Honour killing story: Mirfat (1999)

Mirfat
born 1979
stabbed to death: 21 June 1999
Residence: Berlin-Schöneberg
Origin: Lebanon
Children: probably none
Perpetrator: her 16-year-old brother

In June 1999, a brawl broke out in the Schöneberg apartment of a large Lebanese family. A 16-year-old stabbed his 20-year-old sister to death. The family called the police, who arrested the perpetrator.

The emergency doctor is unable to save the young woman's life. Neighbors state that the young woman had a boyfriend that her brother did not accept.

Only one article has appeared on the net about this case so far (see below). Later a witness reported the following scenario here: Mirfat comes from the Berlin part of the Lebanese Omeirats clan. In the hospital, she falls in love with a Romanian asylum seeker who is treated in the same ward and converts to Islam for her. Mirfat's father is considered a brute; he allegedly threw her mother off the roof of a house in Lebanon and killed her. Berlin's youth services organize for Mirfat to flee to a women's shelter in Bremen. For this, she is threatened by her family, including death threats against the social workers. It goes back and forth, and one day the Rotterdam harbor police report. Mirfat was found tied up and would be taken to Lebanon by her family, according to the witness.

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.