Woman Beheaded in New York State
February 17, 2009
by Violet Socks, Editor
Aasiya and Muzzammil Hassan at the Bridges TV studio
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Police say an upstate New York television executive who sought to improve the image of Muslims in the media beheaded his wife after she filed for divorce.
Muzzammil Hassan (moo-ZAHM’-mel HAH’-sahn) is charged with murdering his wife, Aasiya (AH’-see-ya) Hassan. Police say she had an order of protection against her husband and he had been kicked out of the house they shared in Orchard Park, near Buffalo.
They accuse the 44-year-old Hassan of cutting off his wife’s head at the TV station where he launched his Bridges TV network in 2004…
Beheaded? He beheaded her?
I became aware of this story yesterday, when our friends at NOW-NY issued a press release demanding that the media pay attention. When I checked Google News yesterday, there were only 55 articles on the story. Now there are 524. I don’t know if the NOW press release stirred things up or if the story reached critical mass on its own, but attention is clearly being paid.
The question is, what do we say about this horror? What does it mean?
On one level, the Buffalo murder points up the inadequacy of the language used to discuss violence against women. The Erie County District Attorney referred to the beheading of Aasiya Hassan as “the worst form of domestic violence possible.” NOW-NY fired back:
What is “domestic” about this violence? NOW NYS President Marcia Pappas says “it is high time we stop regarding assaults and murders as lover’s quarrels gone bad. We further demand of lawmakers that punishments fit crimes. We of NOW decry the selective enforcement of assault laws and call for judicial enforcement of our mandatory arrest policy, even when the axe-wielder is known by his victim.”
Exactly.
Violence against women is a global pandemic, and referring to it as a “domestic” issue just perpetuates the problem. The reason one-third of the female human beings on this planet are abused, beaten, or raped at some point in their lives is because of the patriarchal attitude that women are just part of the household furniture, the property of their male partners and relatives. That’s no longer the official view in most Western legal codes, but it’s still the unspoken assumption permeating our culture. Think of the Chris Brown-Rihanna case: how many people have you heard wondering aloud what she did to provoke him? The implication is that men have the right to discipline their property, and if “you poke it, you own it.”
Another way language falls down is in trying to distinguish honor killings from other forms of violence against women. The Buffalo murder looks like a one-man honor killing: the Muslim husband, the wayward wife, the beheading, the hours of torture leading up to the moment of death. Violence against women is a house of many mansions, and honor killings are a distinct species, along with bride-burnings, genital mutilation, acid attacks, wartime rape, wife-beating, and murders by jealous husbands. It does us no good to paper over the distinctions; on the contrary, we need to study our subject closely to understand how best to expose and combat each variation. We must be like doctors fighting disease, seeking to identify precisely the pathogens involved.
In the United States alone, two million women are abused each year by their male partners, and 1300 women are murdered. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that these figures are on the rise, with a 42% increase in incidents of “domestic violence” from 2005 to 2007. Existing remedies are inadequate: Aasiya Hassan had a restraining order against her husband, but that didn’t save her life. At The New Agenda, we are absolutely committed to fostering an honest national dialogue on this epidemic. We must get serious about understanding why it happens, how it happens, and, most importantly, how it can be stopped.
Violet,
This is an awesome piece. So proud of what you have written.
Simply wonderful Violet.
Together we are going to move this issue. For too long, all the burden of preventing violence has been put on the potential victim. No one wants to interfere with the privileges of the potential perpetrator.
Our focus must be on preventing men from becoming violent offenders in the first place. A combination of age-appropriate values-clarification training curricula and serious disincentives for threatening women is the right place to start.
I agree with Nina. That is a wonderful piece, Violet. Once we learn what causes men to be abusive, we can figure out how to prevent that type of behavior for entering their minds.
Nina, I am not entirely certain what you mean by “age-appropriate values-clarification training curricula” Are you referring to special progams for public schools?
I wonder why there is this dramatic increase between 2005 and 2007… 42% is huge! What exactly has changed in our culture and in how our culture portrays women? What were the cultural aspects that influenced the perpetrators and victims alike their formative years?
I think that if we figure out what has changed within our culture, we can reverse the trend.
I disagree Nina, that what you suggest is the first place. What we need to do is raise awareness, just as the homosexual and Jewish communities have done, that this is a hate crime, make it so that no-one can say what Alex has said in another thread. This woman was killed because she was a woman. He did it because he could, as a man. The Muslim part only comes in with the way he did it.
