Wanted: Yaser Abdel Said for shooting his daughters Amina and Sarah Said

Amina and Sarah Said
born: 1989,1990
Shot dead: 1 January 2008
Residence: Irving, Texas
Origin: Victims:American, Perpetrator: Egypt
Children: 4 (at the time 17, 18, 19, 20)
Perpetrator: Father Yaser Abdel Said (50 years old at that time)

Yaser Abdel Said is currently on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for killing his two teenage daughters in Irving, Texas. Said is an Egyptian immigrant who married his American wife Patricia Owens when he was 30 and she was 15. The couple had three children: a son (Islam) and two daughters (Sarah and Amina). Yaser Said had a history of both physical and sexual abuse of his wife and daughters.

On New Year's Day 2008, Yaser lured his daughters into his taxi and shot them several times in a parking lot. Sarah managed to call 911 and report her father as the shooter while she was dying. The murder would have been a 'murder of honour' in revenge on his daughters for dating American boys.His plan was to arrange marriages between his daughters and Egyptian Muslim men who wanted to pay the highest dowry.

There is speculation that the brother and mother may have known about the murder plans or cooperated in the murders.

Yaser Said disappeared immediately after the shooting, but there is no evidence that he left the country or returned to Egypt. It's thought he might be working as a taxi driver in New York City. He is believed to have had help to escape from the scene of the crime, either by his brothers, son or wife.

In an online petition, activists demand that the police in Irving Texas interrogate Patricia Owens and the Said family as possible (co-)suspects for the murders of Amina and Sarah Said.

In the European Union, the police and judiciary must always proceed to a broad prosecution in the case of honour killings on the basis of EU directives and present all (co-)perpetrators to the judges on the basis of the actual story. This means that all those involved in the suspected honour killings must be heard as suspects by police investigators, because investigations show that an average of more than 10 people are often involved in carrying out honour killings.

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.