A Syrian refugee who fled to the Netherlands has reportedly confessed to murdering his 18-year-old daughter and dumping her body in a canal before fleeing the country in an apparent admission note sent to a Dutch newspaper.
Father-of-nine Khaled al-Najjar, 52, wrote in an email sent to De Telegraaf that he had killed his 18-year-old daughter Ryan al-Najjar, urging the publication to report ‘I am the one who killed’.
The confession did not specify exactly why he had decided to murder his daughter, with al-Najjar writing only that he was ‘very angry with her’, adding: ‘The reason is between me and the judge. I will read that in court’.
But neighbours and friends suspect Ryan’s death came as the result of an honour killing, with one claiming they had previously sheltered her when she had fled the family home in fear of retribution from her father.
Requesting anonymity to prevent any backlash, they told De Telegraaf that Ryan had a Dutch boyfriend, wanted to stop wearing a headscarf and had been beaten by her father who disagreed with her adoption of a Western lifestyle.
In Europe, after centuries of religious wars, inquisitions, and oppression, people began to choose reason, science, and freedom. This led to the Enlightenment and eventually the separation of church and state. In the Middle East, secularism was often imposed by colonial powers rather than growing from within. As a result, people distrusted it and clung more tightly to religion as a source of identity and resistance. That’s why religion remained more deeply tied to law, politics, and power there, unfortunately. As long as that deep connection between religion, identity, and control remains, the risk of extremism and horrible consequences like this sadly continues.
Can we not call it an honour killing? It’s a murder.
In what kind of culture thinks it’s less shameful to have murdered your own daughter or sister? I really can’t see how anything can be more shameful than that.