As a New Yorker, I thank you for writing about his horrible murder and yes, “hate crime”. I agree with Nina AND Sis. This has to be a two part approach.
Violet, Great blog. Just to the point.
As I know from research that we did for a conference at the United Nations focused on grass roots peacemaking, the World Health Organization has proof that violence against women world wide causes more deaths that any decease which the WHO tracks.
This is domestic terrorism at the hands of loved ones and family and needs to be put into 1st degree murder catagory since most of the time it is pre-meditated, planned and carried out after the woman has errored in her ways. I don’t see how these murders are called crimes of passion, when the men are just executioners carrying out cultural punishment that is deemed deserving by the male gender that has and needs total control.
Maybe if certain conviction and death was waiting for the perpetrator this sort of violence would be curbed.
Excellent start! The question of how “honor killings” can be similar to, or different from, other forms of domestic abuse is yet to be brought into the light of day.
Here’s another good start:
http://www.meforum.org/article/2067
Now is the time for women to band together, and fight. In memory of Aasiya Hassan.
I was also struck by the D.A. referring to this horrific murder as “domestic violence”. That makes it sound tame and unthreatening, rather like a pet. Which seems to be about how seriously society and our laws treat it.
When asking why it happens and how it can be stopped, the answer is really simple. It happens because men are taught that this kind of behavior is acceptable and they believe they can get away with it.
Not all men absorb this lesson, but those who do have it reinforced by the culture, the media, the way they were raised.
In order to prevent violence we have to change the message so that it becomes clear in our culture that this behavior is not acceptable, that you will not get away with it, and that women’s lives have value.
Here are some more details from the current version of the CNN story:
cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/16/buffalo.beheading/
On Monday, [Police Chief} Benz told CNN that Hassan went directly to the police station after his wife's death Thursday and confessed to killing her. However, Benz on Tuesday denied that he'd said Hassan confessed.
[....]
He had two children, 4 and 6, with his wife. He had two other children, 17 and 18, from his previous marriage.
From the same CNN story:
Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder
Second-degree???
Can we stop calling it an “honor” killing? There’s nothing honorable about it. I propose we change it to vanity killing or some other term that more accurately describes the male arrogance behind these kinds of murders.
Here’s another parallel between the women’s rights movement and the Black civil rights movement. Crimes against members of both communities are trivialized by how they’re labeled, with women being dubbed victims of “domestic” violence (the nice, friendly, family kind of violence that we’re not supposed to stick our noses into), and Blacks being victims of “inner city” or “black-on-black” crime (the kind that people in nice neighborhoods shouldn’t trouble themselves about). We can only hope President Obama understands either one, let alone the connection.
*****A
I want to know why he was charged with second degree murder??? Is there any kind of follow up TNA can do on this? I just can’t imagine a be-heading is in no way pre-meditated…. The other issue I have is that this is considerd an honor killing. TNA needs to take a formal stand that killing someone is never honorable, no matter what culture the person comes from, and certainly not here in the USA.
After I posted, I just thought that it might be a good idea for TNA to issue a press release denouncing domestic violence…..
Kathy,
A statement calling for ‘honor killing’ to be defined as a hate crime might be worth considering.
I wonder why there is this dramatic increase between 2005 and 2007… 42% is huge! What exactly has changed in our culture and in how our culture portrays women? What were the cultural aspects that influenced the perpetrators and victims alike their formative years?
in October of 2006 I noticed a distinct increase and intensity of the sexism on various blogs and forums, from what it had been just weeks before. By christmas, the hate was palpable and culminated (for me) in a thread at Fark. I wish I could forget it — the memory still makes me sick…
A twelve year old orphan with a mental disability had been coerced into servicing 19 boys and men all standing around her in one room, the oldest being forty-something. The farkers tore that girl to pieces FOR HOURS. How dare that little piece of nothing get those noble males in trouble with the law!! Oh gawd, it was awful reading, it was pure hate.
okay, a long google search later, and I turn up this, and the comments are devastating…
http://www.whataboutourdaughte.....was-doing/
Anyway, something did change prior to Oct of 2006. I too wonder what it was.
I just read a fantastic book on honor killing by journalist Ayse Onal called, simply, *Honour Killing*. Onal interviews men in Turkey who have committed such crimes. One young man killed his mother, another his wife and child. (The latter regrets his killings; he wishes he had merely shot the two women in the legs to cripple them.) Because of its subject matter, the book makes for difficult reading, but Onal’s writing is simple and to the point. I highly recommend the book.
