BBC shhhh don't mention the M word

I was listening to the news on BBC radio (I can't remember if it was Radio 4 or 5Live) about the Kurdish girl murdered by some of her relatives in Birmingham last year in a so-called "honour killing". I had heard of this case before and assumed that she and her family were Muslim and the boyfriend wasn't, I had even thought of blogging about the BBC's reluctance to ever bring a negative view of Islam into any news report. Then I heard the piece on BBC radio yesterday that said both of the families were Kurdish and it was a difference in tribes. I felt somewhat ashamed that I had jumped to the wrong conclusion and was glad that I had not blogged about this issue.

Then this article on Reuters was brought to my attention and I see that I was right in my assumptions - "Her family decided to kill her because they believed the relationship had shamed them as Suleimani was an Iranian Kurd and not a strict Muslim." Maybe the BBC are now covering this part of the story, here is the relevant BBC news web page, can you see any mention of religion? The BBC prefer to say "Miss Mahmod was killed after falling in love with a man her family did not want her to marry. Her father and uncle ordered the murder because they believed she had shamed the family, the three-month trial heard."

Now I feel doubly mislead by the BBC, their coverage on this case was so biased that it actually made me feel that I had jumped to a wrong and biased conclusion and that I was guilty of assuming that this case might have a Muslim angle.


Some more extracts from the Reuters article that I think deserve further publicity and it sure isn't going to get any on the BBC. "Honour killings were almost unheard of in Britain until a few years ago but police and the Crown Prosecution Service now estimate there are about a dozen such murders a year." That's around 12 young woman killed every year for falling in love with someone who follows (or comes from a family that follows) a different religion.

"Campaigners say that the issue was misunderstood and that the authorities had been unwilling to get involved in minority community matters for fear of being culturally insensitive." "Hannana Siddiqui of Southall Black Sisters, an organisation experienced in dealing with honour killings, said the authorities were worried about being seen to be heavy handed. That's often been the reason why agencies like the police and social services have not wanted to get involved in cases of abuse within communities because they think it would be culturally insensitive to do so," she told Reuters." Culturally insensitive... people are being killed, if that is part of someone's culture, then it bloody well shouldn't be!

UPDATE - A sad addendum to this story is this article about Banoz Mahmood's sister, Bekhal. This story gets sadder and sadder and I get angrier and angrier that this is happening in this country