Honour killing story: Svitlana (2020)

Svitlana
born: 1974
stabbed: October 12, 2020
Residence: Nuremberg
Origin: Ukraine
Children: 1 daughter, 1 son (12 and 25 years)
Perpetrator: her husband Valerii K. (52 years at the time of the crime)

In the refugee year 2015, Svitlana comes to Germany with her husband Valerii and her two children from the Ukraine. She has worked as a nurse for 20 years and will start training as a geriatric nurse in Germany in September 2016. There is talk of exemplary integration. Valerii, on the other hand, does not work.

Is this an honour killing at all? In the end it is a judgement. If Svitlana emancipated herself here, but her husband refused to integrate - then this is a very ordinary constellation of an honour killing. There is also a history of domestic violence.

On October 12, 2020, the neighbors call the police. The cops find Svitlana covered in blood. Valerii has been 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.