I’ve never seen reference to that anywhere else, mAndrea. Not on any other feminist blog. It’s horrific, but true of native culture too. It’s their own men who are now the greatest threat to native women. They’ll “sell them down the river.” And yes, I know the significance of that comment. It applies, in both cultures. I know too what brings them to harm their own, but I refuse to excuse them.
For a few years prior to that, I was in the daily habit of checking several well-known, highly-populated general aggregate sites, where members would post links and then talk about them. And I always look for patterns… I was always used to a certain amount of sexism, so at first I thougt the quickly growing hatred was just my imagination, but after a while I couldn’t use that excuse anymore.
Another thing, it was exactly round that time that the MRA’s (and everybody else) were chanting: sexism is over! Around March, the move “Captiviity” was advertising on gigantic billboards.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....44404.html
Then private feminist boards were being hacked… Anyway, that whole period of time was really disconcerting, and effected me greatly.
Reading that thread at WhatAboutOurDaughters, I add another visceral layer of understanding to the complexities and interconnectedness of oppression. It seems as if MOC use the fear of racism to herd a black woman into continually seeking cohension within the black community, at the expense of remaining silent and tolorant of intense sexism. But fear used as a tool is the exact same pattern that white men use, to control and herd white women. That division between women is damaging and I clearly don’t do enough to make my WOC sisters feel welcomed and accepted…
Anyway, a 42% jump in the rate of domestic violence within two years cannot simply be attributed to better reporting methods.
Apologies for the long comment.
IDEA FOR TNA PRESS RELEASE:
• Point out this beheading (first-degree murder);
• Point out the rising violence rates against women;
• Mention the Monserrate situation;
• Ask what kind of world the US will want for Obama’s daughters;
• NOTE THAT THIS IS A HATE CRIME AGAINST WOMEN – We need to start educating the public on this concept 24/7.
• Work with the coalition against hate crimes that is described in the prior TNA post (2/17/09) to pursue this together –perhaps as a joint press release.
• Then recommend the steps below recommended by Human Rights Watch, especially the need for #1 to be done immediately and the rest to follow in short order.
For additional information: here is the latest data from Human Rights Watch, and their article “US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women: More Accurate Methodology Shows Urgent Need for Preventive Action” on the Human Rights Watch website at: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/200.....inst-women
“The Human Rights Watch’s national recommendations include:
1. The Obama administration should appoint a special adviser on violence against women in the US
2. Congress should restore full funding to the Office on Violence Against Women
3. The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice, should authorize comprehensive studies that more accurately track sexual and domestic violence in the US, especially among individuals who are least likely to be surveyed by the National Crime Victimization Survey
4. Congress should increase funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs
5. Congress should amend the federal Debbie Smith Act, a grant program designed to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but that states can and have used for other kinds of DNA backlogs
6. The US should ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women.”
Those are great suggestions, ER. Thank you, again, for your terrific input.
My question about the Hassan murder: If Muzzammil Hassan had been elected to the NYS Senate and he had maintained his innocence with regards to this crime, would he have been sworn in to the NYS legislature?
I have a concern, I believe this incident happened on February 12. Why was this story put on the back burner until just recently? Infact, if you were to tune into any one of the news channels, their focus seems to be on things less important. Shouldn’t every US citizen be told about this horrible, inhumane act of cowardness? These men hide behind their religion as if they’re still in the middle east. They need to realize that they’re in the United States now and if they want to live here they need to follow our laws and our rules no matter what their religions are. I’m sure we would have to do the same if we were to live in any other country.
Interesting question Sheryl!
And if Monserrate (NYS Senator), in his rage, had cut his girlfriend a little bit lower, on her neck for example, he might have killed her. Anyone know the statistics on how many women, victims of violence against women by their male partners, are eventually killed by them?
I also think we should find out more about the Hassan murder–if it is being considered second-degree murder, we should have a huge outcry. Beheading is not second-degree murder.
Beheading is not second degree murder! Yes. Let’s start there. We need to demand that this been seen as what it is: ritual murder.
Ritual murder is among the MOST scripted and premeditated form of killing. It is not something that happens in a fit of rage.
So… yes…. let’s begin there. Demanding a first degree murder charge. And, if Hassan has other women in his life…. such as daughters or sisters…. the DA needs to know that they are also at very high risk of suffering a similar fate at his hands.
Fucking horrific.
The only thing that makes me able to read this stuff and not lose my mind is knowing that there are so many other capable smart women out there fighting and paying attention too.
