At the time of the media hype about Sakineh I had been asking myself, at the risk of sounding cynical, what was so special about Sakineh that made her worth all these international appeals by VIPs across Europe and even governmental interventions to save her (for instance from the President of the Italian Republic). what was so special about her and her tragic faith? why had not there been similar attention for other women in the death row in Iran? from the media I had learnt there were 12 together with her. What about other women (and men) in Iran that suffer from illness, poverty, lack of education? what about also important artists from Iran? writers? what about the Iranian culture? what about the everyday life of people there?
I think I now know the answer: the Sakineh campaign – and other similar campaigns in the past – serve to build the legitimacy of Europe and the West in accusing Iran for its nuclear programme and for violating human rights. These are campaigns that do nothing in the long run to change things. But they create a lot of media attention and they point the finger to the culprits, those to blame, the uncivilised, the … Muslims!
When however the uncivilised are ‘us’, the Europeans, the Christians, the modern, the educated, the pro-gender-equality, there is often silence. The tragic fate of another Muslim woman sadly documents this. Why has there been no media hype about Marwa El-Sherbini. Marwa died at a German court room stubbed to death by an ethnic German. For the mere reason that she was Muslim and wearing a veil. The man who stubbed her had previously insulted her at a playground. They were in a court room and she had just testified against him for the verbal abuse she had suffered. The murder of Marwa and her husband has made the headlines of Egyptian and other Arab country media but not those of European media. One wonders why? was Sakineh’s life more important than Marwa’s?
Of course it is of some consolation that Marwa’s murderer has been sentenced to life imprisonment but it certainly cannot bring her back.