Sunday, December 2, 2007
Family Affair
“It’s not right that girls get treated like this and boys get all the freedom. The men in my family are viewed as God. Women aren’t even treated as human beings.”
- Derya, 17
With just a quick read of the lines above, one can be certain that Derya isn’t from a Filipino family. Women, in our tradition, have always been treated with high respects. Though our (women) ancestors weren’t awarded with the same rights as that of men, they weren’t mistreated. Personally, I have never seen my dad hit my mom and he never lift a finger on me, too. So it was doubly shocking for me to learn that there are families elsewhere that pressure their daughters to take their own lives, or else, their families will do it for them.
In this day and age, it is unthinkable that there are certain traditions that restrict the interaction between young men and women. Worse, it is definitely unacceptable, for me, that women who disobey these traditions will be pressured to commit ‘honor suicides’.
Honor suicide is expected to be committed by women who are believed to have stained their family’s name. Derya, the girl who uttered those troubling words above, has done something her family disapproved of: she spoke with a male classmate on her cellphone. Now, she faces the horror of being haunted by her family to take her own life.
I know I don’t have any right to judge Turkey’s traditions, specifically the honor suicide. I have read just one article about it and I have no idea when and why it even started. I have no plans of finding out, though.
Derya’s story, honestly, didn’t make me, at all, interested in what other ‘weird’ traditions her country has. Her story gave me one positive reason why I should be thankful I am where I am right now. Despite the poor governance and unstable economy, we still have countless of reasons why we should be thankful we are born Filipinos- with brown skin, round eyes and loving families.
- Derya, 17
With just a quick read of the lines above, one can be certain that Derya isn’t from a Filipino family. Women, in our tradition, have always been treated with high respects. Though our (women) ancestors weren’t awarded with the same rights as that of men, they weren’t mistreated. Personally, I have never seen my dad hit my mom and he never lift a finger on me, too. So it was doubly shocking for me to learn that there are families elsewhere that pressure their daughters to take their own lives, or else, their families will do it for them.
In this day and age, it is unthinkable that there are certain traditions that restrict the interaction between young men and women. Worse, it is definitely unacceptable, for me, that women who disobey these traditions will be pressured to commit ‘honor suicides’.
Honor suicide is expected to be committed by women who are believed to have stained their family’s name. Derya, the girl who uttered those troubling words above, has done something her family disapproved of: she spoke with a male classmate on her cellphone. Now, she faces the horror of being haunted by her family to take her own life.
I know I don’t have any right to judge Turkey’s traditions, specifically the honor suicide. I have read just one article about it and I have no idea when and why it even started. I have no plans of finding out, though.
Derya’s story, honestly, didn’t make me, at all, interested in what other ‘weird’ traditions her country has. Her story gave me one positive reason why I should be thankful I am where I am right now. Despite the poor governance and unstable economy, we still have countless of reasons why we should be thankful we are born Filipinos- with brown skin, round eyes and loving families.
# posted by Liana : 8:41 PM
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