See You Tube: TV Mogel BEHEADS Wife
The star of this video suggest sa reality TV court show al la Judge Judy be produced and presented on Bridge TV, which was founded by Muzzammil Hassan.
The reality show should be title” Islamic Divorse Court”.
I am tired of looking for ridiculous definitions of what this crime really is. ITS ISLAM!
[...] HassanEarlier this week I wrote about the horrific murder of Aasiya Hassan, whose husband beheaded her in what may have been an honor killing. For many commenters on the web, [...]
“Under Sharia law a man’s word is worth the word of four women, so a woman must have at least three other women or a man backing her up to stand any chance of justice. In rape cases, for example, unless a man openly rapes a woman in public there is no hope of securing a conviction because his word will always prevail.
see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ading.html
For those who say the problem is NOT Islam, this is a MUST read.
[...] Woman Beheaded in New York State [...]
Violet: This story got legs because thousands of us including
Act for American sent emails, faxed, and phoned called all the major news channels. I personally sent 50 of these. This happened on February 13 and the media did not want to insult
Muslims so they ignored this story and instead ran wall to wall
coverage of the woman who had 8 babies. Phyllis Chesler,
Pam Geller, Dhimmi Watch, Jihad Watch and several other
blogs helped force the media to cover it. Now they just have
to stop making excuses for this barbarian murderer.
Thank you Kate S. and everyone who worked hard to get this horrendous story in the media!
In response to:
Karen on February 17th, 2009 7:38 pm
I wonder why there is this dramatic increase between 2005 and 2007… 42% is huge! What exactly has changed in our culture and in how our culture portrays women? What were the cultural aspects that influenced the perpetrators and victims alike their formative years?
I think that if we figure out what has changed within our culture, we can reverse the trend.
_________
Response:
What happened in the culture that caused this increase is the failure of the justice system to enforce rules against domestic violence, especially when a women has children with a man. Women are re-victimized in court. They are called liars, their children are called liars. When attempting to leave an abusive man, children are forced to visit with them alone and women risk losing their life, their children’s lives and if no one gets killed, the mom risk losing custody.
When society stops treating women and children (especially children) as property of the man, there might be some headway into stopping the violence. If a women could leave WITH HER CHILDREN and get immediate protection, just like a witness protection program, then most of this would be eliminated. Men would know that women and children would leave if they mistreated them, so it would be a deterrent.
Right now, any man with money can re-victimize the mother of his children in court until the children are 18 years old, and many do. They use fictious syndromes accused by hired gun psychologists to declare the mother an “alienator” and give custody to the dad and make mom pay support. This is another form of abuse – Maternal Deprivation – that needs to be stopped.
This is why so many women are not leaving the abuse. Since abusive men fight for custody of children, and women no longer get sole custody, they are forced to continue to interact with the abuser. As a result, hese deaths occur all the time, and will continue to do so.
Domestic abuse needs to be taken out of family court, and be treated in criminal court – family court is a kangaroo court where lawyers and bottomfeeder psychologists terrorize women and children, sometimes leading to death because the women is not listened to. The court ordered “evlauations” need to be removed – they rip people off for thousands of dollars and never find anything wrong with the dad. If the mom complains about abuse, she could lose her children and be declared an “alienator”.
In this women’s case, if she could have gone somewhere with her kids and left him, then she would be safe now. The piece of paper restaining order did not allow her to leave with her children. Instead she was bound to the area and her abuser by the court system.
I really can’t comment on the religion side of things; but yes, “domestic abuse” is still a far larger problem than many people think it is. The problem- in my eyes- is that we assume it must be mild-mannered women who get the battering.
Quite apart from the nature of the abused- people seem to be missing that women can also be abusive, as can men in gay relationships. (I’ve witnessed the former, and experienced the latter.) Particularly with the way women are often being viewed now as being physically weaker, yet socially as strong, if a woman throws a punch, a lot of men aren’t going to know how to react- and many of them sure won’t defend themselves, because that makes THEM the abuser, whereas we still somehow think women can’t be abusers.
I’m not saying domestic abuse towards men (in hetero OR homosexual relationships) is anywhere near as prevailant as the abuse towards women, but it should be treated the same. To my mind, we’re a long way off true equality- in next to no situation do we actually think of men and women in the same way.
Anyway, just some food for thought. Your article here is very interesting, and I enjoyed reading it.
… um … Never mind. I’m too stunned to comment.
[...] Hassan Earlier this week I wrote about the horrific murder of Aasiya Hassan, whose husband beheaded her in what may have been an honor killing. For many commenters on the web, [...]
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