Honor killing of Fadime Şahindal

Fadime Şahindal (2 April 1975 in Elbistan – 21 January 2002) was a Kurdish immigrant who moved to Sweden from Turkey at the age of seven. She was murdered by her father, Rahmi, in January 2002 in an honor killing.

Life

Fadime Şahindal was opposed to her family's insistence on an arranged marriage, and instead selected her own boyfriend. At first she kept the relationship secret, but her father found out about it. Fadime then left her family and moved to Sundsvall, where her brother found her and threatened her. She went to the police, who advised her at first to talk to her family. She then turned to the media with her story, after which she turned again to the police and was offered a secret identity. By turning to the media Fadime managed to receive support from the Swedish authorities, but she had also made the "shame" of her family public. She filed a lawsuit against her father and brother, accusing them of unlawful threats, and won.

Fadime was scheduled to move in with her boyfriend, Patrick, the following month, in June 1998, when he died in a car accident. He was buried in Uppsala.

Her father forbade her to visit Uppsala, since he did not want her to visit her deceased boyfriend's grave. Nalin Pekgul, a Kurdish-Swedish parliamentarian, negotiated a compromise in which Şahindal agreed to stay away from Uppsala and her father promised not to stalk her.

On 20 November 2001, the Violence Against Women network arranged a seminar on the topic "Integration on whose terms?". During the seminar Fadime spoke in front of the Riksdag about her personal story.

On 21 January 2002, Fadime secretly visited her mother and sisters in Uppsala. During the visit, her father arrived and shot her in the head in front of her mother and two sisters. Confronted by police, he confessed and said to his defense that he was ill. Despite the confession, one of her cousins later tried to convince the police that he had killed her. During the trial the father said that another man killed Fadime, but he could not say his identity due to murder threat.

Her father was ultimately convicted of murder by a Swedish court and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in 2018 after 16 years in prison.[1]

Her murder sparked a debate in Sweden about immigrant integration and raised questions regarding Patrick's death.

Fadime was buried in Uppsala.

In April 2014, Fadime's brother was shot dead by Swedish police after he being armed refused arrest.[2]

In December 2016, a relative of Fadime murdered his former wife's new partner, which gave a sentence to life time in prison.[3]

In August 2017, another relative of Fadime killed another male relative to her, because the latter refused to honor kill his two daughters. The victim was hiding from the killer because of the threats, but other family members helped the murderer by arranging a meeting where the murderer showed up.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Fadimes pappa har släppts från fängelset" (in Swedish). 2018-08-29.
  2. ↑ http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article18683366.ab
  3. ↑ Fadimes släkting döms till livstid
  4. ↑ Relative 'used scissors to stab victim's neck' in suspected honour killing in Sweden

Further reading

  • Akpinar, Aylin. "The honour/shame complex revisited: violence against women in the migration context." Women's Studies International Forum. Volume 26, Issue 5, September–October 2003, Pages 425–442. DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2003.08.001.
  • Wikan, Unni; Translated by Anna Paterson (2008). In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-89686-1. Read an excerpt
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