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