Hina Saleem (19 December 1985 – 11 August 2006) was a Pakistani woman resident in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

who was killed in an

honour killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...

, in Zanano di Sarezzo,

province of Brescia The Province of Brescia ( it, provincia di Brescia; Brescian: ) is a Province in the Lombardy administrative region of northern Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 (as of January 2019) and its capital is the city of Brescia. With an ar ...

, Lombardy,

. - Original Italian version:
Hina, sgozzata 10 anni fa dal padre La mamma: «Ma io lo perdono»

Background

Saleem was born in

Gujrat, Pakistan Gujrat (Punjabi and ur, ) is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is the capital of Gujrat District and it is the 21st largest city of Pakistan by population. Along with the nearby cities of Sialkot and Gujranwala, Gujrat forms pa ...

. Her father Mohammed Saleem began living in Italy circa 1996 and worked in a saucepan factory there. Hina worked as a server at a pizza parlour and had an Italian boyfriend, a carpenter, who she cohabitated with. Mohammed expressed disagreement with Hina's life choices after the family arrived in Italy, complaining about her

Westernisation Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...

due to the Western boyfriend and her habit of smoking cigarettes, and he instead wanted her in an arranged marriage. Authorities stated that the family gave considerable pressure against Hina to get her to return to Pakistan for marriage. Peter Popham of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' wrote that in regards to Hina and her family, "Her relations with them had been strained for years." While Saleem was of immigrant origins and a resident of Northern Italy, honour killings had long been an issue with the native Southern Italian population; Italian laws previously allowed for the pardoning of crimes for honour reasons, but these laws were repealed in 1981. Until 1981, Italian law was permissive of honour killings under certain circumstances, with the Criminal Code providing mitigating circumstances for such killings; until 1981 the law read: "Art. 587: He who causes the death of a spouse, daughter, or sister upon discovering her in illegitimate carnal relations and in the heat of passion caused by the offense to his honour or that of his family will be sentenced from three to seven years. The same sentence shall apply to whom, in the above circumstances, causes the death of the person involved in illegitimate carnal relations with his spouse, daughter, or sister." The murder of Saleem brought Italy’s own history of honour killing into discussion.

Crime

Mohammad contacted her and asked her to come to the house in Brescia to meet a cousin visiting in the area. There Mohammad slit Hina's throat twenty-eight times. Hina's boyfriend reported her missing on Saturday 19 August 2006 and the

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...

searched the house, finding the body buried in the garden and blood in Hina's bedroom.

Aftermath

Saleem was buried in the Muslim section of (a.k.a. Cimitero Vantiniano) in Brescia. Mohammad received a prison sentence of 30 years. In 2016 Saleem's mother stated that she forgave her husband, and that the media articles inaccurately portrayed the family as being against

western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

when this was not the case. On 11 August 2007, the ''Centro di salute internazionale e medicina transculturale'' (Centre of International and Intercultural Health) of

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

, was dedicated to Hina. Italian Interior Minister

Giuliano Amato Giuliano Amato (; born 13 May 1938) is an Italian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Italy, first from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2000 to 2001. Later, he was Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted t ...

stated that the event made him reconsider a plan to reduce the waiting period for Italian citizenship; he previously proposed reducing it from ten to five. Popham wrote the event "has sparked a fierce debate in Italy about how to deal with the "clash of civilisations"." ''

L'Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' (, 'The Roman Observer') is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not ...

'' criticised the event. Marco Ventura and Giommaria Monti co-wrote a book called ''Hina: questa è la mia vita'' ("Hina: This is my life").

Bibliography

* Honour killings of people of Pakistani heritage outside of Pakistan * Shafilea Ahmed (United Kingdom) * Sandeela Kanwal (United States) * Gazala Khan (Denmark) * Rukhsana Naz (United Kingdom) * Samaira Nazir (United Kingdom) *

Aqsa Parvez Aqsa "Axa" Parvez ( ur, ; April 22, 1991 – December 10, 2007) was the victim of a murder in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. During the murder trial, Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno acknowledged the slaying as an honour killing, stating, tha ...

(Canada) * Sadia Sheikh (Belgium)

References

External links

* - 13 August 2006 * - 14 August 2006 * - 13 November 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saleem, Hina Province of Brescia Honor killing in Europe Honor killing victims August 2006 events in Europe 2006 murders in Italy People murdered in Lombardy 2006 deaths 1985 births Deaths by stabbing in Italy Filicides Pakistani emigrants to Italy People from Gujrat District Pakistani Muslims Pakistani people murdered abroad Deaths by blade weapons