What Kind of Martyr is Myriam Achkar?

It’s very difficult to listen to the plight of the family and friends of Myriam Achkar, as displayed in a TV report broadcast before Kalam El Nas. It’s difficult because their pain is heartbreaking and their loss is enormous. No one wants to go through what they endured and no one can truly understand the pain they’re feeling.

But it’s also difficult because they seem to be reaching the wrong conclusions out of Myriam’s death.

Yes, Myriam was a practicing Christian who was killed on her way to church. But was she killed because she was Christian?

Yes, the killer is a Syrian national. But does that mean he killed her because she was Lebanese or because all Syrians in Lebanon are evil?

In reality the killer is a psychopath and a rapist. He would have assaulted any girl in such circumstances regardless of her religion or nationality.

Myriam is a martyr, but she’s not a Christian martyr or a martyr for small-town Lebanon. She’s a martyr for women everywhere who have to suffer from unrestrained and abusive male agression, whether in Sahel Alma or in Cairo’s Tahrir square..

Update: One commentator made a very good point on the negative role LBC has played in this affair. The tv station has shamefully and irresponsibly sensationalized the matter and given it a needless sectarian overtone.

Update 2: read Nadine’s excellent post on the topic