We hear of honor killing among Muslims, but the horror of this practise became clearer as we read of the recent UK case where a father murdered her daughter in an act of honor killing.
The tragic part of this story is that 15-year old Tulay Goren had pratically begged police for protection but her pleas were ignored. Reports said that over a period of 10 days preceding her death, there were 9 contacts with the police by Tulay Goren and family members as she pleaded for help.
Tulay Goren died in January 1999. Her body was never found. Police said at that time that the case against her father, Mehmet Goren, was weak, and they set aside the case. However in 2004, police became aware that the case had all the tell tale signs of Muslim honor killing. Police officers traveled to Kurdistan to learn about local “honor codes” as they built their case. And now, 10 years after Tulay Goren died, her murderer Mehmet Goren was brought to justice as he was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.
What exactly went wrong in the 1999 police investigation? What tell tale clues did the police miss? And what mistakes did they make back then? Consider these developments in the weeks before Tulay Goren died:
(1) Tulay Goren ran away from her home twice;
(2) Tulay Goren reported twice to police about being violently attacked by her father and boyfriend at that time made a similar report;
(3) Tulay Goren pleaded with police to be sent to a children’s home rather than returning to her family;
(4) Tulay Goren asked police to take specific note of her assault complaints in case of future attacks.
But perhaps police officers at that time thought this was a family squabble between father and daughter. It seems that her own relatives also complained to police about Tulay Goren’s boyfriend pestering her with Mehmet Goren also demanding that police give Tulay Goren a virginity test. Given these complaints and counter-complaints, police did what they thought then was the wisest course of action. They simply warned the family not to take matters into their own hands.
But who was Tulay Goren? She was born in Elbistan, Turkey. In 1995 when she was 11 years old, Tulay Goren was smuggled into Britain by lorry. There she found herself caught between 2 cultures – British culture in school, and strict and bullying Turkish father at home. Life was becoming unbearable for Tulay Goren. She desperately wanted a way out, and when she met 29-year old Halil Unal while on work experience at a factory during school holidays, she quickly decided that marriage with him was her way out.
Nadia Mahmood, a former schoolfriend of Tulay Goren said: : “One day she came in and said, ‘pregnant and I’m going to run away’, but I didn’t know she was serious or not. I thought it was just one of those things you say.”
But this affair angered Mehmet Goren as he considered that Tulay Goren had become a “worthless commodity”. He was apparently planning to marry her off for £5,000. Mehmet Goren was also displeased that Halil Unal was about twice Tulay’s age. Moreover, Halil Unal is a Sunni Muslim while the Goren family follow the Alevi branch of Islam. So here you have it – all the ingredients for a Muslim honor killing.
What mistakes did the police make? Probably because they thought it was a family feud, police told the family where Tulay Goren was hiding, and allowed them to persuade her to return home. On January 6 1999 Tulay Goren was dragged from Halil Unal’s home by Mehmet Goren who beat her and tied her up to prevent her from escaping again. The next day, Mehmet Goren told his 8-year old son, Tuncay Goren to kiss Tulay goodbye as he would not see his sister again. Police now believe that Mehmet Goren strangled Tulay Goren to death with a clothline, buried her in the garden at home, then subsequently dug out her body and disposed it elsewhere.
The breakthrough in this case came about when 45-year old Hanim, wife of Mehmet Goren decided to break the traditional code of silence and testified against her own husband. Tulay Goren’s sister, Mrs Nuray Guler also testified against her father. That’s how Mehmet Goren as convicted for the murder of Tulay Goren. Hanim said: “Until I went and told the police the truth I was afraid of Mehmet but then I went and told the police the truth and I wasn’t afraid any more. He used to beat me up and he used to swear at me a lot. After that I was not really afraid of him. Even if he hit me or even if he killed me, I wasn’t afraid.”
In passing sentence, the judge said: “You did all this simply because you regarded it as unacceptable that she, rather than you, should choose the man she wanted to marry. The term ‘honour killing’ is a convenient shorthand, but it is a grotesque distortion of language. There is nothing honourable about such a hideous practice or the people who carry it out.”
Mehmet Goren is indeed a violent man. The day after murdering Tulay Goren, Mehmet Goren attacked Halil Unal with an axe. Previously Mehmet Goren tried to kill his whole family by gassing them to death. On another occasion he tried to inject rat poison into his wife. And he was jailed twice for theft – once in Turkey and once in Saudi Arabia.
Mrs Nuray Guler told the court: “Tulay was caught in the middle of two clashing worlds. At home she was expected to be a dutiful Turkish daughter, while out of the family home she was exposed to a lifestyle that was completely at odds with her upbringing. Tulay wanted to leave home. She had grown into a determined girl who knew her own mind. Here again so much of our tradition and custom stood in the way of what Tulay ultimately wanted. Tulay did not simply vanish into thin air that day. If she were alive I know she would, without any doubt, have found a way of making contact with us. My mother cannot think about anything apart from how different her life will be from now on. Throughout her married life it was expected that she would behave as a loyal wife. In taking this action, she has confronted and accused the men of our family. No one should fail to realise what this means within our culture. These people do not forget”.
Then referring to her father, Mrs Nuray Guler said: “For my father I have only one request. I ask that he finally disclose the whereabouts of my sister.
I ask that he put an end to the nightmares that haunt us and allow us to retrieve Tulay in order that she may rest in peace. My mother and I have a message for women who feel they have no voice. Let them find the courage to come forward to the authorities. Let them know that like us they will be listened to and taken seriously… and that as a result no more Tulays will fall victim to this primitive custom.”
Has the police learnt its lessons from this case of honor killing by father on daughter? DCI Gerry Campbell, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Community Safety unit, said: “I am confident that those tell-tale risk indicators around honor based violence would now be identified by investigators, front line staff and their managers.”
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