The clash of ideologies among generations of diaspora in European Union (EU) on personal freedoms and limitation for younger generation’s freedom under conservative approaches of the elder generation are fast emerging as a big gap and is leading to the crimes which tarnish the image of Muslims and Islam in the Western world.
Once permanent residency or legal immigration status is achieved within the European Union, a deeply personal and painful friction point emerges within migrant families: the clash between preserving family cohesion and forcing the next generation to carry on traditional lineage practices. Many families originating from remote and agrarian villages transition into insulated diaspora hubs, working tirelessly in working class jobs or running local shops. In these close-knit communities, low education level often keeps old world customs alive. To maintain ties to their homelands, consolidate property, or help extended family members immigrate, parents frequently turn to transnational arranged marriages which often cross the line into forced marriages or marriages of inconvenience.
Within the European legal system, honor killings are rightly condemned as heinous crimes that leave a heavy stigma on the reputation of the wider diaspora. The human cost of this divide is starkly visible in tragic landmark cases in Italy, such as the heartbreaking murder of Hina Saleem in 2006, and the more recent Saman Abbas case, where the Court of Appeal handed down life sentences to the parents and relatives involved.
The murder of 18-year-old Saman Abbas took place in the agricultural town of Novellara, Reggio Emilia, in Italy recently. Saman was migrated from Pakistan as a teenager and had fully embraced a Western lifestyle, shed her traditional headscarf and choosing to date a young man of her own preference. Their relationship, highlighted by a social media post showing the couple closely intimate on a street in Bologna, deeply enraged her conservative parents, who insisted her to contract a forced marriage with an older cousin in Pakistan. Fearing for her safety after receiving explicit threats, Saman sought protection from local social services and was placed in a secure shelter in September 2020.
Tragically, believing she could safely retrieve her vital identity documents, she returned briefly to her family’s home in April 2021. On May 1, 2021, closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance footage from April 30, 2021 captured her final moments alive, walking with her parents near the watermelon farm where her father worked. Shortly after her disappearance, her parents abruptly fled Italy, boarding a flight from Milan back to Pakistan. Following a grueling 18-month investigation, Saman’s remains were discovered in November 2022, buried in a shallow grave inside an abandoned farmhouse near the family residence. A subsequent forensic autopsy confirmed that she had suffered a broken neck bone, an injury deeply consistent with manual strangulation.
The case marked a major milestone in international criminal cooperation when her father, was arrested by Pakistani authorities and successfully extradited to Italy in August 2023. Her mother, eluded authorities for three years before being apprehended in May 2024. In December 2023, the Court of Assises in Reggio Emilia initially handed down life sentences to the parents and a 14-year sentence to her uncle. The legal resolution reached its definitive conclusion in April 2025. An Italian appeals court in Bologna upheld the life sentences for both father and mother.
Furthermore, finding that the murder was a coordinated family effort, the appellate court increased the uncle’s sentence to 22 years and overturned the previous acquittals of two cousins, sentencing them to life imprisonment as well. Through this sweeping appellate affirmation, the Italian judiciary sent a definitive, historic message: cultural traditions can never serve as a legal defense for violence, and the state will aggressively deploy its full judicial and international mechanisms to protect individual autonomy, gender equality, and the right to life for all residents within its borders. The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that “there is no room in Italy for those who claim to deny, in the name of alleged cultural or religious justifications. This statement establishes that European criminal justice systems will neither recognize cultural defences nor tolerate practices that undermine women’s autonomy, bodily integrity, and the fundamental rights guaranteed under the ECHR and the Istanbul Convention.
From the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), honour killings and forced marriages have no legitimate religious basis. Islamic law recognizes the free and informed consent of both parties as an indispensable condition (rukn) for the validity of a marriage contract (nikāḥ). A marriage contracted through coercion is legally defective and may be declared invalid or voidable. Likewise, neither the Qur’an nor the Sunnah authorizes family members to take the life of an individual for alleged dishonor. Islamic law strictly prohibits extrajudicial execution, vigilantism, and murder, classifying such actions as major sins subject to severe capital punishments (Qisas).
Islamic centers, local mosques, and Imams throughout the European diaspora must consistently use their Friday sermons (Khutbah) and community leadership positions to denounce honor-based abuse. Religious leaders hold a unique obligation to clearly separate tribal customs from Islamic faith, promoting a lifestyle that actively synthesizes authentic Islamic ethics with absolute respect for the host nation’s rule of law.
European legal frameworks provide strong protections through the ECHR, the Istanbul Convention, and domestic criminal laws, yet the continued occurrence of these crimes demonstrates that legal recognition alone is insufficient. Justice after a murder cannot restore a life that has already been lost. The challenge for European states is therefore to move beyond a reactive approach and develop effective preventive mechanisms that identify risks earlier, strengthen cooperation between police and social services, and provide safe pathways for victims seeking protection. Every warning sign ignored represents a missed opportunity to protect a life. At the same time, addressing honour based violence requires a careful balance between confronting harmful practices and avoiding the collective condemnation of entire communities.
Protecting victims requires rejecting both violent customs and discriminatory narratives that prevent meaningful dialogue and cooperation. Ultimately, the fight against honour based violence is a struggle to affirm a simple but fundamental principle: no tradition, social expectation, or claim of family honor can outweigh the inherent value of a human life. The measure of a society is not only how it punishes perpetrators after tragedy occurs, but how effectively it protects those who are at risk before tragedy happens. European states must ensure that every woman and girl, regardless of her background, has the practical freedom to live without fear, make her own choices, and enjoy the rights and dignity promised by law.
Muhammad Majid Bashir
(The author is the Islamabad based former judge. He can be reached at [email protected])
