Banaz, a Young British Kurdish Woman Killed in 2006 in South London - Essay Example

?Discussion on Banaz, a Young British Kurdish Woman killed in 2006 in South London on the Orders of Her Family in a So-Called Honor Killing -- One Historical Example of a Girl killed by Her Family in a Manner that was considered Legal or Morally Correct by the Wider Society Banaz was very cute and sharp-minded girl of 19 years who could not bow to the atrocities of her husband from the arranged marriage. It was an irony of her fate that those very people, who should have supported her in the critical time of her life, planned her murder. Honor killings unlike murders may be the act of a single person but carry the sanctity of the whole community. Wider community supports such killings because a stain on the family name is seen as a stain on the community. It is the extremeness of narrow-minded outlook that snatches away the right to live from some people by devilish and evil people in society on the name of tradition. Banaz was killed by her family for being in love. She was one of the five daughters of a purely conservative Kurdish family living in England, getting asylum after fleeing from Iraq. She was destined to be murdered. Precaution was taken by the family to keep her away from the influence of Western culture. The only safe haven deemed right by the family was to get her married to a person of the Kurdish community so that the family could remain aloof from the responsibility of a daughter by the Mahmods’, the family name. Family, including her father and uncle and the community expected her to bear the bad behavior of her husband by becoming an obedient wife and responsible mother (Barton par. 1-4). Banaz Mahmod’s father, Mahmod Mahmod and uncle Ari Mahmod were awarded life sentence for murdering Banaz in 2007. The documentary of her ill-fated death was previewed at the Raindance film festival. Her crime in the eyes of her near family and the wider Kurdish community was that she was having a love-affair with a Muslim outside her community although married. She feared family retaliation to the extent of murdering her. That’s why she went to the police station not once but five times, as she was expecting risk to her life. Finally that happened, which Banaz feared; she was murdered at her home in Mitcham, Surrey on 24 January 2006 by her family members, including her father and uncle, playing a leading role in her killing. Bootlace was used to strangle her mercilessly; her dead body was packed in a suitcase and buried in the garden of an accomplice in Birmingham (Hardingham-Gill par. 1-4). The gruesome murder of Banaz could only be brought to the world at large through the keen efforts made by former pop star and presently, musician and film-maker, Deeyah, who belongs to Pashtun heritage, and is a Punjabi. Deeyah shared her experiences of documentary making on the true story of Banaz. According to Deeyah, Banaz was murdered by her family because she left the home of her husband and started meeting a friend of the family named, Rahmat Sulemani. At some point of her career, Deeyah was in the somewhat similar predicament; she had to end her career of a pop-star due to life risk on her. Banaz’s story touched to her heart. Deeyah wanted to interview some close family members of Banaz, but was dismayed, as no one had the courage to share details of the tragedy. Later, Deeyah got success in watching a video-tape of Banaz herself, revealing her true painful reality (Hardingham-Gill par. 5). The circumstances that led to the gruesome murder of Banaz by her own father and uncle were more related to the fundamentalist perspective of a Muslim community, Kurdish, belonging to Iraq. Banaz was going against the community practices by revolting against the inhuman treatment meted out to her by her husband. She came back to her parents’ house, leaving her husband’s house. At the time of marriage to a Kurdish man of 28-years in age, Banaz was just 17-years old. When her parents left Iraq and took asylum in England, she was just 12 years in age. Banaz was ill-treated by her husband; he would rape her. Banaz was not even sure whether it was a part of Kurdish cultural upbringing or it was otherwise (Hardingham-Gill par. 6-7). Banaz’s family could not tolerate her decision of living in her parents’ house, which proves that they wanted her to adjust with the new circumstances herself, undergoing abuse and assault by her husband. But all her family was not opposed to her estrangement with her husband and becoming friends to the new man in her life, Rahmat Sulemani, at least her elder sister Bekhal was not opposed. She took a major risk to her life by becoming a witness in the court against her family. The court awarded life sentence to Banaz’s father, Mahmod Mahmod, for killing Banaz. Risk to the life of Bekhal had increased considerably after standing witness against the family. She had to go in hiding to secure her life. Rahmat also appeared in the trial against Mahmod Mahmod, stating that both he and Banaz were warned of meeting