Culture must never be used as a justification for “honour violence” | Diana Nammi | TEDxEastEnd

good afternoon when I was a little girl I have attended had attended everything with my parents you can see me perhaps with my sister we were sweet adorable little children used to play with other children in the wedding and in Kurdistan at that time day wedding used to be three days everyone talking drinking dancing wearing their best clothes and for women of course it was a way of showing off their big gold earring and nice glittery dresses so it was three days of happiness and the actual day which is the last day of the wedding it's tend to change dramatically women started crying men started shouting I was terrified I didn't know what happened this change was huge I started to hide myself behind my mother scared and looking around just to feel you know to get some information of what happened I heard the world from women they say bride was not virgin and that the groom decided to send her back to her family's home I heard the mother of bride came forward she was begging the groom to not return her home because her father and brother will kill her because she brought shame and dishonor to the family it was a huge question for me at that time I didn't know anything about virginity to only think I felt it was very dangerous if a women cannot have it I was living as a gal I saw where the bride sitting in a corner shaking and holding her knees her black big eyes was just yet was red big of Tears and all her black hairs were around her shoulder I remember my father he was the only one Interfaith came forward and told the groom if you send this woman back to her family she will be killed then you have to leave this this town and I felt my father was very very brave he was the only man came forward and try to step stop this crime here is my father in his old age of course he was much younger than that but is a traditional Kurdish clothes so I learned from my father that one person can make changes whenever you are and it was perhaps the best thing the best inheritance echoes from my father and not only that also to get more information and be very curious about why women why women should suffer the threat of being killed because not being virgin why virginity must be more important than our life and later on I understood more women has been killed just because they have been in love this beautiful thing why should women to be killed for being in love or love someone love supposed to be a very beautiful feeling but they killed them they killed so many young girls so many women even they killed them because they have gossip even they killed them because they were a nice clothes or they were laughing in the street and many of them has been very very young as a child when they have been forced into a marriage when they have been raped repeatedly by so-called husband and this kind of rape has been approved by the same family that if a girl was a victim of rape in the street they would kill her or force her to array to marry the rapist but by forced marriage they allow her to be raped by a man called husband and she could be even second or third wife of the same man this was very unfair in my opinion and I told if my father could make changes happen so I can do changes happen wherever I am a day in Kurdistan in Iran or Iraq or in the UK and because of my knowledge about women and seeing my friends neighbors and other people around me has been harmed by violence against women I decided to become a women's rights and human rights activist which in Iran at that time during the short time and later on during after the Revolution in Iran it was considered as a political activities by age 15 I was hugely involved in political activities and for that reason Iran become a dangerous place for me so after long time and fighting here and there I ended up in the UK in 1996 when I came to the UK I have been I claimed asylum as a political activist which my claim has been successful then I have been provided an interpreter because I couldn't speak English my interpreter was a lovely Kurdish girl very nice and friendly they make us really ease event to share some of my background stories with her she used to come to my home and we used together to go together to the place that we need to go and it was a date that I had to enroll my my child she didn't turn up and of course when I went home the first thing I did I get called her office and asked about her while she didn't turn up the person that I talked to told me that she's dead of course she was very young no any sign of illness the only thing at that point I talked about it was a road accident and I asked them the same question person responded no it was in the road accident actually her husband and in-laws they took her back to Iraq Kurdistan they killed her there because they suspected that she is flirting with one of her colleague in London I was very upset of course and I told ok in Iran or Iraq or other countries perhaps there is a you know there is lots of honor killing it become like a norms in the community people will not be shocked anymore enough if they hear about women has been died for that and I thought that there is no law in the other country against on a killing or forced marriage so I am in the UK and I have to to to ensure that this case has been investigated fully actually it was kind of trying to give myself that promise that it happened so I asked her a friend immediately to come and help me to talk to police I told her police the same story that I heard from my interpreters office and police told me when I talked about on a killing police told me first of all the incident didn't happen in the UK it happened in Iraq so it's like his police duty to investigate the case not us I told them but she was a British citizen she used to be to live in the UK for 11 years you cannot just say that it's say it doesn't make any difference we cannot at time it come to my mind if she was a white British women wouldn't still make any difference of course it would then I tried to push it a bit further and I told them you know this is a case of only killing she has been killed by her husband and I heard from her office that the husband returned to the UK and he's here you need to investigate to question him police told me Oh honor killing is your culture mom we cannot do anything we have to respect your culture if we do anything you will call us racist and I was shocked more shocked by the police reaction rather than my interpreter this because my expectation was that human rights and women's rights in the UK to be highly implemented and respected and and I thought that women from minority community should be equally entitled for the same rights and having access to the same law as a British women no matter where we are from no matter if we are asylum seeker migrants refugee we are human being and human rights and women's rights are universal and we shouldn't be entitled for that it was a huge open discrimination against us and I thought if police doesn't help if there is no changes in policy of this country this is pure racist again us so I decided to establish the organisation Iranian and Kurdish women's rights organisation to help women like myself like my interpreter like those who have been at risk of honor killing and I established organization in 2002 but it didn't took long then I heard about the case of his shoe Eunice she was a girl lived in Acton in London she was only 16 when she was killed by her father for having a