Every year, thousands of women around the world are brutally murdered in so-called ‘honour killings’ – a horrific crime in which perpetrators attempt to justify their violence by claiming the victim has brought shame upon the family.
Seeking a divorce, having sex outside, or defying a dress code can be enough to cost a woman her life in some communities – where the heinous acts are not only accepted but encouraged.
The crimes are not limited to one specific religion or faith but are most frequent in various parts of the Middle East and South Asia, with nearly half of all honor killings occurring in India and Pakistan.
Alarmingly, in some countries, such as Jordan, the murders are minimally punished – with Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code providing a mitigating excuse for those who kill female relatives found ‘guilty’ of committing adultery.
Today marks National Day of Remembrance for Honour Killings – with activists tirelessly campaigned to end the abuse – but chilling accounts of femicide continue to emerge.
Just weeks ago a teenager pregnant with her rapist’s baby was brutally murdered by her fiance in Turkey during an apparent ‘honour killing’ after he found out about the sex attack.
And, last year, the father of an 18-year-old woman who was tied up and dumped in a canal reportedly confessed to killing her after she started dating alocal Dutch boy and ‘wanted to stop wearing a headscarf’.
As the number of attempted and fatal ‘honour killings’ keeps rising, the question remains; When will the international community take action and finally end the barbaric practice?
Girl nearly strangled
A heroic teenage boy has described how he saved his girlfriend’s life as her parents allegedly tried to strangle her in an ‘honor killing’.
Ihsan Ali, 44, and his wife Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, are charged with second-degree attempted murder and attempted kidnapping after the attack on October 18.
The girl, 17, who can’t be named, ran away from home to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after her parents tried to put her on a plane to Iraq.
Shocking video allegedly showed Ihsan Ali, 44, on the ground with his daughter in a chokehold, while classmates desperately tried to free her
‘Her father had recently been threatening her with honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another county,’ the girl told police.
Shocking video showed Ihsan on the ground with his daughter in a chokehold outside the school, while classmates desperately tried to free her.
Ihsan and Zahraa both pleaded not guilty and are expected to go on trial in this month.
The girl met her boyfriend at the school after she fled her home and school officials arranged for her to stay at a women’s shelter.
However, the school did not arrange transport there, so the couple went outside to catch a bus, and spotted Ihsan’s pickup truck in the car park.
The teenage boy explained to police in an interview on November 6 that a friend told him Ihsan had seen them and was heading their way.
The girl’s 16-year-old boyfriend in the clothes he was wearing during the attack
‘[The girl] was scared, shaking, and had a tremble in her voice,’ Detective Julie Mullen wrote in a report obtained by the Daily Mail.
The boy stood between his girlfriend and her father as they tried to get to the bus as it arrived, and attempted to separate them when Ihsan tried to pull her away.
Ihsan then allegedly punched him in the head and he remembered falling down and everything going black.
‘[He] said when he got up [the girl’s] dad was ‘choking’ her and [two other students] punched [Ihsan] in the face and people were yelling to call 911,’ Mullen wrote.
‘He started punching her dad in the face but he continued to choke [the girl] and said others were trying to pull her out while he continued to punch her dad in the head.
‘He continued to punch Ishan until his ‘head got soft’ and he got knocked out.’
The boy then helped his girlfriend off the ground, but she ‘couldn’t breathe’ and didn’t know what was going on.
Just as he was helping her to his feet, he alleged Zahraa and the girl’s eldest sister Haneen, 21, came up behind them and pushed him out of the way to get to her.
Ihsan Ali, 44, allegedly tried to strangle his daughter in an ‘honor killing’ outside her school and was charged with attempted murder
He told police he tried to ‘fight them off’ by putting up his arm up and pushing them away, and in the melee the girl and Zahraa were pushed to the ground.
‘Once [the girl] and her mom were on the ground, her mom put her arm around her neck and started choking her,’ Mullen wrote.
He said that as he tried to pull the girl away from Zahraa, Haneen yelled ‘what are you doing this?’ at him.
The boy was eventually able to pull his girlfriend to her feet and then away from Haneen when she allegedly grabbed her, and flee towards the school.
Woman shot dead
A father who moved his family from the United States to Pakistan was arrested after shooting his daughter dead in an ‘honour killing’ over her use of social media.
Anwar ul-Haq, believed to be a US citizen, was charged with murder after he admitted to shooting his 15-year-old daughter Hira dead in January.
Mr ul-Haq had reportedly forbidden his daughter from making TikTok videos which he deemed ‘inappropriate’, and decided to kill her when she continued to post.
Hira’s family ‘had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering,’ according to police.
The shooting happened on January 28 in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, said Babar Baloch, a local police chief.
He said the father of the 15-year-old girl initially suggested that an unidentified gunman had killed his daughter, but after he was taken into custody for questioning he confessed to the crime.
Mr Baloch said the man’s brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the murder, adding that both men had apparently objected to her sharing of ‘objectionable’ content on TikTok, which is used by 54 million people in Pakistan.
The family had lived in the US for 25 years, Mr Baloch said, before Mr ul-Haq moved them back to Pakistan recently.
