In Honor of Fadime

In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame by Unni Wikan, University Of Chicago Press, 2008. 

This book describes an honor killing that took place in Sweden to a young woman in a Kurdish immigrant family. The male members of her family were motivated by a shaming code. This is a detailed look at an honor killing in Sweden. The woman who was killed was a member of a family of Kurdish immigrants. While it was a Muslim family, the religion of Islam appears to have played only a small role int he murder. It was the culture of the Kurds that was behind it. Of course, I don’t know how much of Kurdish culture was adopted from their Muslim conquerors, many centuries ago. The father and brother of the merdered woman sere he murderers. They killed her to avoid becoming outcasts in their culture. There was no evidence that either man hated the woman they killed. They killed out of fear of losing their honor. They killed out of shame.