In April of 2007, 17-year-old Du'a Khalil Aswad was stoned
to death. Her brutal murder, a so-called "honor killing" at
the hands of family members and neighbors, was captured on
video and posted on the Internet for the world to see. Upon
learning of the murder, Joss Whedon, creator of TV's
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly,
posted an impassioned essay about Aswad's fate and about
the global reality of misogyny on his website. He appealed
to his fans to do something active to break the cycle of
violence against women. In answer to his plea, NOTHING BUT
RED, an anthology of "responses" to both Khalil's death and
the issues Whedon raised in his essay, was born. The book
takes its name from the fact Aswad was beaten so badly that
her facial features were obscured, her face was "nothing
but red." With words and pictures, the authors and artists
of NOTHING BUT RED strive to bring attention to the issue
of violence against women worldwide, as well as the
continuing need for equality. Sales of the 313-page
collection, which can be purchased as a trade paperback for
$17.95 or as a PDF-format e-book for $5.95 at
lulu.com or nothingbutred.wordpress.com, will
benefit the international human rights organization
Equality Now. A full list of contributors can be found at
nothingbutred.wordpress.com/contributors
Beautifully crafted, NOTHING BUT RED brings home, with
stunning clarity, the fact that anybody who believes that
violence against women is something that only happens in
certain countries, amongst people of certain religions, or
is a thing of the past, is sadly mistaken. This could be
YOUR mother, YOUR sister, YOUR daughter, friend or niece.
This could be YOU. The words and images captured in these
pages will not fail to stir you to your very soul. The
writing is raw, poignant and heartfelt. The images are
haunting. Reading this book left me feeling frightened,
horrified, saddened, disgusted, bewildered and enraged. It
also left me with a burning desire to be a part of the
solution, to help assure that "honor killings" and other
atrocities become a thing of the past. Most importantly, it
left me with a feeling of hope. Hope that because of the
passion and conviction of the talented women and men who
contributed to NOTHING BUT RED, things can change.
In April 2007, a group of men pulled seventeen-year-old
Du’a Khalil Aswad into a mob. They proceeded to stone and
beat her to death, a supposed "honor" killing for allegedly
falling in love with a man of a different faith. Several
camera phones recorded the entire incident from the front
row, and videos later surfaced online. One month later,
popular filmmaker Joss Whedon expressed his despair and
outrage at the misogyny in all cultures on a fan-run
blog. "Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent
person," he wrote. "It’s no longer enough to shake our
heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True
enlightened activism is the only thing that can save
humanity from itself. I’ve always had a bent towards
apocalyptic fiction, and I’m beginning to understand why. I
look and I see the earth in flames. Her face was nothing
but red." The arts anthology Nothing But Red was conceived
as a way to raise both awareness of the issues he spoke of,
as well as money for the charity Equality Now.
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