Honour crime still prevalent 15 years after murder that shocked Sweden

In the 15 years since a Swedish-Kurdish woman named Fadime Sahindal was murdered by her father, awareness of so-called honour crime has increased in Sweden, but more needs to be done, according to researchers and campaign groups.

Sahindal was shot and killed by her father in 2002, just a few days after she had addressed the Swedish parliament about the violence and threats she faced from her own family. A few years earlier, she had witnessed at her brother's trial after he attacked her and in 1998, Sahindal told Swedish Radio that she felt like she had been excluded for breaking ranks, and that there was a witch hunt against her.

"I think that Fadime herself has made the biggest difference," Astrid Schlytter of Stockholm University says, referring to the level of awareness of honour-related crime in Sweden.

Honour crime involves violence committed by those who aim to protect the reputation of their family or community. The victims are mainly, but not exclusively, girls and women. Schlytter says that, when she started researching the issue more than 15 years ago, there was little discussion or understanding of it within social services. 

The problem continues to this day. Radio Sweden has spoken to a young woman who was the target of so-called honour violence and who fled her family after they wanted to control who she had a relationship with. She feared for her safety, she says. She is 17 years old and now lives in protected housing. 

"It was important for me to set a limit, to say: 'We live in Sweden. I grew up here.' If I had gone along with them, they would have used it against my siblings as well," says the young woman, who wants to go by the name of Leila.

Schlytter says that, nowadays, many local councils have a better understanding of the fact that refugees can themselves be the perpetrators of abuse within their own families, and there are action plans to deal with this issue. But she says more can be done and suggests changes to the law. She says knowledge about honour violence is unevenly spread in Sweden and that the recent influx of refugees from countries where honour violence is prevalent means more needs to be done now.

On Tuesday, Sweden’s minister for equality, Åsa Regnér, said that honour-related motivations could be a factor leading to stricter sentences for perpetrators and that the government plans to gather data about the prevalence of honour crime in Sweden in order to get an idea of the scope of the problem.

Sara Mohammad, who leads a group that campaigns against honour violence, says there have been changes in attitudes in Sweden over the past 15 years and that families are less likely to try to control their relatives in this way now. But this applies mainly to families who have been in Sweden for a while and not to newly arrived immigrants.

On Saturday, an event will be held to commemorate Fadime Sahindal, with hundreds of organisations involved.