Turkish 16-year-old Girl Buried Alive For Talking To Boys

Imagine having your hands tied, dumped into a 2 meter hole under a chicken coop, and having shovel after shovel of dirt hurled upon you. By your own family. While you were still alive. All because you had the audacity to talk to boys. This is what happened to 16-year-old, Medine Memi, in south east Turkey whose family felt she was worth more to them dead than being dishonored for what they felt was a major dishonor- the simple act of befriending boys. Her body was found by police 40 days after she was declared missing, and it was determined, from the amount of soil she had ingested, that she had been buried alive.

woman OHTLm 16105

"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl, who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood, was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one anonymous expert said.

Who knows how long she survived buried under all that dirt. But I can only imagine what agony she went through trying to breathe. As if honor killings over adultery and rape aren't obscene enough as it is, what would possess a family to murder their own child simply because she had male friends? Social strictures based on culture and religion. This is the problem with conservatives in certain religions, and cultures that are influenced by certain religions, that believe that women and men should not mingle unless they are related.

Medine's father and grandfather were arrested and are awaiting trial for her murder. The mother was also arrested but was later released. Apparently, honor killings are decided upon by 'family councils' consisting of elders in the family, which means they sat down and decided that since Medine was friendly with boys she had to die, and they probably felt since they had 8 other children, one less wouldn't matter. I have to wonder if she was present when the decision was made, and if she knew she had been condemned to death. Her grandfather supposedly beat her over the issue, since she filed a complaint with the police several months prior to her murder. Too bad they didn't do something about it back then, instead of waiting to dig up her dead body.