Honour killing story: Nuriye Bayindir (1999)

Nuriye Bayindir
Born: 1976
Attempted murder: December 1999
Place of residence: Ingolstadt
Origin: Turkey
Children: 2
Perpetrator: the cousin of her ex-husband (at the time of the crime 25 years)

Nuriye's case actually does not belong in this archive. Because the shot of the cousin of her ex-husband fell in Turkey. Nevertheless, the story of the young import bride should be told here as an example.

Nuriye comes to Germany as a 16-year-old import bride and is imprisoned and abused for 6 years by her husband Jusuf and his family. Husband and father-in-law rape her regularly. The women of the family also mistreat her.

Nuriye provides for a family of 8 as a house slave. Her workday often goes from 5 am to 2 am. When she collapses and comes to the hospital unconscious, the doctors call the police and have the Bayindir family arrested.

In October 1999, the Ingolstadt Regional Court rules, "You have lacked all precepts of humanity, compassion, pity and helpfulness toward a defenseless person and have far exceeded the limit of inhumanity." The husband Jusuf is sentenced to 10 years in prison, his mother Gülüzar to 9.5 years, and his father to 8 years. The sisters receive 4 years, and 4 years and 10 months of juvenile detention.

After that, Nuriye divorces, learns German and takes care of her two children.

About 2 months after the verdict, Nuriye goes to her family in Yozgat in central Anatolia for her sister's wedding. There she is gunned down by a cousin (25 yrs) of her ex-husband. She survives, but her father Yazar Kaplan is fatally shot. The shooter is arrested.

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.