pregnant 13-year-old murdered by her parents

When I was a teenager in Iraq, about 13, a guy from Jordan came to Iraq to study college in Iraq because college is free in Iraq, they just have to rent a house. After 4 years they finish school and Jordan accepts the degree and they can return. One Jordan Dinar equals $4 USD. In Jordan, this education would cost the equilivant of one million dollars.

In Iraq, a girl of 13 in Middle School in my neighborhood, fell in love with a Jordanian who was studying there. He smooth-talked her into believing he would take her back to Jordan and marry her and they would have a great new life. She had sex with him and got pregnant. 


She tried to ask her friends to help her get an abortion but no one could help. So her family found out, and because this is a BIG shame on the family, they took her and bound her by her hands and feet and took her to a broken empty house and burned her to death, then put her in a grave. 


There was no funeral or family gathering to mourn her death. No body was allowed to acknowledge it. This was the way the family disposed of the shame she brought upon them. In Iraq this is not illegal and the government does nothing. 

I tell you this so that you understand the mentality of Iraqi people. When they come to America, they still have these beliefs and customs and mentality, and they have no regard for the laws here. They act on family honor and the dictates of guarding that honor, however outrageous we find that to be. It is normal to them.