boyfriend I establish immediately a campaign from but her shoe and also stop honor killings I decided to not let this case go like many other case and it must make a history to be a Catholic case to make changes in the UK so I write letters and and press releases about her and I heard from people how he killed her so I gave this information to police when I called police for her case it was a nice police officer when I told her that told him that her shoe is a victim of on a killing his reaction was that how can I believe that a father will kill his own daughter for having a boyfriend say Pierre it happened this is real life I am NOT talking about something in another planet it is here in London she was killed because of that and the perpetrator of his father is the family no one else those people who should protect her they killed her because she brought shame for having a boyfriend and it was then when I took I arranged a meeting with police and we discuss it in detail how it's happening it was a stir it was a huge step for making changes in the UK hershiser's case become the first on a killing case in the UK that has been considered as a serious crime I attended the trial every day for her case and the verdict day was most important for me to see how judge will decide about this case and the backtick that just says that her father will receive life sentence but we will consider his culture for the tariff imagine how many years is good only 14 years so soon he may be released from prison and I felt you know even by justice system they cannot accept that the culture it's not culture on a clink is a crime not culture and it shouldn't be justified under the name of culture there is no justification for murdering some wandering people there is no justification for injustice so it was then my campaign against cultural relativism become huger and future again a very high profile case happen in the UK when as Mohamed perhaps you know her or you seer unfortunately in those two case they never come to us to help them and I believe we could save their lives venez went to police more than five times and she reported the threat of honour killing she was only 17 when she was forced into a marriage the husband started of course through repair it was part of the marriage agreement but he was extremely violence and she few times left home went back left the husband left went back to her parents they forced her to the unreturned to their husband the last time when she left she never turned back home and afterward she made a boy a man called Ramat who was a family friend but again her family was not happy with the boy that she loved the man that she loved because love is again a forbidden feeling for a woman in a family court they decided to kill her and her boyfriend they even decided who who take their or delivered their plan venez wrote the name of her own family member and give it to police so police a the list of all their names but they never supported her fully it didn't took long when the family planned for her killing and Banias reported all of the steps that family took police never take her case seriously never take it service sensitively and one evening her father and her uncle and more than 15 male member of the family they they they went to her home she was she was sleeping in Iraq on the floor between themselves they tortured her for two hours they arrived her the same family who defending the honor of the family they raped her then they've strangled her with a shoelace they put her body in a suitcase took her from me Tom in London South London to Birmingham Venice was finished on the base of information that Banias gave to police it is this picture is one of the event one of the five occasion that she went to police on the basis of that information police did a huge and excellent investigation within three months they found her body and they arrested those people who were involved in killing her but two of the perpetrators two of the family member who raped her as well they fled the same day they killed her they fled back to Iraq I heard from confident sources that they used to sit in coffee shops smoking shisha and drinking peace and making jokes how they raped her and killed her and it was very heartbroken for me how can two people kill us some day a little girl in this brutal way and making joke of that and they they feel that Iraq is a safe heaven for them and I decided we have to give a strong message to everyone that there must be no any safe haven for the perpetrators of Honor killing we arranged a campaign called justice webinars and one of the demand for our campaign was to bring back this two perpetrators our a piece from Iraq to the UK it was extremely challenging but we managed to force British government Iraq his government and Kurdish government and the perpetrators of bananas from era both of them has been extradited to the UK this is a picture of the first one look at him he doesn't even feel that he did something wrong as the first picture in Heathrow when he landed it was the first extradition between UK and Iraq during the history and I am so proud that we change the law of the UK and another country to consider on a killing force marriage female genital mutilation child marriage are not tradition are not cultured they are crime and anyone who attempt to do so they will be facing justice and this to people they face justice in the UK both of them receive life sentence and the other who were involved in this case the organisation now is 12 years it was a long way for us extremely challenging but myself I am a person proof challenge difficult situation we managed to change the law in the UK we managed to make all those crimes to be noun and be part of the literature and to be part of the justice system they are not anymore using culture for the tariffs in the banners in benna's trial the birth dictate judge says this is the culture needs to be changed not women to be killed for the culture of course it was a huge success for us but let you let me tell you still it's a part of challenge for us because there is not huge awareness still it's a part of challenge for us to train all the Provisionals to raise awareness within community to change the mindset of the community to make women to be aware of their rights and entitlement in the UK to tackle the financial problems to tackle the way that we are we need money event to help women to set up the first refuge for Middle Eastern women in the UK there is none to establish a helpline for women from Middle Eastern countries to speak with them about their language our organization is going soon to launch them so they are part of our successes and what we want to to to happen and to see and to get it for granted that there is there must be no any discrimination no any justification under the name of you are women from other community we need to be equally entitled to the rights and lo have the equal access to the law in the UK and in another European country and everyone every single women and girls from any other community deserve to be safe to be protected and have a better life thank you okay

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 20,641

Rating: 4.9703703 out of 5

Keywords: Activism, Sexual Assault, Global Issues, ted talk, United Kingdom, Women's Rights, tedx talk, TEDxTalks, ted x, Violence, Gender, ted talks, Women, ted, tedx talks, Criminal justice, tedx, English, Middle East

Id: nYqNM9SvRdY

Length: 21min 39sec (1299 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 20 2015