Nisreen

Nisreen, a teenage girl, is being held under armed guard in a hospital in Libya. Forcibly taken from her home a year ago and pressed into Gadhafi’s all-female brigade, she was repeatedly raped by her superiors. When rebel fighting came into Tripoli she was forced, under threat of death, to be an executioner. “Shoot or be shot” she was ordered, so she shot eleven young men, rebel prisoners of the Gadhafi regime. The rebels plan to put her on trial.

What should happen depends on who is being asked, doesn’t it. Choosing “shoot or be shot,” how much is one’s own life worth to one? Shoot a prisoner in order to save one’s own life? Under a Nuremburg principal, committing an illegal act under superior orders is no defense if one has a moral choice. Is “shoot or be shot” a viable moral choice? War crimes or crimes against humanity may be a factor. Morality may be a factor, as may distinctions between national and international law. 

In the New Libya, many may want her to stand trial. Fathers and mothers and brothers of the eleven young men may want her tried-and-executed. In a land far away, a father of beloved daughters wants her sent home to her mother.

Eleison.

TW+