Father orders daughter's brutal death

A father who ordered his daughter's brutal death for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called honor killing has been found guilty of murder in the UK.

Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden.

Banaz Mahmod left Iraq at the age of 11 only to die young because of her father, who ordered this honor killing of her. According to the statistics, more than 100 homicides in England are under investigation for being potential “honor killings”.

Mahmod Mahmod, 52, Banaz’s father, a Kurd, came to Britain in 1998 from Iraq to escape Saddam’s dictatorship.

The prosecutors told the courts that Mahmod Mahmod and his brother Ari Mahmod, 51, planned the killing during a family meeting. Two others have pleaded guilty in this case and are awaiting sentencing; two more have fled the country.

Banaz was forced to marry a Kurd via arranged marriage; because her husband abused her she ended the marriage, which brought shame to the strict family of Mahmod, who is a prominent Kurd in London. Banaz after this marriage fell in love with Rahmat Suleimani, 29, an Iranian Kurd who lives near her area. So Mahmod blamed her for being too westernized and falling in love with a man who didn’t belong to their class.

More than 25 women in Britain have been killed by their Muslim relatives in the past decade for offences they believe have brought shame on their family.

"We're seeing an increase around the world, due in part to the rise in Islamic fundamentalism," said Diana Nammi with the London-based Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization.

During the trial, it was found that Mahmod used to beat her at an early age for using hairspray and becoming too westernized. Banaz’s sister Bekhal testified in the courts and said her uncle told Banaz that she would have been “turned to ashes” if she were his daughter and had shamed the family by associating with an Iranian Kurd.

Banaz Mahmod ran away from home when she was a teenager, but was later sent an audio tape in which her father warned he would kill her sisters, her mother and himself if she did not come home, her sister said.

Banaz came back home because of this but was hospitalized soon after, her brother had attacked her. Her sister said that his brother told her that he was paid by her father to finish her off, but was unable to. Even she is afraid of her life from the family.

The years of Banaz Mahmod's abuse were compounded by officers who repeatedly dismissed her cries for help.

She first went to police in December 2005 when she suspected her uncle was trying to kill her and her boyfriend. She sent the police a letter naming the men who she thought would later kill her. But Police didn’t take any actions against the family except for a few interviews. However, today they are saying these Police Interviews may have hastened her death.

On New Year's Eve, she was lured by her father to her grandmother's home and believed she would be attacked after he forced her to gulp down brandy and approached her while wearing gloves. She escaped by breaking a window, and was treated at a hospital.

After her release, she complained to the police, who dismissed her claims. One Police officer considered charging her for breaking her grandmother’s window after this incident.

Laying in her hospital bed after the escape, Banaz Mahmod recorded a dramatic video message saying she was "really scared".

Rahmat said they videotaped it because no one would believe them without it. After her release from the hospital, she went back to the same home where she was tortured and instead convinced her family that she will stop seeing her boyfriend Rahmat.

But she rejoined Rahmat soon, some of the family members spotted them together kissing and told the father about them on January 22, 2006.

The family members wanted to punish Rahmat, tried to lure him into a car, probably to kill him, but he refused to go with them. This time Banaz went to the police again. The police however gave her a good advise to stay in a safe house, but she didn’t listen thought her mother will protect her.

Banaz’s mother and father left her alone the next day and she was not seen after that. Her boyfriend suspected that something bad happened to her, filed a complaint to the police. They didn’t find her body until three months later.

She was found nude in a packed suitcase with a lace tied around her neck.

One of the men who fled the country is allegedly the man who arranged for her burial in the northern city of Birmingham.

Banaz must have been through a lot in this short life, she is better off with God than being with such a family.

I hope the leaders in London and other countries condemn this honor killing so it doesn’t happen to others. If nothing is said about this honor killing and letting it go, will make it worse.