I came across the latest atrocity in systematic violence against women on CNN’s Headline News today and investigated further to get a clearer picture through the Ms. Magazine feminist wire.

I’m not sure how this kind of thing happens today. I’m not sure how anyone can view it as entertainment and tape the footage on their cell phones and sell it to a major American news network or other location. Furthermore, I don’t understand how anyone can watch someone’s life being taken without helping.

The news wire article estimates that up to 1,000 men could have participated in ending this 17-year-old woman’s life. That means that there were up to 2,000 hands that could have helped her up instead of pushing her down or that could have blocked her from the countless stones that smashed her body, ultimately and publicly murdering her. News reports say that this is culturally called an “honor killing,” but where is the honor in ending a woman’s life while she is unable to defend herself? I’m nothing less than disgusted.

Cultural norms or otherwise, there are some things that I will never understand, and killing because of love is one of those things. I suppose I’m lucky. No, not lucky. Fortunate. I am fortunate because, in America, it is a crime to murder someone for choosing to love outside of his or her religion. Even twenty minutes later, this story still leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. It is evident that this story is too close to home for me to stomach. I’m in a relationship that spans religious diversity, and daily I do not hide my head or fear for some kind of repercussion. There are people who, of course, find my situation distasteful — and each person is allowed his or her opinion. But I’ve never had to fear for my life like this woman must have. So, as I reflect on my own life and the life of this woman, only one year younger than me, I realize that, no, I am not lucky. She was deprived of the life she should have been allowed to have and love she should have been allowed to express.

It is hard enough to find love, and those who are able to find it are fortunate and should be able to celebrate it rather than wondering if the next day is the day that they will lose their lives because of it. I can only hope that there will come a day when love of all kinds is embraced.

Juana Maria Summers