Words can’t express how excited I am that Yaser Said – the evil scumbag monster who murdered his two beautiful daughters in Texas more than twelve years ago – has finally been caught! So happy! So relieved! So overjoyed. I feel like having a party, and celebrating so much. I have been on Cloud 9 since I heard the news within a few hours of his capture on Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 – just three days ago!

Yaser Said was on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.

He evaded capture for more than 12 years, and walked free all that time. How despicable! There was a strong movement to spread awareness about what happened to these girls. In fact, you might be familiar with the hashtag #CatchYaserNow.

I even posted a picture of myself in 2015 holding a home-made sign I created with the words #CatchYaserNow.

The hashtag was created by the film makers of a documentary about the girls, so that the monster could be caught, yet he still evaded capture for all those years. There was even a reward of a $100,000 for any tips leading to his arrest, yet he still evaded capture. The FBI were on the lookout for him, yet he still evaded capture. He was even featured by John Walsh on America’s Most Wanted. It is fabulous that #CatchYaserNow can be retired as a hashtag as was said by the film makers of a documentary produced by Nena Nejad and Xoel Pamos. Please watch this documentary “The Price Of Honor” as it was instrumental in spreading the word about what the girls went through in their short lives. This documentary is so amazing and pays tribute to the heartbreaking story of the Said girls. So happy for all the work that Nena and Xoel put into spreading awareness. So happy too for Ruth Trotter Pink and her son Joseph who also worked tirelessly in the pursuit of justice. Here is a link to the documentary:

Yaser Said wanted his freedom, when the very reason why his daughters are gone is because he hated that they wanted – their freedom. He thought they were too westernized, and didn’t like that they had boyfriends. What did he expect? They were born in this country – the USA, land of the free. Why would he expect them to not want what other Americans want, to feel what other Americans feel? This is the same horrible ideology that so many of us have faced no matter where we live in this world, but especially if we are born in the West – the USA or the UK for instance. We are exposed to culture all around us, pop music, western dress, shows on TV, romance books, etc., yet we can’t have those things. We are expected to go along with what our families want of us – to comply with traditions that don’t make sense in these parts of the world, in fact, to some degree they don’t make sense any more at all. Which traditions am I referring to? I’m referring to arranged marriage, and even child marriage. How can we be expected to want to marry strangers when the very books we read – lead us to want more – to have the romance we read about while growing up?

I spoke about this in my recent video that I shared in a previous blog post and even mentioned Sarah and Amina Said as just some of the honor killing victims here in the USA. Some would like to say, it doesn’t happen here, but yes it does and it’s happened to other girls too such as Noor Alemeki of Arizona, and Jassi Sidhu, not too far away in Canada.

Sarah Said and Amina Said were murdered by their dad because they didn’t want to give in to these traditions. They didn’t want an arranged marriage. They didn’t want to be married to strangers. They were human beings like the rest of us who gave in to love, and had boyfriends and just wanted to live and be happy. For that they were murdered. They were victims of an honor killing. Even though there is no honor in killing, in fact it is very dishonorable, the name is given to these types of murders to signify that families will do whatever they can to hold on to the families reputation and pride. If daughters step out of line, their reputation is at stake, and the entire community could ostracize them. They care more about what the community thinks than they care about their own flesh and blood. They would rather shut their children up for ever, and feel they have saved their “honor” in the eyes of the community, than be scorned by the community. It is a complex and horrible way of thinking, but has to be talked about. Until we can spread the awareness that these are not just murders, but mention the root cause, we are not doing these victims any favors, and we need to. We owe it to them, our sisters, who are left voiceless – that we become the voice for them, so that there will be no more victims of this senseless murder. Yes, murder it is, but it is also an honor killing and we have to educate the public so that more people become aware of how evil it is to force anyone into marriage, to take their human rights away from them, their freedom away from them. There is no excuse for abuse. Culture is no excuse for abuse. Tradition is no excuse for abuse. Let’s spread the word. End forced marriage, end honor killings, end child marriage. Until we root out these evil traditions, in fact, make them illegal and have laws against them, there could be many more honor killings, and we just can’t have that.

Sarah and Amina, rest in peace beautiful angels. We wish you were here to see justice. We hope you are watching from heaven and can now finally rest in peace. We miss you, and rejoice in the capture of your evil monster dad. The streets are rid of his filth, and we love the fact that every day he will be waking up in prison now. We hope he will be very uncomfortable there, and will rot there.

Lastly, I would like for you to sign my petition if you haven’t already done so. In this petition, I ask for an end to child marriage and forced marriage. For the sake of these girls, and survivors like myself and so many others, we would be honored to have you sign and support us.