The Fall of a Syrian Pagan
Earlier this week I pointed to the fact that modern Paganism is now a global phenomenon. That we aren’t simply a small religious movement isolated to North America and the UK, and that we will increasingly be affected by issues we thought relegated to “over there.” Things that “aren’t our problem.” When I wrote that piece I knew that “Yana,” a Syrian Pagan, and friend of Pagan Newswire Collective Managing Editor Cara Schulz, had been killed, but it wasn’t my story to tell, my obituary to write. Today, at PNC-Minnesota, Cara tells the story of her death, learned through another Middle Eastern source that she considers reliable.
“What happened to her is so ugly I’m struggling to … I can’t even finish that sentence. I’ll just tell you what I have learned, and although I trust this source, there is no way for me to independently confirm this. Some time in late June, Yana’s brother, who had become radicalized, informed the rebels that his sister was a Pagan. They took her, tortured her, then her brother publicly denounced her as a whore and a witch. After that, she was drug out onto the street, raped, and killed.
What I remember about Yana is she was always joking, always smiling. She injected joy into everything she did, from talking about the Gods she honored to showing off her latest hair style. She had more hair combs than anyone I’ve ever known. She wanted to come to America and eat bacon. She was fascinated and repelled by the thought of bacon so I would tell her about putting it in chocolate and on maple ice cream. She was nervous about getting married. Her father doted on her and she worried a husband might not be so kind or forgiving of her free spirit. She told me younger men like to show how manly they are so she thought about telling her parents to find an older man for her to marry. It was hard to see her become less exuberant as the fighting started, and then drew closer. To see fear creep in and hear from her less often. How sad she was that she never left her home anymore because it wasn’t safe.”
http://wildhunt.org/2013/03/the-fall-of-a-syrian-pagan.html