A 23-year-old Turkish woman was shot by her brothers in February, in Berlin’s latest Muslim “honour killing”. Hatin Surucu, a Berlin-raised mother of one, was apparently punished for divorcing her Turkish husband and adopting a Western lifestyle. In the past four months, five other Turkish Muslim women (some born and raised in Berlin) have died at the hands of former husbands, boyfriends or brothers. Some fear that many other killings have gone unreported.
The shooting made national headlines only after a local schoolteacher took up the issue, sending an angry letter to parents and teachers across Germany. He was enraged by the flip way Turkish boys spoke about the crime in school. In response, teachers around the country have offered detailed accounts of their challenges with integrating second- and third-generation Turkish-Muslim students. At the end of February, Berlin’s largest Turkish association issued a ten-point plan to combat sexism, though it admitted it had little influence over devout Muslims. Meanwhile, women’s groups across Germany are calling for better integration of Turkish immigrants.
[Fonte: Berlin City Guide, The Economist]
