There is no honour in killing

i want you to imagine

that you’ve been beaten in a deliberate

deadly attack

and that your arm and jaw have been

badly broken

and as a feeble young woman you’re

paralyzed

with the pain and you collapse

only to be savagely stamped upon by two

grown men breaking the bones

in your hip

despite the warmth of your blood

trickling down your face

you are cold so

cold with fear and your hope

your hope is as broken as your bones

can you imagine that can you imagine

that for you

or your daughter your sister

even your own mother can you imagine

that well that was me

in 1991 left for dead

broken and bruised in the united kingdom

now i stand here in 2021 disowned by my

family

without fear without hatred or anger

healed and very determined to make a

change

i am nina olk i was born and raised in

the united kingdom

and i survived and escaped an honour

killing

at the age of 21.

at 17 i’d had an arranged marriage

i suffered from mental abuse physical

abuse and

sexual abuse and at the age of 21 i

escaped

back to my parents only to be met

with furious fists as i had dishonored

my father and family i had left

an arranged marriage and brought shame

do you think i pressed charges would you

you see my culture we’re born to honor

and respect our parents we’re not

allowed to speak out it is a taboo

and as women and girls we live in fear

honour killings are rarely reported as

the victims do not survive

but honour killings are happening all

over the world

do you know what an honour killing is

it is when a girl or a woman is killed

and it may be simply that she was born

a girl or that she brought shame

upon her family as within the community

respect is gained and maintained

by doing things to do with honor

to retain honor blood must be

shed honor killings happen every day

of every year and every month there is

an honor killing happening

somebody around the corner from you has

either woke up scared

or tragically taken her last breath

and will never wake again people think

honor killings are happening far away

but that

is not the case i cannot stress to you

how

often these barbaric killings are

happening

by your neighbor or possibly by their

neighbors

girls are killed every day as in the

case

of 2006 when a young

kurdish woman was strangled

and buried in a suitcase

by her parents in the south of london in

the united kingdom

as in the case of 2000 when an egyptian

man went on the run for 12 years

after he shot both of his teenage

daughters in the back of the very taxi

that he drove every day why

for the sake of honor and in 2019

when three relatives that were men

were jailed in palestine for butchering

a 21 year old woman for the sake

of honor the statistics show that

hundreds are killed this way but that is

not the case

it is more likely to be millions

statistics in the uk state that there is

one

honor killing per month but that isn’t

true

is mr afzal of the crown prosecution has

himself

stated i say they are untrue as hundreds

of girls

are taken out of school and they do not

return because they’re taken abroad

and killed

my father was jailed in 2015.

he abducted his illegitimate daughter he

was six

years old and to save face

he fled to india without the mother’s

knowledge

that six-year-old has never been seen

again if i was terrified

at 21 i can only

imagine how upset scared

and confused a six-year-old would be

and the police say that without a body

you cannot press charges for murder

abduction is a short sentence so now he

is out of prison

i ask you where is the honor

in killing the two words do not belong

together

these cultural beliefs will be passed on

from generation to generation

unless we do something

i ask you that we pull together

to talk to the new generation to teach

them about humanity and to let them know

that without baby girls there is no

future i ask you

to infiltrate the schools so we can tell

them to be more vigilant

when girls do not return to schools and

women do not return to work

let us work together to take the message

to the united

nations to ask them

to put an end to this centuries-long

honorable killing that is more of a

devastating

deadly disease than the coronavirus

pandemic

let us contact the representatives

directly at the middle east

africa and asia and ask them to take a

harsher stance

and let us talk to the governments

asking them to impose

sanctions to protect the very girls that

are the least

protected and let us

together support the victims

to give them strength to speak out

taking away that power

from the very people that kill threaten

and control

in the communities can we do these

things

can we start to stop honor killings can

you help to make a change

ask yourself what you can do but please

i plead

do not listen to my message and ignore

it honor

my story learn

support and get involved at

endhonorkillings.org

they said that they would break my bones

but i’m stood here breaking the silence

they said that i brought shame upon my

family

but the shame is on you and me if we

know about tonic killings and do nothing

they said that they would carry out an

honor killing

but i stand here for all of those women

and girls

that have been killed

i am but a one woman brave enough to

speak out

and for those of you that have survived

i ask you to stand beside me and stop

the stigma

stand beside me for the ones that have

died

are sisters my sister

our mothers and daughters who died at

the very hands of those who

should have loved them

i ask you to hear my lone voice

crying out for change crying out for

awareness

asking you to be involved

stand with me and be part of the

solution

and not the problem thank you