Honour killing story: Aaya - No Honor In Killing

Aaya
born: 2003
stitched: 21 March 2014
Residence: Neu Wulmstorf near Hamburg
Origin: Palestinian / Gaza
Children: she was a child herself
Perpetrator: her brother Ahmed (18 years)

The assessment of this case is unclear. First the facts: 11-year-old Aaya will be killed on 21 March 2014 by violence against her upper body and neck. Her body is put in a garbage bag, which the police later find in a garden shed in her family's terraced house in Neu Wulmstorf near Hamburg. The father had previously reported the daughter missing.

Aaya's father is an engineer, her mother a doctor, so respectable, integrated family from the Palestinian territories. Internally, however, the parents insist on strict Islamic rules. The father is considered to be violent.

Aaya has one brother and two sisters. The girls have to go to school in long skirts with headscarves, which is also enforced with blows. The parents' conflicts with their son Ahmed go so far that he eventually ends up in a foster family.

Four weeks before the crime, however, Ahmed returns to his family.

After the murder of Aaya, police find Ahmed's DNA on the garbage bag where the body was discovered.

In court, Ahmed and his family are quiet. In December the regional court of Stade pronounces a juvenile sentence of 7 years. Outside a family order, however, no motive of the brother can be recognized. It is conceivable that the son wants to return to the family and earn the respect of his father. After a stay in Gaza in 2013 he would have become more religious.

The father is not examined at any time. In other cases of honour crimes, the family has arranged for the youngest son to be charged with a crime because he is still subject to juvenile delinquency law. However, it is also possible that there is no honor motive at all and that the perpetrator and the motive are outside the family.

Against an honour killing pleads that the victim was actually too young. The pressure on the girls usually only begins at puberty. At best it could have been a warning for the two older sisters. But all this is unclear, as is what happened at the appeal. We are happy with the clues!

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:

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.