Kidnapped by the car in which she was traveling with her sister and niece, stabbed and then abandoned dying in front of a hospital. The fate of Farah Hamza Akbar, a young Kuwaiti woman, has sparked unprecedented protest in vast sectors of society, including men, for violence against women and the laws of a country where the condition of women has yet to be reckoned with. with ancestral traditions and prejudices.
“We said they were going to kill her! Where is the government? ”Cries the victim’s sister, Dana Akbar, desperately, in a video that has gone viral and has sparked a wave of indignation in the country. His family, in fact, had denounced the killer for the harassment of which Farah had been subjected for some time before carrying out his murderous intentions. Authorities, quoted by the BBC online, said the man was arrested and confessed to stabbing his victim in the chest. He is now indicted for first degree murder, a charge that can lead to death sentences in Kuwait. The episode gave new life to a movement born to ask for greater protection for women.
A few months ago a campaign was launched on social media with the hashtag #Lan_ Asket (“I will not remain silent”) on the model of the #metoo in the West, inducing many women to report the harassment suffered. And after Farah’s killing, dozens of women and men gathered on Irada Square, near the National Assembly building, to express their condemnation. Killings of women for ‘honor’ reasons by family members are also very frequent in Kuwait. Crimes that, due to the laws in force, allow the murderers to get away with mild penalties. A case that caused a sensation last December was that of Fatima al-Ajami, a woman who worked as a guard in the same national parliament and who was killed by her brother.