">My Big World Of Crap

There’s something really wrong with a culture that believes killing a daughter for “dishonouring” their family is acceptable. It was wrong in the dark ages, it is wrong now. It is wrong when it happens in a backwards village in Kurdistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt or wherever, and it is wrong when it happens in a modern country like England. In fact, I think it is more warped when it happens there, as those responsible have been exposed to the norms of a civilised society and could not possibly claim that their behaviour was in any way tolerable in that society.

The case of Banaz Mahmod, in England, is tragic. She was strangled last year. Her dishonourable behaviour, the “crime” in her father’s mind, was ending an abusive arranged marriage, becoming too westernised and falling in love with a man who did not come from their Iraqi village. And it seems her execution by her family was nothing remotely spur of the moment, or a crime of passion. Her father and uncle were found guilty of her murder, and two other men have pleaded guilty in the case …two others have fled the country - so it was quite a communal effort.

Banaz Mahmod ran away from home when she was a teenager, but was later sent an audio tape in which her father warned he would kill her sisters, her mother and himself if she did not come home, her sister said. She returned home and was later hospitalised after her brother attacked her, her sister testified. The brother said he had been paid by their father to finish her off, but in the end was unable to do it, the sister said, testifying in a full black burqa. She said she still feared for her life. She first went to police in December 2005 when she suspected her uncle was trying to kill her and her boyfriend. On New Year’s Eve, she was lured by her father to her grandmother’s home and believed she would be attacked after he forced her to gulp down brandy and approached her while wearing gloves. She escaped by breaking a window, and was treated at a hospital. After she was released from the hospital, she returned home and tried to convince her family she stopped seeing her boyfriend … but friends told the family they spotted the couple together, in January 2006. Soon after, a group of men allegedly approached her boyfriend and tried to lure him into a car but he refused. It was that event that prompted Banaz Mahmod to go to police again. This time officers tried to persuade her to stay in a safe house. She refused, believing her mother would protect her, according to court documents. But her mother and father left her alone in the house the next day.

Her body was not discovered until three months later.

More than 25 women in Britain have been killed by their Muslim relatives in the past decade for offences they believe have brought shame on their family. More than 100 other homicides are under investigation for potential honour killings.

How others in their communities condone, or at least turn a blind eye, to such barbaric beliefs and practices, escapes me? Surely exposure to the modern world would inform them that these things are just not acceptable in modern civilisation. Even given many remain in cultural enclaves, it is not as though they are immune from absorbing some of the more important values of the country and culture they have been living in. In the case of Banaz Mahmod’s family, they had been in England since 1998 - ie the best part of 8 years before killing her.

Now this is the piece of information that staggers me …. Some Muslim communities in Britain practice Sharia law, or strict Islamic law. Wow, who were the geniuses who allowed that? No one telling the immigrants anything like “this is Britain and British law is the only one that counts here”? If not, why not? This sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud absolutely ruthlessly. Why would any modern country tolerate barbaric laws from the dark ages in its midst?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 7:13 am and is filed under crime & punishment, in the news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.