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Remembering Two Sisters

Amina Yaser Said, 18, and Sarah Yaser Said, 17, were two girls growing up in Texas. Like other girls their age, Amina and Sarah were testing their waters: feeling out their personal style, engaging in budding relationships with young men, and participating in school-related extra-curricular activities. Amina and Sarah, like other girls their age and in their community, were coming into their own. Then, in a tragic episode of events, it all ended.

On New Year's Day 2008, Yaser Abdel Said, a 50-year old Egyptian-born cab driver, decided to end the short lives of his daughters. Amina and Sarah were found in their father's taxi with fatal shotgun wounds.

Speculations are being made that these two young women had fallen victim to their father's rage in an "honour killing" that was provoked by the teens' Westernized behaviour, in direct contract to Yaser Abdel Said's strict Middle Eastern upbringing. A history of abuse allegations that started in 1998 when the girls were still children included sexual abuse accusations against their father, and their classmates described how Amina and Sarah would often come to school with injuries consistent with abuse.

In December 2007, fearing for their lives, Patricia Said took her two daugthers and went 'on the run'. Eventually, out of feelings of guilt, Patricia returned home with Amina and Sarah on New Year's Eve, just one day prior to the fatal shooting.

Amina Yaser Said and Sarah Yaser Said, the two inseperable sisters, are gone now. Their memories live on with their friends and family and their story is yet another of domestic violence that occurs among young women. The only way to go forth, and prevent further similar cases, is to recognize, remember, and raise awareness.

In memory of Amina Yaser Said and Sarah Yaser Said.

For a news report, click here.

To visit Amina Yaser Said's MySpace, click here.

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