at the higher end of the gender gap index, quoting a previous GGG report that stated “rich countries have more education and health opportunities for all members of society.” In the IPS interview, Saadia Zahidi replied: “We don’t have an explanation for this. Some people, when they look at how we have broken this up, say it is so because of Islam. But I am not sure we can say that. With the lowest scores we see different countries with different incomes, religions and cultures. In the middle of the list, you have Indonesia (93), which is doing much better than Saudi Arabia (128), for example.”
In the March 2009 interview, Saadia Zahidi was referencing the 2008 report standings, as in 2009, Saudi Arabia is now ranked at 130 out of 134; Indonesia remains ranked at 93 out of 134, which WEF’s Saadia Zahidi views as the “middle of the list.”
The Global Gender Gap report makes no reference as to how the impact of extremist behavior and ideologies regarding women and equality in such nations have any role in such gender gaps.
The June 2009 U.S. State Department report on global human trafficking also shows a number of the nations in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap (GGG) index as nations with the worst records on human trafficking as well. (Note – a number of poorly ranked nations on human trafficking, such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, are simply not referenced in the GGG index.) The State Department report states that “According to the ILO, the majority of people trafficked for sexual exploitation or subjected to forced labor are female.”
Tier 3 Nations on Human Trafficking also in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index include:
– Saudi Arabia — GGG rank 130 out of 134
– Iran — GGG rank 128 out of 134
– Syria — GGG rank 121 out of 134
– Malaysia — GGG rank 101 out of 134
– Mauritania — GGG rank 119 out of 134
Tier 2 Watch List Nations on Human Trafficking also in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index include:
– Pakistan — GGG rank 132 out of 134
– Algeria — GGG rank 117 out of 134
– Yemen — GGG rank 134 out of 134
– United Arab Emirates — GGG rank 112 out of 134
– Egypt — GGG rank 126 out of 134
Tier 2 Nations on Human Trafficking also in the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index include:
– Jordan — GGG rank 115 out of 134
– Turkey — GGG rank 129 out of 134
Image from State Dept 2009 Human Trafficking Report, section “Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking”
Press Coverage on Global Gender Gap Report:
The Associated Press has reported on this survey that: “At the bottom of the list were Qatar, Egypt, Mali, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Pakistan, Chad and Yemen in last place with a score of 46.1 per cent.” The AP report also quoted the World Economic Forum’s founder and executive chairman, Klaus Schwab, who stated: “Girls and women make up one half of the world’s population, and without their engagement, empowerment and contribution, we cannot hope to achieve a rapid economic recovery nor effectively tackle global challenges such as climate change, food security and conflict.”
— Links to Key Gender Gap Country Profiles and Highlights
— 1. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Pakistan – Ranked 132 out of 134 Countries
— Pakistan – Islamic Republic, 96 percent Islamic
— Pakistan Population Estimate: 176,242,949
— 2. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Saudi Arabia – Ranked 130 out of 134 Countries
— Saudi Arabia – Islamic Absolute Monarchy, 97 percent Islamic
— Saudi Arabia Population Estimate: 28,686,633
— 3. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Iran – Ranked 128 out of 134 Countries
— Iran – Islamic Republic, 98 percent Islamic
— Iran Population Estimate: 66,429,284
— 4. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Egypt – Ranked 126 out of 134 Countries
— Egypt – 80 to 90 percent Islamic
— Egypt Population Estimate: 83,082,869
— 5. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Turkey – Ranked 129 out of 134 Countries
— Turkey – “the CIA World factbook states that 99.8% of Turkey’s population are nominally Muslims”
— Turkey Population Estimate: 76,805,524
— 6. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Qatar – Ranked 125 out of 134 Countries
— Qatar – 77 percent Islamic
— Qatar Population Estimate: 833,285
— 7. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Yemen – Ranked 134 out of 134 Countries
— Yemen – 99 percent Islamic
— Yemen Population Estimate: 23,822,783
— 8. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Mali – Ranked 127 out of 134 Countries
— Mali – 90 percent Islamic
— Mali Population Estimate: 12,666,987
— 9. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Chad – Ranked 133 out of 134 Countries
— Chad – 54 percent Islamic
— Chad Population Estimate: 10,329,208
— 10. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Morocco – Ranked 124 out of 134 Countries
— Morocco – 98.7 percent Islamic
— Morocco Population Estimate: 34,859,364
— 11. Gender Gap 2009 Report on Benin – Ranked 131 out of 134 Countries
— Benin – Predominantly Christian, 24 percent Islamic
— Benin Population Estimate: 8,791,832
— Other Nations of Concern that are predominantly Islamic: — Syria – ranked 121 — population 20,178,485
— Mauritania – ranked 119 – population 3,129,486
— Algeria – ranked 117 — population 34,178,188
— Jordan – ranked 115 — population 6,342,948
— United Arab Emirates – ranked 112 – population 4,798,491
— Malaysia – ranked 101 — population 25,715,819
— Maldives – ranked 100 — population 396,334
— Bangladesh – ranked 94 — population 156,050,883
— Indonesia – ranked 93 — population 240,271,522
— Jakarata Post reports “Women banned from wearing trousers”:
— “Women wearing jeans and other trousers in West Aceh will now face sharia police, as will clothes vendors selling slacks for women.”
— “West Aceh Regent Ramli M.S. issued the controversial regulation on Tuesday.”
— “Those found wearing tight trousers, such as jeans, will have them cut by sharia police, and will be forced to wear loose-fitting attire.”
— “‘We have issued the regulation to further enforce Islamic sharia granted by the central government,’ Ramli told The Jakarta Post by phone on Tuesday.”
— “To anticipate the huge number of slacks to be cut by police during raids, the West Aceh regency administration has prepared around 7,000 long skirts, which will be provided for free to those caught wearing trousers.”
— “According to Ramli, the new regulation will be effective as of Jan. 1, 2010.”
— “The regulation also prohibits clothes vendors in the regency from selling slacks or jeans to women.”
— “To implement the regulation, the West Aceh administration will issue an order for sharia police to conduct raids and patrols in every district in the regency.”
— “Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia.”
— “Members of the comparatively ‘moderate’ Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on Oct. 19 at 9:30 p.m. in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons.”
— “Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam. She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian.”
— “The source said Ali had called him on Oct. 4 saying, ‘My life is in danger. I am warned of dire consequences if I continue to live without putting on the veil. I need prayers from the fellowship.'”
— “‘I was shocked beyond words when I received the news that she had been shot dead,” the source in Somalia told Compass by telephone. ‘I wished I could have recalled her to my location. We have lost a long-serving Christian.'”
— “Ali had come to Galkayo from Jilib, 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Kismayo, in 2007. She arrived in Puntland at the invitation of a close friend, Saynab Warsame of the Darod clan, when the extremist group al Shabaab invaded Kismayo, the source said. Warsame was born in Kismayo and had lived in Jilib but moved to Puntland when war broke out in 1991.”
