Aiia Maasarwe: Mourners gather for tragic student’s funeral
Murder victim Aiia Maasarwe has been returned to her family, laid to rest in a heartbreaking funeral in Israel attended by thousands of mourners.
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Aiia Maasarwe has been returned to her family and her home, laid to rest in a heartbreaking funeral in Israel attended by thousands of mourners.
The people of Baqa al-Garibyye in northern Israel turned out to pay their final respects to Aiia and her family, lining the street for blocks and offering prayers for the 21-year-old student, so brutally killed in Melbourne a week ago.
Old men hobbling on sticks, tiny children from a nursery school watching silently from behind a fence, and schoolchildren bearing signs and flowers joined local officials and Aiia’s family as she made her final journey through the streets.
Her devastated father Saeed, exhausted but still composed, walked behind his daughter’s casket as she was carried to the local cemetery.
Two male relatives physically supported him as he walked.
“Best regards to all Australian people of many things,’’ he found the time to say, after his daughter was placed in the earth.
“Australian people can teach another people, another country, the humanity and the solidarity with people when they have a problem.’’
It was a remarkable act of graciousness from a man whose daughter was killed in Australia, as she stepped off a tram to return to her student accommodation at La Trobe University at Bundoora.
A 20-year-old man has been charged with her rape and murder.
Many of the young men and women lining the streets outside her home carried signs urging an end to violence against women.
“Stop cutting the flowers,’’ one sign read.
Aiia’s mother Khitam, and sisters Noor, Lena and Roba, mourned with the women of their community inside their house, while male relatives carried her from the Al-Siraat Mosque to her burial site under a pine tree nearby.
Aiia had arrived on an overnight flight from Australia to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, accompanied by her father and other relatives, and made the hour-long journey north to her home town in a blue and white ambulance.
As the ambulance arrived outside the house and her body was carried out in a polished mahogany coffin, loud weeping erupted from the crowd, with women in head scarves comforting each other and wiping tears from the faces of others.
Men turned their palms to God and offer prayers for Aiia’s soul.
After an hour inside the home with her female relatives, Aiia was transferred to a simple wooden coffin and carried high above the heads of male relatives, as the men of the town took their turn to mourn her.
She was carried past a sign hung from a house which read “God have mercy of Aiia.’’
Men and boys wore black T-shirts which said “rest in paradise Aiia’’ and God have mercy on Aiia.’’
After a service at the al-Siraat Mosque, Aiia was taken to the adjoining cemetery, and lifted from her coffin, placed in the ground in a simple shroud.
Prayers were said as the talented languages student and beloved daughter, sister and niece was laid to rest.
Aiia’s uncle Jamil Masarwa said “the message from Aiia’s death will be of peace, love and progressiveness.
“Aiia’s soul is (with) God but Aiia’s voice needs to come from the grave, to every single woman over there (in Australia), every single one in the world, not only here, every single place, every single home,’’ he said.
“It touches everywhere.. it was too early for her (to go).’’
He thanked the people of Australia and Baqa al-Gharibyye, the Muslim communities in both countries, and the entire community for their support.
“It’s beyond imagination (and) I’m speechless,’’ he said.
“I want to thank deep, deep, deep from my heart and all the family, I can’t thank enough to all of them.
Five schoolgirls came from a neighbouring school to pay their respects. They didn’t know Aiia but wanted to support her family.
“We will not forget you Aiia” said a sign they had made themselves. “We all go back to Allah,” said another.
The week delay between Aiia’s death and her funeral had greatly troubled her family, with Muslim funeral rites requiring a prompt burial to show maximum respect, so the sense of relief when Aiia finally returned was immense.
Local politicians gathered under the date palm trees lining the street and Australia’s Ambassador to Israel, Chris Cannan, was among the mourners.
Shops along the main roads were closed and delivery drivers parked their vans and trucks by the side of the road and waited silently as Aiia was carried by.
The male relatives of Aiia’s family spoke on behalf of her mother and sisters.
Another uncle, Abed Ali Kattani, said he had expected such a turnout at the funeral because “such a crime touches everyone.’’
“There’s a relief. The process of a burial is the ending of suffering, it’s the ending of a mental and sociological process. Now all of us, the mother, the sisters, we know it’s over.’’
Young men from a youth organisation stood silently outside the mosque as Aiia’s final prayers were held, holdings signs written in Arabic.
“You have killed a dream,’’ it said, to the person who took Aiia’s life away.
“You have killed knowledge. You have killed a future. You have killed humanity.’’
**Additional reporting Shakked Auerbach
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