Usually when people hear about honor killings, they are associated with a father or brother disapproving of a female family member’s actions. However, a recent case has illustrated the lengths women in the Middle East are willing to go to protect their honor. A woman in Turkey is currently waiting for her trial to start after she beheaded a man who had repeatedly raped her.

The woman in question is 26 year old Nevin Yildirim. She resided in a small village located in the southwestern region of Turkey. Nevin was a married mother of two and her husband periodically left their home to pursue seasonal work in another town, leaving her alone with her children, aged 2 and 6.

Nevin claimed that after her husband left for his job in January, a man named Nurettin Gider began to attack her. Nurettin was 35 at the time of the attacks and had fathered two children. He was known to Nevin because he was married to her husband’s aunt.

According to Nevin, Nurettin threatened her and her children with a gun the first time he raped her, and his visits continued for a period of eight months. In addition, he sneaked into her house and took naked pictures of her while she was asleep, threatening to show them to the community if she wasn’t complacent with his advances.

On August 28th, Nevin decided to take a stand. When she heard Nurettin climbing into her house, she grabbed a rifle and shot at him. She shot at his face as well as his reproductive organ. After killing him, Nevin cut his head off in order to cleanse her honor.

Nevin proceeded to carry the head into the main square of the village and placed it in front of a group of men, saying that this is what happens when someone ‘plays with her honor.’

Nevin has also been impregnated by her rapist. She is currently five months pregnant but says she does not want to keep the baby, while also saying she is ready to die. Nevin had sought an abortion earlier in the pregnancy, at around 14 weeks, but Turkish law states that an abortion can only be performed in the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy. Nevertheless, there are special laws for women who were raped and those whose life is endangered by the pregnancy.

The young Turkish woman has stated she regrets her actions, but she didn’t see any other way out of her predicament. She said that if she reported her rapist to the military police or an attorney she would be forever dishonored in the eyes of the community. Nevin reasoned that since she was going to get a bad reputation no matter what, she would seek her revenge. At least this way her children would not be judged to the same extent that they would if she was more timid in her actions. She said her children would be called ‘the children of the woman who restored her honor.’

In a society where honor is more important than anything else in life, Nevin had been subjected to the worst kind of humiliation. She stated that she was considering killing herself a lot during those agonizing months, but kept thinking about the reputation her children would be left with if she committed that action. As Nevin waits for her trial, many intellectuals in Turkey and abroad believe she will be released. After all, the action she had performed was done in self-defense. What’s more, it can be considered to be an honor killing, a type of murder which carries a much lighter sentence in the Middle East, including Turkey, than elsewhere in the world. 

For those interested in the subject of honor killings, another article can be found here.