A Call to Action

Documenting and honoring the lives of Muslim victims of domestic homicide

BY DENISE ZIYA BERTE

From June 2022 to Sept. 2022, there were six publicly reported incidents of domestic homicide and suicide with over 14 lost souls in the Muslim American community. In examining these cases, the most frustrating and terrifying commonality is the absence of identifiable patterns. Six of the perpetrators were men; one was a woman. The victims ranged in age from an unborn fetus to grandparents in their 60s. All but one incident included a firearm. Some of the victims were married; others were divorced or separated. Among them were those who wore the hijab, had children and/or college degrees, were immigrants, had family support and/or good economic standing, and those who had sought spiritual, legal and social assistance. The incidents occurred in environments from suburbs to cities. In most cases the perpetrator took his/her own life as well that of the victim, children and extended family members.

Domestic homicide, defined as a murder that occurs in the context of an intimate (spousal) or family-based relationship, is a tragic but well-established phenomenon among Muslim Americans as well as in Muslim-majority countries worldwide. In the Americas, the rate of domestic homicide of women/girls has increased 9% over the past two years. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2021) reports that over 47,000 women and girls internationally were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2020, a figure equal to someone being murdered by a family member every 11 minutes of that year.

Sadly, these numbers have remained stagnant over decades despite numerous programs and legislation. Women and girls make up only 10% of the general homicide rate but 58% of domestic homicides, demonstrating that they are safer in the street than in their homes.

While domestic violence (DV) doesn’t always reach the level of homicide, the potential for lethality is always there. This crime is built on the premise that one person in the family or relationship, because of their status (e.g., parent, husband or primary financial

Women and girls make up only 10% of the general homicide rate but 58% of domestic homicides, demonstrating that they are safer in the street than in their homes.