A 17-year-old girl’s lunch with a male friend triggered threats, violence, and a dramatic escape to the police. Her mother has now been sentenced to prison for honor-related oppression, while the father is convicted of assault, threats, and control. The verdict is described as a clear example of long-term and systematic honor-based oppression.
The events leading to the prosecution began when the then 17-year-old girl ate sushi with a male friend of the same age in her mother’s apartment. The mother was abroad at the time.
When the father unexpectedly appeared at the residence and saw them together, he reportedly became furious. Shortly thereafter, he called his daughter and threatened her.
The girl stated in a police interview that her father said: “As soon as you get home, you’ll see what I’ll do to you”—a statement she perceived as a direct threat of violence.
Blows with slipper and confiscation of phone
Later that day, the girl went to her father’s home. She locked herself in her room and waited in fear. According to the verdict, she overheard her parents talking on the phone and her mother telling her father he should hit her harder.
Shortly after, the father entered the room, took off his slipper, and hit her on the back of the head. The girl protected her face with her hands and repeatedly begged for forgiveness, fearing the violence would escalate.
Afterwards, the father took her mobile phone and school computer and ordered her to leave the residence.
“She hoped I would bleed”
The mother called her daughter several times during the day. According to the girl, the mother called her a “whore”, said she brought shame upon the family, and that she should never have been born.
When the girl begged her mother to stop the father from hitting her, the mother replied, according to the verdict, that she hoped the father would hit her, and that she herself would “punish her even harder” when she returned from Turkey.
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The girl perceived the threat as meaning she would be isolated, forbidden from attending school, forced to change schools, and lose her phone—measures that had also previously been used as punishment.
Fled to store and called police
After further threats from the father—”If I see you at home, you’ll see what I’ll do to you”—the girl left home out of fear.
She went to a Pressbyrån convenience store at Södertälje Central Station and asked the staff to call the police. Police met her at the location, and she was later placed in emergency foster care.
Years of violence and control
The verdict shows that the sushi incident was not isolated, but only the episode that exposed the situation to the authorities. The girl stated that, since about age 12, she had been subjected to repeated violence, threats, and humiliation—mainly from her mother.
She reported that her mother slapped her with an open hand, pulled her hair, pinched her in public, and threatened her over things like clothing choices, tone of voice, or perceived disrespect. On one occasion during a trip to Germany, her mother hit her in front of a relative.
The parents restricted her clothing, social life, and mobile phone use. She was forced to share her location via her phone so her parents would always know where she was. She was not allowed to sleep over at friends’ houses and was subjected to much stricter rules than her younger brothers.
“Ruthless behavior”
Södertälje District Court states in the verdict that the girl gave a free, spontaneous, and credible testimony, which was supported by witness statements, text messages, emergency calls, and social services documentation.
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The court found that the parents’ actions had a clear honor motive and that the restrictions were unreasonable, especially considering that the girl was soon to reach legal adulthood.
“Instead, it has been a matter of ruthless behavior intended to violate NN’s peace of mind significantly,” the court writes.
Prison for mother – father convicted of other crimes
The mother, Evelin Gaeed, born 1989-01-26, is convicted of honor-related oppression and sentenced to one year and two months in prison.
Regarding the father, Isam Kader Amer, born 1981-02-13, the district court found that honor was a motive, but that the deeds did not have the scale required for a conviction of honor oppression. Instead, he is convicted of unlawful dispossession, assault, unlawful threats, and molestation, receiving probation and 80 hours of community service (equivalent to three months in prison).
Both parents deny any wrongdoing and oppose the assertion that they live in an honor-based context.
Unusual verdict – despite common crime
Honor oppression became its own crime in Swedish law in 2022. Convictions are very rare. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet), this is only the third conviction in Sweden where honor oppression is the main crime. The penalty range is from one to six years in prison.
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The few verdicts contrast with studies showing that as many as 240,000 people with non-Western immigrant backgrounds, mainly girls, live under such oppression in families that refuse to adapt to Swedish values and laws. The governing parties, at the initiative of the support party Sweden Democrats, have announced that they intend to “take firm action” against imported honor oppression on a “paradigm shift” level.
The family’s background
According to the verdict, the parents married in Iraq before immigrating to Sweden in 2006–2007. The family belongs to the Mandaean religious minority from the Middle East. All the couple’s children were born in Sweden but have nevertheless been denied living in a Swedish way.