Dangerous superstition
There was a gruesome story in last Thursday's "Cambodia Daily". A thirteen year old girl was murdered and disemboweled in Battambang province. She had been missing for five days. She was pregnant and her fetus was cut from her body.
Shockingly it is not unheard of to remove a fetus from a pregnant woman because it is believed that an amulet made from an unborn fetus can protect the owner and help him see into the future.
Obviously there are multiple issues here - a pregnant thirteen year old, her murder and evisceration, and the mistaken belief in the magically properties of an unborn fetus. The story only merits a small column in the newspaper because the rape, assault and murder of girls and women is commonplace. What is more unusual is the part the fetus plays. That is not as common as murder.
... this strong superstition will outweigh all morals. Recently a smalltime young criminal was arrested after trying to cut his pregnant girlfriend's fetus out of her womb. She struggled and escaped, probably saving both her own and her unborn child's life. To local police investigating the crime afterwards, his motive was obvious. The man had not wanted a child. He wanted a talisman to help him improve his criminal skills, and he had deliberately impregnated a young woman claiming he loved her to achieve that. Source
The casual disregard for women's lives is documented every day - a man in Koh Kong chopped his wife to death with an axe in a violence rage brought on by her drinking and gambling (classic blame the victim game) and a 24 year old from Dangkao stabbed his girlfriend to death because she refused to have sex with him. These stories barely merit mentioning in the press.
Cambodia is a land of superstition. Before marriage, a couple see a fortune teller so he can tell them on which date they may have their wedding. Soothsayers are revered, almost worshiped, here. People put much stock in their predictions. Even the government takes the time acknowledge and then reject their predictions. Soothsayers are predicting a bad year for Cambodia (fifty percent of the rice and other crops will be destroyed although some say that it is closer to seventy percent) and that is bad for politicians and those who believe.
Nobody knows if the predictions are linked to the murder of the girl. Her family are being uncooperative and will not discuss what happened with the police. She was discovered near her home and was only reported missing after her body was found. It is possible that her family were responsible. Nothing further was reported.
Shockingly it is not unheard of to remove a fetus from a pregnant woman because it is believed that an amulet made from an unborn fetus can protect the owner and help him see into the future.
Obviously there are multiple issues here - a pregnant thirteen year old, her murder and evisceration, and the mistaken belief in the magically properties of an unborn fetus. The story only merits a small column in the newspaper because the rape, assault and murder of girls and women is commonplace. What is more unusual is the part the fetus plays. That is not as common as murder.
... this strong superstition will outweigh all morals. Recently a smalltime young criminal was arrested after trying to cut his pregnant girlfriend's fetus out of her womb. She struggled and escaped, probably saving both her own and her unborn child's life. To local police investigating the crime afterwards, his motive was obvious. The man had not wanted a child. He wanted a talisman to help him improve his criminal skills, and he had deliberately impregnated a young woman claiming he loved her to achieve that. Source
The casual disregard for women's lives is documented every day - a man in Koh Kong chopped his wife to death with an axe in a violence rage brought on by her drinking and gambling (classic blame the victim game) and a 24 year old from Dangkao stabbed his girlfriend to death because she refused to have sex with him. These stories barely merit mentioning in the press.
Cambodia is a land of superstition. Before marriage, a couple see a fortune teller so he can tell them on which date they may have their wedding. Soothsayers are revered, almost worshiped, here. People put much stock in their predictions. Even the government takes the time acknowledge and then reject their predictions. Soothsayers are predicting a bad year for Cambodia (fifty percent of the rice and other crops will be destroyed although some say that it is closer to seventy percent) and that is bad for politicians and those who believe.
Nobody knows if the predictions are linked to the murder of the girl. Her family are being uncooperative and will not discuss what happened with the police. She was discovered near her home and was only reported missing after her body was found. It is possible that her family were responsible. Nothing further was reported.
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2 comments:
Hmm.. so are you saying that some of these superstitions are takin to far? The murders that you discribed, were obviously phycopaths that red the same story book, unless they followed really old religeious methologies
Anonymous Above. Do not be so rediculously niave. Cultures do not share the same morals or values. These people were not all phycos. They were people who beleive the same things. They don't see this as something wrong. It probably is really old mythology. You should be more moved by the crime then trying to harass the person who brought it to your attention.
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