In Honour Of Fadime: Murder And Shame
The Age
Saturday April 19, 2008
In Honour of Fadime: Murder and Shame
Unni Wikan University of Chicago Press, $48.95IN JANUARY 2002 Fadime Sahindal, a 25-year-old Kurdish-born Swede, was shot in the head twice by her father - for honour's sake. This case study, by Professor Unni Wikan from Oslo University, plunges the reader into a truly surreal, nightmare world. Fadime's "crime" was that she wanted to marry someone of her choice. To her Muslim father this brought shame on the family, although the author is at pains to point out that "honour killings" take place in other religions as well. She was sent into exile (to save her life), but refused to accept it and eventually made a damning public speech about her fate. This was intolerable to her father, who, bound by barbaric custom, saw the murder of his daughter as the only answer to shame (for which he got life in jail). Not before, however, claiming that the murder was, in fact, done by a mysterious "man in the woods" - a claim backed by Fadime's mother, but dismissed by the court. This is a controlled but harrowing condemnation of an utter anachronism.
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