Rebuke over hijab leads to suicide - Gulf News.Society

Sharjah: A 15-year-old girl committed suicide after she was reprimanded by her mother for leaving the house without wearing her hijab.

The girl did not leave a suicide note, her brother said, because she did not know how to write.

The incident took place in Sharjah last week. Thamina Babi Razem Shah, a Pakistani teenage girl, was found hanging from a hook in her house that was used for slaughtering animals during the Eid sacrifice. The family lives in Al Sharq in Sharjah.

Reflection: I posted this this morning. I debated posting it at all, but decided it had to be posted. At the time I didn't think there was any way to say anything more than she had said herself.

What she cannot say is that she is part of a tiny minority. Girls have the same chances of education as their brothers. UAE national women are more likely to graduate high school, and then to complete a university degree than male nationals. When surveyed families express surprising openness to education of women, and to the prospect of taking jobs - at least for some part of their lives. Palestinians (as this girl was) as a group put a great emphasis on education of their children. Thus, if Western eyes are horrified by this story, part of the horror is misplaced. Because this girl's fate is very much an exception.

I cannot deny that in this country where I live, girls face barriers that their Western counterparts do not face today. But turn the clock back 100 years (a short time really) and Western women faced the same sorts of barriers. Even to the extent that their parents put the sons before the daughters, devoted more resources to them, and expected greater things of them.