IT
Saman, a marvelous eighteen-year-old creature, probably murdered by the fanatical ferocity of a violent uncle and the accomplice ignorance of his parents, lies hidden among plants, shrubs and sprouts near a greenhouse. A cursed spring, cold as the heart of her fearful fleeing family members, wanted to keep her close to itself in a pit covered with the land of Italy, the nation considered the cradle of law and admired for its Constitution, considered ” the most beautiful in the world”. The main newspapers have released two images of her, very different from each other, except for one particular: a pair of splendid deep eyes, eager to know the world and the people who, more than welcoming her in words, should have protected her. In the first image, she seems to be harnessed in a clothing created on purpose to hide the grace of the body and face of a young woman. In the second, she wears a modern dress and is made up like a Western girl who, upon reaching the age of majority, wishes to enter, without the shame of medieval stigmas, in the society of the adopted country. A dream shattered by the infamy of a pseudo-executioner, an emulation of the fundamentalists who sow terror in the world, in the name of a God and a Prophet they do not know, whose words spoken and transcribed in times distant from ours are misrepresented, confusing religion with a license to kill.
The abominable murder of the girl is a “femicide”, the worst of “femicides”. The perpetrator of the crime cut, without a remotely valid reason, a flower that has recently blossomed, a life expectancy barely hinted, a potential seed that would have enriched the fruit of our national identity with its sweet oriental fragrances. “Welcoming” does not mean rhythmically shouting slogans in public, nor applauding those who fill the holds of ships with people who are victims of despots or incapable rulers and then unloading them in a port in the far south of Italy, and that is all. Nor much less pontificate that if you demand a fair distribution from the European Union, you must be considered xenophobic and racist. “Welcoming” means, above all, loving one’s neighbor, supporting the weakest, helping foreigners to integrate, guaranteeing them an honest and equitable paid job, protecting women and children from the violence of those who prevent them from enhancing their potential, enforcing common values and the laws that our nation has given itself, to make available human and economic resources adequate to combat ignorance, prejudice, and all possible discrimination.
The most significant quatrain of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” reads: “Embrace you all, multitudes! This is a kiss to the whole world! Brothers, a loving father must certainly live above the starry vault”. Saman Habbas lacked the multitudes of joyful brothers who loved her, respected, and defended her from the profound and occult evil that undermines our Society, often hypocritical to itself, tempted by a grim, insensitive, and disturbing nihilism. We even hear someone assert that “infibulation” is an integral part of a “culture”, albeit different from ours.
Matthew Arnold, 19th century English poet and educator, wrote: “Culture is the passion for sweetness and light, and – more importantly – the passion for making them prevail.”
Our memory of Saman will be the sweetness of his young face and the light of his big eyes: unfortunately, passion is what the peoples of the West lack, an indispensable tool to act and make love prevail over hate, and knowledge over ignorance.
Tonight, looking at the sky, we will see the star of Saman shine in the firmament, to remind us that above the single and questionable local “cultures” there is the true and unique Culture or the Universal Light of Brotherly Love.
“Only the educated man is free” admonished Epictetus, an ancient Greek philosopher of the 1st century AD, the son of a slave.
(by the Grand Orator of the GLLI)