death if they continued meeting each other. There was solid evidence to prove the murder, as Rahmat had taken pictures of Banaz bleeding profusely in the hospital when attacked the first time. Rahmat and Banaz tried to outsmart the family by proclaiming not seeing each other but were seen in each other’s company in Brixton on January 21. Mahmods’ came to know this, which resulted in the attempted kidnap on Rahmat for killing afterwards, as was revealed to him by the kidnappers. Rahmat informed Banaz about his kidnapping. This brought about a change of mind in Banaz; earlier she was not ready to implicate her family but now she agreed to cooperate with the police in leveling charges against her family and community members also (Hardingham-Gill par. 9). The police wanted Banaz to take shelter in some other house or opt for living in a hostel, but Banaz had confidence that until her mother was in the house, she might not be forced in any way. Within few days of her going back to the family house, she was murdered (Hardingham-Gill par. 9). Whatever little information about the nature of Banaz we get, it is from her sister only, as she tells: “She was a very calm and quiet person. She loved to see people happy and didn't like arguments, she didn't like people raising their voices, she hated it. She just wanted a happy life, she just wanted a family.” The role of detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode was crucial in the deliverance of justice for Banaz; she was awarded a Queen's Award for her active role. It was her opinion that such crimes are rampant in traditional societies. The problem is that they are not reported. Banaz’s absence would also have gone unreported had her boy-friend, Rahmat, not come forward to go to the police station. As per Deeyah, it was primarily a tragic end of a love-story, and the leading character, Banaz herself was totally oblivion of it. Generally, when such a tragedy occurs, there are many known people having fond memories with the dead person, some pictures shoots and home videos, but in the matter of Banaz, only her sister came forward. The whole society reacted against the crime only after her death (Hardingham-Gill par. 11-12). It was a wider community affair when her punishment was fixed at a family “council of war” in the presence of her father, uncle Ari and other members of the community, in the drawing room of a town, Mitcham, in South London. A decision was made to kill the girl to save the family from the bad name she had brought to the family among the community (Barton par. 7). Banaz’s father had been in the Iraqi army. Banaz was briefed very positively about her future husband, who was related for comparison with David Beckham in being a nice person. Banaz had mentioned that once she was on the verge of loosing her teeth from his attack because she called her husband by his first name. A girl of Banaz age had no idea that calling her husband by his first name was against the Kurdish trend. Since her husband was not a well-educated and modern man in outlook, his reaction to anything modern was very aggressive (Barton par. 10-11). Mahmod family feared facing social insult if their daughter leaves her husband’s home forever. It seems that Banaz’s parents were willing not to bear that stigma and rather preferred her bearing abuse and insult of her husband. Two years had passed since the marriage. One can imagine the limit of insult Banaz had been subjected to at the hands of her husband; she had become desperate to get rid of a relationship and wanted security of parental home. One can conclude that till then Rahmat was not in her life, as she met him in a family get-together in the late summer of 2005. Before that she was just living her life without any meaning but the meeting with Rahmat was just like meeting the ‘prince’ of her life. She was extending her love-affair with Rahmat through random text-messages. When her uncle and father came to know, they reacted very angrily. The primary reason of their wrath was that Banaz was still a married woman and her boyfriend did not belong to their community and was not a religious person too. Probably, it was more critical for the family that Rahmat was not selected by them. So, it is very important to comprehend that had Banaz parents’ selected Rahmat after her divorce from her husband, family and community at large had not shown any concern at all (Barton par. 14). Marriage was not the sole reason of family’s outrage at the love-relationship between Banaz and Rahmat. Social respect for the family was all the more prone to be affected because one of Banaz’s sister, Bekhal, had brought bad name to the family by shifting away from her parents at the tender age of 15, to get rid of the violent attitude of her father. Bekhal’s disobedience had disgraced the family name already in the community. Bekhal’s distancing away from the family was seen as if the head of the family, Bekhal’s father, was not successful in managing the female folks, particularly his daughters. The leading command of managing