3D printing is an amazing technology, but it lives in the context of our consciousnesses, and everyone who looks at the world sees something different and unique to their own particular identity.
There are so many innate characteristics that a person is born with, and many others that they pick up during the course of their life. The culture someone is born into can be a supportive community with many time-tested traditions. However, it’s interesting to me that one can see the word “cult” encapsulated in the word “culture”.
Sometimes the traditions passed down in a culture can encapsulate an extremely negative embodiment of cultishness. Sometimes the culture passes down particularly rotten, brutal and heinous acts of violence.
In 2003, Shafilea Ahmed was the victim of an honor killing at the hands of her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed. Shafilea’s parents put a plastic bag over her head and suffocated her to death in front of her siblings because she refused to enter into an arranged marriage. 141 other young women have lost their lives since 2003 to honor killings at the hands of family members.
Charity organization Karma Nirvana has created a good way of turning the plastic that was used to commit this brutal act into an awareness memorial for Shafilea and other victims of honor killings.
For the National Day of Memory in England, with the help of Leo Burnett, people watched and showed their support on social media as a sculpture of Shafilea was 3D printed to pay tribute to her and other victims of these vicious acts.
The 3D printing ceremony was part of an awareness campaign on behalf of those who suffer the horrors of this gruesome tradition. The campaign helped raise donations to provide help and support to victims of forced marriages.
The organization chose July 14th, Shafilea’s birthday, to rally social media supporters to use the hashtag #RememberShafilea, which symbolically brought her beautiful likeness into being by way of a 3D printed sculpture made from plastic, symbolically transforming the material which was used to end her life into a symbol of hope for the young women who are suffering right now from this cultish living nightmare. The website has a place to go for help if you or someone you know is being forced to enter a marriage against their will.