Hira’s death is being investigated as a so-called honor killing
If the men are found guilty they will face a mandatory life sentence.
‘Honour killings’ are common in Pakistan, where family members and relatives sometimes kill a woman if she does follow local traditions and culture or chooses to marry a man of her choice.
More than 1,000 women are killed every year in the country at the hands of community or family members over perceived damage to their ‘honour’, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Pregnant teen gunned down
A teenager pregnant with her rapist’s baby was brutally murdered by her fiance last month in an apparent ‘honour killing’ after he found out about the sex attack in Turkey,
Oya Budak, 18, was five-and-a-half months pregnant when she was shot dead, Turkish news agencies said.
She was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest but died along with her baby, local media reports.
Ms Budak reportedly became pregnant after being raped by another man several weeks before her engagement.
A pregnant 18-year-old was killed by her ex-fiance, who had broken off their engagement after learning she was raped, local media reported Thursday. Pictured: Oya Budak
The man, 19, was arrested in Istanbul and confessed, according to Turkish media
Ms Budak, who was five-and-a-half months pregnant, was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest, but died along with her baby, Turkish news agencies said
Her fiance is said to have ended the relationship when he became aware of the situation.
The man, 19, was arrested in Istanbul and confessed, says Turkish media.
Orhan Budak, the grandfather of Ms Budak, said, ‘When she said she was in pain, her fiance took her to the hospital and learned she was pregnant.’
It was learned that Ms Budak’s family was unaware that she had been raped and became pregnant.
When her fiancé’s family found out about the pregnancy, they reportedly did not want him to marry Ms Budak.
The killing, which occurred in Istanbul overnight, was the 209th femicide this year in Turkey, according to a women’s rights group.
Teenager dumped in canal
A Syrian refugee who fled to the Netherlands reportedly confessed to murdering his 18-year-old daughter and dumping her body in a canal before fleeing the country in an apparent admission note sent to a Dutch newspaper last year.
Father-of-nine Khaled al-Najjar, 52, wrote in an email sent to De Telegraaf that he had killed his 18-year-old daughter Ryan al-Najjar, urging the publication to report ‘I am the one who killed’.
The confession did not specify exactly why he had decided to murder his daughter, with al-Najjar writing only that he was ‘very angry with her’, adding: ‘The reason is between me and the judge. I will read that in court’.
Father-of-nine Khaled al-Najjar, 52, wrote in an email sent to De Telegraaf that he had killed his 18-year-old daughter Ryan al-Najjar (pictured), urging the publication to report ‘I am the one who killed’
Ryan’s corpse was pulled out of the Knardijk canal in Lelystad on May 28 2024, almost a week after her last sighting by neighbours by the family home in Joure some 30 miles away on May 22
But neighbours and friends suspect Ryan’s death came as the result of an ‘honour killing’, with one claiming they had previously sheltered her when she had fled the family home in fear of retribution from her father.
Requesting anonymity to prevent any backlash, they told De Telegraaf that Ryan had a Dutch boyfriend, wanted to stop wearing a headscarf and had been beaten by her father who disagreed with her adoption of a Western lifestyle.
Ryan’s corpse was pulled out of the Knardijk canal in Lelystad on May 28, 2024, almost a week after her last sighting by neighbours by the family home in Joure some 30 miles away on May 22.
Investigators were led to her body after De Telegraaf contacted authorities having received the email said to be from her father, who only confessed to the crime after he had fled the country to Germany and on to Turkey.
Police reportedly arrested two of Ryan’s brothers, aged 22 and 24, on suspicion of having aided their father in their sister’s murder, but al-Najjar in his confession note insisted he had acted alone.
Investigators were led to her body after De Telegraaf contacted authorities having received the shocking email from her father
Police reportedly arrested two of Ryan’s bothers, aged 22 and 24, on suspicion of having aided their father in their sister’s murder, but al-Najjar in his confession note insisted he had acted alone
‘I am responsible for what happened and no one else. Don’t accuse people who are innocent. None of the family members have anything to do with the case,’ his letter read according to De Telegraaf.
‘No one, even outside the family, knew what I was doing. I was mysterious towards my family. That’s why I didn’t tell them.’
Neighbours who spoke to De Telegraaf said it was clear Ryan feared for her life prior to her murder.
Student’s throat slit
Heshu Yones was 16 when she had her throat slit by her strict Kurdish Muslim father, Abdalla Yones, at their family home in Acton, west London, in October 2002.
Yones, a political refugee who had fled the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, believed his daughter had become ‘too westernised’ and was ashamed to learn she had struck up a relationship with an 18-year-old Lebanese Christian boy.
He was jailed for life in 2003 after admitting the murder of A-level student Heshu, who had planned to run away from home after starting a relationship with an 18-year-old Lebanese Christian boy.
Police said she appeared to have been the victim of serious domestic violence before the murder.
Heshu Yones (left) was 16 when she had her throat slit by her strict Kurdish Muslim father, Abdalla Yones (right), at their family home in Acton, west London, in October 2002
Police said Heshu (pictured) appeared to have been the victim of serious domestic violence before the murder
And they revealed a letter which Heshu wrote to her parents, apparently just days before she planned to run away.