the family affairs got transferred to Banaz’s uncle, Ari; he was a rich businessman, operating his own money transfer business. He threatened Banaz of dire outcomes on December 1, 2005 if she did not end the relationship with Rahmat (Barton par. 15). Banaz was cleverly invited at her grand mother’s house on the 2005 New Year Eve in close by Wimbledon to resolve the issues of her divorce by discussing it with her father and uncle. Her father had planned her killing, as he was wearing surgical gloves, and was prepared to murder Banaz. At seeing this, Banaz started running outside. She managed to break the window to land in the neighbor’s house, and later reached to a cafe. There were cuts in her hands, and blood was oozing out, while Banaz was crying: “They're trying to kill me” (Barton par. 16-17). Attempts to kidnap Rahmat could not succeed because his friends came to his help, but he was warned of dire consequences, resulting in his death afterwards. Banaz could only gather courage to cooperate with the police by leveling charges against the family and members of her community when Rahmat told her about his attempted kidnap (Barton par. 18). Finally, when the second time her killing was planned, she was left alone in the house and the killers, Hama and others were informed about her being alone in the house. The true account of her murder is still not available, but two of the culprits, Omar Hussein and Mohammed Ali, who ran away back to Iraq, claimed that Banaz was raped before being killed “to show her disrespect.” Finding her dead body was a huge challenge before the police team. Lastly, the family’s appalling crime came to light after three months of her missing when her bootlace strangulated dead body was recovered. There was no reaction by the father and uncle to the finding of the dead remains of Banaz. Only her brother had tears in his eyes at the funeral (Barton par. 19). Her boy-friend was completely shaken at the loss of his first girl-friend, and her sister, Bekhal, gave a message to other girls facing same situation as Banaz and Bekhal faced, not to lose courage and report the matter to the police at the right time, when it is not too late. In her views, it was not Banaz who had disgraced the family, as she just wanted to live her life her own way. Need is to differentiate between evil and good people. Banaz’s father, uncle and Kurdish community represented evil in human beings. Evil people want others to lead lives as they plan for them. Bekhal compared her father to devil for killing his own blood; the act of murder, according to Bekhal, was shameful (Barton par. 20). Although the criminals were punished finally but at what cost – the cost of killing an innocent life and that too, one’s own daughter. The whole Iraqi community in England was not repenting at the death of the Kurdish teenage girl. They felt that Banaz had paid the price of bringing insult to the family. Along with father and uncle of Banaz, two other accomplices who had run away to Iraq were extradited for undergoing their sentence in 2010 (McVeigh par. 1-2). When human values are silenced, results are honor killings of girls like Banaz. Until someone in the family has the courage to support the victim and the victim also comes forward to seek police protection, such crimes cannot be stopped. In the case of Deeyah, she could face the rash and mad religious fundamentalism because her father preferred her to community. The case of Deeyah also is an eye-opener to support our children rather than kill them (Nguyen par. 28-30). As per Deeyah, death of Banaz is an awakening call to the people to begin learning more about such issues and respond in creating an understanding so that better treatment is meted out to those who suffer at the hands of family and community for breeding narrow-minded perspective on such social issues (McVeigh par. 4-5). Deeyah rightly says: “There is a very long way to go before we can adequately understand, protect and support women at risk. We don't need empty slogans or lip service; we need real concise action on this issue. Living in western societies, we need our lives as 'brown' women to matter as much as any fellow human being.” Jon Snow of Channel 4 News has rightly commented on the movie on Banaz, as “a completely shocking, revealing and timely insight into the scourge of ‘honor killing” (IKWRO par. 2). Works Cited Barton, Fiona. “The tragic story of Banaz Mahmod: She fell in Love at 19, So Her Family killed Her.” Mail Online 12 June 2007. . Hardingham-Gill, Tamara. “'If Anything happens to Me, It's Them': Chilling Previously Unseen Video of Young Honor Killing Victim Warning Police Her Life is in Danger.” Mail Online 24 September 2012. . IKWRO. 17 Feb. 2013. ‘Banaz: A Love Story’ – Screening and Discussion in London. 28 March 2013 . McVeigh, Tracy. “'They're following me': Chilling Words of Girl Who was 'Honour Killing' Victim.” The Observer 22 September 2012. . Nguyen, Katie. Film Captures Tragic Story of Honor Killing Victim Banaz Mahmod. 01 Oct 2012. Trust Law 28 March 2013 . Read More