Naomi Hersi, transwoman murdered in London

[Cwenthryth]

I haven’t seen a thread about this yet.

I just came across this mentioned in a Times article about the recent upsurge in murders all over London the last few weeks - the rest all being men, shot or stabbed usually in public. Naomi was stabbed in a hotel room, a man has already been charged with her murder, and a 17yo girl for assisting. It seems a little different from the rest of the deaths referred to.

A little more googling and it seems Naomi’s death hasn’t really been picked up much in the media at all. A report in the standard was quite depersonalised, avoiding any gendered pronouns and referring only to ‘the victim’ etc. Stonewall have published an article decrying lack of media coverage.

I know that murders of women by male partners often go without mainstream media attention, and when they do they are often poorly written, dehumanising and victim blaming. It’s not a surprise that the murder of a transwoman would be any different, sadly. The problem a ever is male violence. I just thought it was worth posting. I don’t know how the media chooses what to cover, but it seems odd in this current climate of both awareness of male violence and transgender issues in the news, that Naomi’s death has been seemingly largely ignored.

Thoughts with friends & family of Naomi.

This is a false narrative tbh. A quick Google search for Naomi Hersi shows a fair amount of coverage. On Twitter there is loads.

Fellow Somali, Mohammed Hersi, killed in December, got very little coverage.

Also there have been women and men killed within the last week who have got less coverage.

Although I'm off in darkest Scotland I had actually heard and read about this. I believe there was some suggestion of a link to the sex industry, which is notoriously risky for sex workers of all genders?

Largely ignored? Is the Sun, the Evening Standard, the Daily Mail, the BBC, the Met Police website and copious Twitter coverage not enough for you? The truth is that this has received a lot of attention and has also been discussed on various MN threads.

I feel so sorry for Naomi and her family. To state that her death has not been covered in the press is untrue, most women's deaths are unmentioned. What we have here is yet more male violence, sadly there will be no articles about that in the national press. That is the reason 2 to 3 women die each week.

List of murdered women here

kareningalasmith.com/2018/03/10/2018/

There are more

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-43458129
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-43281891
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-43515710
www.westyorkshire.police.uk/news-appeals/murder-investigation-launched-castleford-following-death-woman

It would be instructive to compare how much coverage some of these have got.

I really dislike how many TRAs are using Naomi's murder to further their own "trans women are murdered every day" agenda. I've seen a lot of it on Twitter. I find it very disrespectful to Naomi and her family.

For what it's worth op can you name other women murdered in the UK this year? In the last month? I follow Karen so I can but they are not widely reported. So many males and transwomen were tweeting as they were outraged by Naomi's death, other women not so much. Most blamed the press or feminists for her death, but not men. The men and the transwomen did not name or blame the sex that causes all these unnecessary deaths...why is that?

My impression from Twitter is that transactivists are trying to claim that all murders of trans-identifying people are because of transphobia and are thus hate crimes fuelled by the utterances of gender critical people. Sadly, the reality is that just like everyone else transwomen who are sex workers are at high risk of male violence. Also, domestic violence.

I'd seen at least 3 articles in national online newspapers this last week - without googling or looking at all, just general browsing... so the idea that it's not been covered simply isn't true.

Now, the coverage was written just as news, a concise, factual report there wasn't any wailing or gnashing of teeth which the twitterers seem to be wanting - perhaps that's their problem (rather than the male violence which is the real problem of course)

Romina Kalachi was killed last June, she was also a London sex worker. She did not even make it into the national papers.

I've never heard of Romina Kalachi.

She was brutally murdered and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Nobody talking about gynaephobia/misogyny in her killing. But you invariably get talk about transphobia when transpeople are killed.

E.g., this story claims

www.dailyitem.com/opinion/columns/shapiro-tilts-at-imaginary-transgender-enemies/article_769148dd-ddfc-564c-8ae9-8a26524f84e4.html

"Twenty-two transgender people were murdered in 2017 in the United States purely for their gender."

which is not true - 22 is the total number of murders of known transgender people, but that doesn't mean they were murdered for their gender. Most won't have been.

murderer got 24 years, obv. courtnewsuk.co.uk/naked-killer-gets-24-years/

I looked it up.

When I google her name I only get photos of her killer. None of romina.

I've seen quite a lot of coverage of this, more than I have for lots of other murders, but I fully agree that we need standardised reporting that highlights the action of the perpetrator more than the victim - e.g. Man murders transwoman.

That is the only way to highlight who is committing these awful crimes.

Thoughts with Naomi's friends and family

TRAs are claiming that a) this was a transphobic murder, b) it's part of an epidemic of transphobic murders and c) it was ignored by the press. Those last two are definitely false, the first one probably false too. Hersi was killed in a hotel room by an acquaintance.

London has had 10 people murdered in the last two weeks - quite horrific. It's a shocking statistic.

global homicide rate is 7.6 per 100,000 per year, so out of 8.8 million people that's 669 murders, or 25 per 2 weeks. UK murder rate is much lower - around 1 per 100,000, but clearly London is a city and murder rates are going to be much higher than a quiet village or somewhere.

I found a picture of Romina in the Italian press. www.ladige.it/news/cronaca/2017/05/30/morta-romina-kalaci-ex-cameriera-randr

The UK don't seem to have bothered.

It doesn't appear to be that difficult to have found her.

www.facebook.com/romina.kalaci

It seems she was rather easily written off as a 'murdered prostitute'

Awful to hear about another woman lost to male violence. May she rest in peace

I really dislike how many TRAs are using Naomi's murder to further their own "trans women are murdered every day" agenda. I've seen a lot of it on Twitter. I find it very disrespectful to Naomi and her family. sad

This, it’s grim.

I am so sorry to see another person murdered, another life taken at the hands of a man.
I had actually seen a fair bit of coverage of this case. I feel terribly sorry for the victim and their family.

Yes I think it's fair to say that if anything, Naomi is a victim of homophobia, and not transphobia - I saw the thread on the UK Somali forum about Naomi's death, and it was horrific.

I don't see really any commonality between people like Naomi coming from a culture where homosexuality may be punished by death www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/young-somali-activist-sentenced-to-death-for-being-a-lesbian-a6844216.html and the likes of Jane Fae, aggressive white male late-transitioners performing femininity.

Naomi may have been forced into being trans due to homophobia.