Some of you may have heard of the case of the Sri Lankan teenager who has been sentenced to be beheaded in Saudi Arabia on charges that she murdered a four-month old baby left in her care. The baby allegedly choked to death while the girl, Rizana Nafeek, 19, was feeding him. Here is an article about the recent developments.
My heart goes out to the family of the baby who died. . . I truly believe that there's nothing worse for a parent than the death of a child. But taking the life of someone who made a heart-breaking mistake won't undo the tragedy and the wrongs that have already happened.
Please add your voice to calls to the baby's family and the Saudi government to pardon Rizana and spare her life. The east of Sri Lanka has already been ravaged by the war and tsunami and much loss and suffering. This is a heart-breaking fate to befall someone who wanted a better life for herself and her family.
An Amnesty International letter with addresses to send to.
A letter drafted by the Asian Human Rights Commission asking the baby's family to pardon her.
An online petition.
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6 comments:
What an awful and horrible story. It's good to read that she now has representation. Hopefully her appeal will be successful and she can ultimately get the hell out of the country. It's shameful that the government did not intervene until the BBC put a spotlight on the story.
Outlaw, she's poor, she's a Muslim from the east of Sri Lanka, and she's a girl. In the eyes of the Sri Lankan government, that equates to "not worth the tin plate she eats from." They're only doing something because of the media attention.
The paper I work for is the local paper in Clayton County. There are no contracts around here, no non-compete, etc. That is why we have problems. Everyone takes everything on good faith and no one lives on good faith.
I think part of the issue for the family is finding some sense of justice in this. Truly, babies don't choke to death while simply drinking a bottle. Not that it's outside comprehension that such a thing could have happened.
So the family has a great loss, and how to reverse or at least address it?
Isn't it strange, really, that we humans have such a strong sense of vengeance?
LL, yes, the need for vengeance is definitely built into our systems. To overcome that we need divine help! And the family has suffered a massive loss, and certainly needs help in dealing with it. I've seen even less written about what's being done for the family (or what can be done) than about Rizana's problem. Maybe if that was addressed, they would be more amenable to forgiveness?
And I know that she likely did do something wrong when feeding the baby. I don't think she's denying that, or refusing to bear the blame for that. But the issue here is that she is to be beheaded without a proper trial or access to legal counsel, on a false claim (that she strangled the baby) and was made to sign a confession that she didn't understand. Even in the land of dodgy legal practices, this is a shocking disregard for the basic rights of a human being.
Reminds me of the Israel bombardment of Lebanon in 2006 when Sri Lankan workers in that country were told not to bother to attempt to go back home by the Sri Lankan Embassy.
The lives and safety of these people were worth nothing to the Sri Lankan government and this makes me ashamed to be from that country.
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