daily mail wed jun 13 2007.
Can you really die for a kiss in Britain today? Banaz Mahmod did.
The striking young woman embraced her boy-friend on a south London street and the men following them captured that small display of affection on a camera phone.
This 'evidence' that 20 year-old Banaz had brought shame on her family was handed to her uncle. Within weeks she was dead, strangled with a boot-lace and trussed up in a suitcase. Her fate was sealed with that kiss.
Banaz and her sisters grew up in Mitcham in Surrey, but they might as well have been trapped in Islamabad, Kabul or indeed any strict Islamic society. The girls were beaten if they dared to go to school without wearing the hijab. Banaz angered her father when she left a brutal arrangered marriage. Then she fell in love with Rahmat - a Muslim, but the wrong kind of Muslim. the couple met in secret until the day that informers in their Kurdish community caught them kissing.
It was too much for the family patriarchs, Banaz had to die.
On Monday, when her uncle and father were found guilty of murder, Banaz joined the statistics of what are known, quite outrageously, as 'honour killings'.
The Truth is that Banaz is the latest victim of British authorities, who are lost in a fog of misplaced cultural and religious sensitivity. Five times, she told police her life was in danger. Five times her pleas were ignored.
On New Year's Eve 2005, after her dad had plied her with alcohol a battered and bleeding Banaz was dismissed by PC Angela ****** as 'melodramatic'. The WPC failed to record the murder allegation. Straight forward abuse was clearly seen as a matter of cultural complexity.
When are we going to stop pretending that there is anything complex about Muslim and Asian male violence against women ? Are their screams somehow lost in translation?
There is no secret here. It's about men battling to keep a medieval level of control over women in a free society.
Thousands of girls like Banaz are out there living in fear. The Metropolitain Police recorded 500 forced marriages between 2003 and 2005 and the problem is getting worse.
The suicide rate among young Asian females is three times the national average.
The message of shame is that multi-culturalism has been terrible for women.
COMMAND THE FUTURE, CONQUER THE PAST.
Can you really die for a kiss in Britain today? Banaz Mahmod did.
The striking young woman embraced her boy-friend on a south London street and the men following them captured that small display of affection on a camera phone.
This 'evidence' that 20 year-old Banaz had brought shame on her family was handed to her uncle. Within weeks she was dead, strangled with a boot-lace and trussed up in a suitcase. Her fate was sealed with that kiss.
Banaz and her sisters grew up in Mitcham in Surrey, but they might as well have been trapped in Islamabad, Kabul or indeed any strict Islamic society. The girls were beaten if they dared to go to school without wearing the hijab. Banaz angered her father when she left a brutal arrangered marriage. Then she fell in love with Rahmat - a Muslim, but the wrong kind of Muslim. the couple met in secret until the day that informers in their Kurdish community caught them kissing.
It was too much for the family patriarchs, Banaz had to die.
On Monday, when her uncle and father were found guilty of murder, Banaz joined the statistics of what are known, quite outrageously, as 'honour killings'.
The Truth is that Banaz is the latest victim of British authorities, who are lost in a fog of misplaced cultural and religious sensitivity. Five times, she told police her life was in danger. Five times her pleas were ignored.
On New Year's Eve 2005, after her dad had plied her with alcohol a battered and bleeding Banaz was dismissed by PC Angela ****** as 'melodramatic'. The WPC failed to record the murder allegation. Straight forward abuse was clearly seen as a matter of cultural complexity.
When are we going to stop pretending that there is anything complex about Muslim and Asian male violence against women ? Are their screams somehow lost in translation?
There is no secret here. It's about men battling to keep a medieval level of control over women in a free society.
Thousands of girls like Banaz are out there living in fear. The Metropolitain Police recorded 500 forced marriages between 2003 and 2005 and the problem is getting worse.
The suicide rate among young Asian females is three times the national average.
The message of shame is that multi-culturalism has been terrible for women.
COMMAND THE FUTURE, CONQUER THE PAST.