It read: ‘Bye Dad, sorry I was so much trouble.
‘Me and you will probably never understand each other, but I’m sorry I wasn’t what you wanted, but there’s some things you can’t change.
‘Hey, for an older man you have a good strong
punch and kick.
‘I hope you enjoyed testing your strength on me, it was fun being on the receiving end. Well done.’
Pregnant Christian strangled
A Somalian refugee who murdered his seven-months-pregnant girlfriend in an ‘honour killing’ was jailed for life by a Swedish court in 2024.
Saga Forsgren Elneborg, 20, was found strangled to death at her home in the city of Örebro in April 2023 in a case that shocked the Scandinavian country.
Prosecutors claimed that her 22-year-old boyfriend Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim decided to murder her rather than face the shame of telling his Muslim family that his girlfriend – believed to be half Thai, half Swedish, and Christian – was expecting his baby.
They alleged that on the night Ibrahim was due to tell his family about Saga’s pregnancy, he went to her flat in Örebro and strangled her to death by wrapping the cord of her lamp around her neck.
Ibrahim meanwhile refused to acknowledge his actions and instead tried to pin Saga’s death on a gangland killing, claiming criminals had burst into the apartment and killed her to take money he had stashed there.
Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim (pictured together), 22, from Somalia, killed Saga in April last year rather than face the shame of telling his mother that he had got his girlfriend pregnant. He was sentenced to life in prison
Saga’s (pictured) family said via their lawyer that it had been a ‘long and painful wait’ until Ibrahim was charged for Saga’s murder
But his alibi fell apart under scrutiny and the judge and jury in Örebro district court agreed with prosecutors, announcing this morning that Ibrahim will face life in prison.
It also transpired during the court proceedings that Ibrahim had frequently met other women during his relationship with Saga and had largely refused to assume any responsibilities as a would-be father.
Prosecutors set forth evidence that Ibrahim had routinely promised he would move in with Saga after finding out about her pregnancy, yet never agreed to even spend one whole night with her.
The prosecutor has shown through robust evidence that the 22-year-old murdered his pregnant girlfriend and that the fetus in the stomach died as a result,’ court president Lars-Gunnar Lundh said in a statement following Ibrahim’s sentencing this morning.
‘The prosecutor has also shown that the murder was honour-related, which the district court considers to be an aggravating assessment of the penalty value’.
Saga Forsgren Elneborg, 20, was found strangled to death at her home in the city of Örebro in April last year in a case that shocked the Scandinavian country
During the trial Ibrahim insisted that Saga was killed by criminals who forced their way into her apartment, purportedly to steal a bag of cash he said he’d stashed there.
But prosecutors completely refuted the claims, arguing there was no evidence of any forced entry at the property.
The alibi presented by Ibrahim was quickly proven false.
The killer reportedly claimed he was out driving with a friend at the time of Saga’s murder, but prosecutors showed that he did not use his phone for a 90-minute time period around the incident.
In the meantime, the friend in question was on a phone call with another person and refused to testify in Ibrahim’s defence, according to expressen.se.
Lawyers representing Saga’s family said they were ‘relieved at the conviction, and that it was a life sentence’, describing the verdict as ‘fair’.
Teen killed over TikTok
Pakistan police on Friday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her account on popular video-sharing app TikTok.
In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces.
‘The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,’ a police spokesperson told AFP.
According to a police report, investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday ‘for honour’. He was subsequently arrested.
The victim’s family initially tried to ‘portray the murder as a suicide’ according to police in the city of Rawalpindi, where the attack happened, next to the capital Islamabad.
Ibrahim tried to appeal his sentence but was unsuccessful.
Woman left for dead
Nina Aouilk was just 21 when she was left for dead, lying in a pool of blood, after her own father tried to murder her in an alleged ‘honour killing’.
The horrific attack reportedly followed years of abuse, including a brutal rape, being tied up for days, and having her face forced into her own urine.
Nina Aouilk was just 21 when she was left for dead, lying in a pool of blood, after her own father tried to murder her in a so-called ‘honour killing’
The horrific attack followed years of abuse, including a brutal rape, being tied up for days, and having her face forced into her own urine. Ms Aouilk told MailOnline how, from the age of six, she had been treated as a ‘slave’ in her own home and forced to serve her relatives. Pictured: Nina, aged 16
Ms Aouilk, who was born in the UK but has Punjabi heritage, told MailOnline how, from age six, she was treated as a ‘slave’ in her own home and forced to serve her relatives.
She says this was because in her culture girls were ‘not needed or wanted’ and were told to stay in the kitchen.
Although her torment began in early childhood, it became significantly worse at age 14 when she says she was brutally gang raped by her father and his friends.
‘My father was the first person to instigate it. They treated me like I was disposable. I was just a girl,’ she recalled.
‘When I resisted, he broke my nose. The others were very violent. They literally left me for dead that evening.’
Ms Aouilk claims that after the alleged rape her father told her she could no longer have an arranged marriage because she was not a virgin and had ‘spoiled herself.’
