Honor Killing Shocks Italy

Hina Saleem, a 21-year old Pakistani girl whose family had emigrated to Brescia, was killed last month by her father, Mohammed Saleem, and buried in her backyard. Hina's throat was slit for refusing to marry her cousin, and instead dating an Italian. News of the honor killing surfaced in the past few days, and it has been given ample news coverage.

Mohammed Saleem's lawyer, Alberto Bordone, said yesterday, "His (Hina's father) religious ideology is deeply rooted, and his ideas are very different from ours... ...I myself am still trying hard to understand this. It will take a long time to get to the bottom of this." Mohammed Saleem and one of Hina's uncles are currently incarcerated, awaiting a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Italy's Interior Minister, Giuliano Amato, reacted to the episode stating: "The Hina Case speaks volumes about the path to Italian citizenship: it's evident that requiring one to adhere to the values of our constitution isn't enough, we also need to require that one adheres to fundamental rights such as, The woman is respected, a rule that I consider universal... ...The woman has the right to choose her life. Arranged marriages are something that we (Italians) abandoned centuries ago... ...This dilemma (of having to adhere to our values) must be confronted."

Since 2004, honor killings have been reported elsewhere in Western Europe, in the U.K., Germany, and Denmark.