Margaret Hassan, the CARE aid worker who is thought to have been murdered in Iraq has had a funeral mass carried out in her memory in London's Westminster Cathedral. Friends and family attended the emotion swept service in which Hassan's picture was displayed by the alter instead of a coffin, due to her body still not having been recovered.
Mrs Margaret Hassan, who has had moved to London when she was just four, had Irish, British and Iraqi citizenship.
The Hassan story received top international coverage during October and November after it was reported that she had been abducted while travelling to work on October 19th. Hassan, 59 had lived in Iraq for 30 years and was married to an Iraqi, Tahseen Ali Hassan, who was too ill to travel to attend the service.
The family of the fallen aid worker wrote a message which was read during the service, "She was brave, she was charitable, she was humble and hardworking. Yes, she was all these things, but most of all she was our big sister."
Mrs Hassan’s family expressed how overwhelmed they had been by the messages of sympathy and support they had received from people all over the world. Family friend, Patrick O'Ryan-Roeder said, "Margaret's family should know that they left no stone unturned in their quest to secure her freedom. Margaret has been horribly and cruelly taken away from her close-knit family, a memory that I know they will never be able to forget. Margaret was a much-loved wife, a much-loved sister, a much-loved aunt. I know that our thoughts and prayers have always been with Margaret, and I believe they should also be extended to her immediate family as they try to come to terms with their devastating loss."
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor led the service, and he stated that Margaret Hassan had been "a martyr to truth and goodness by her life of devoted service to the people of Iraq."
The Cardinal continued, "One of the greatest sadness' that her husband must feel is that there has been no recovery of her body. We know that she is dead and this is why her family wanted to have this requiem mass because this will be, in effect, her burial – if not in fact, at least in mind and heart and memory."
The international community has severely condemned the killing of the innocent aid worker, and loud cries of protest were created when Mrs Hassan appeared in a video which was released worldwide, weeping and pleading for her life.
Later, despite continuous pleas for mercy and her release, a second video was released showing a woman blindfolded, who is thought to have been Hassan, being shot dead.
Although it is widely believed that this signalled the end of the horrific ordeal for Hassan, there as of yet has been no confirmation that the video clip was of Hassan being killed, and there has been no official verification of her body being found. However, the aid worker's family firmly believe that she has passed on.
The captors' treatment of the aid worker brought outrage from masses of Iraqi citizens and from people all over the world. Many expressed their dismay at why Hassan, who had devoted her life to helping the Iraqi people through the Christian agency CARE International's work in the country, had been chosen for such horrific treatment by the merciless kidnappers.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was "abhorrent", and the Irish equivalent stated that the kidnappers "stand condemned by…the entire international community."
Murphy-O'Connor described Hassan as "a peacemaker in a time of seemingly endless wars. She hungered and thirsted for justice for the Iraqi people."
"She was persecuted, brutally slain, because she was working in the cause of right. Margaret is not merely a memory; she is part of all of us. She will not be forgotten."