Honour killing story

Sazan Bajez-Abdullah
Born: 1982
stabbed to death and burned: 25 October 2006
Residence: Munich
Origin: northern Iraq / Kurds
Children: one son, born in 2001, 5 years old at the time of the crime, now lives with a foster family
Perpetrator: Kazim Mahmud Raschid, her ex-husband, Kurdish Iraqi, 36 years old at the time of the crime and already in Germany for ten years
Most honor killers have no sense of guilt. For them, the laws of the clan are above the laws of the state. The killer of 24-year-old Kurdish woman Sazan even stressed in court that he was proud of his act. A few hours after the divorce, he stabbed his ex-wife twelve times in Munich in October 2006, then doused her with gasoline and set her on fire in front of their five-year-old son. In court, he said, "I am very happy that I committed the crime. For me it was the right thing to do. If people ask me about it again in twenty years, I will say the same thing." Kazim Mahmud Raschid openly despises the German legal system. For him, it is a mistake that women have any rights at all and that the judiciary and authorities protect these rights.

The backstory is easy to guess: The Kurdish woman was forcibly married off by her father in Kurdish northern Iraq in 2000 (a relative says in court: she was sold). She comes to Germany and is abused by her husband for years. Eventually she gets a restraining order. But he does not comply and continues to harass her and check her mail. In court, he boasts that he has called her sometimes as many as three hundred times a day. However, he takes a Vietnamese mistress himself, which he also admits in court.

Kazim also says that his father-in-law ordered him to commit the murder. This would mean that a father had his own daughter killed because she was on the run from her husband's abuse. It is not clear if this is true.

Kazim receives a life sentence for this in October 2007, with a special plea of guilty, so he cannot be released after 15 years. He accepts the verdict with a smile.

What is an honour killing?

An honour killing is a murder in the name of honour. If a brother murders his sister to restore family honour, it is an honour killing. According to activists, the most common reasons for honour killings are as the victim:

Questions about honour killings

  • refuses to cooperate in an arranged marriage.

  • wants to end the relationship.

  • was the victim of rape or sexual assault.

  • was accused of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

Human rights activists believe that 100,000 honour killings are carried out every year, most of which are not reported to the authorities and some are even deliberately covered up by the authorities themselves, for example because the perpetrators are good friends with local policemen, officials or politicians. Violence against girls and women remains a serious problem in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Serbia and Turkey.

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