Stalked by family honour, some Muslim women hide

BERLIN, Apr 28 (Reuters) Fidan, her hair dyed blonde, is in hiding from her husband, who she says beats and rapes her. She is terrified her family will kill her if she goes home to eastern Turkey.

Back in Anatolia, the 19-year old's relatives believe she has brought shame on them by leaving her 50-year old Turkish husband, who is also in Germany.

She will not say exactly where he is.

''I won't go back. I am afraid. Death awaits me there,'' said Fidan, nervously biting her fingers and fiddling with her long hair. She has only basic German language skills and her lawyer interprets her broken sentences from Turkish.

Dressed in scruffy jeans and a red anorak, she looks like any other 19-year old Turkish girl living in Germany.

But Fidan is alone in Berlin, looking for a job and understanding little of what goes on around her. She says she has no friends and, with a cover name to prevent her husband finding her, she has even lost her identity.

Worst of all, she fears becoming an 'honour-killing' victim.

Condemned by many Islamic leaders, honour crimes are motivated by a desire to defend narrow traditionalist ideas of family reputation.

They are a blight on Muslim communities in Europe -- in Britain, Germany and Sweden -- as well as in Islamic countries.

United Nations' bodies have said about 5,000 women die in honour killings globally every year. Many more commit suicide. But little is done to discourage the practice, which in Europe is hardly discussed.

''The family's honour depends on the woman and if it is damaged, the woman is destroyed,'' said Evrim Baba, who represents the far-left Linke party in Berlin's city parliament. She is a Kurd who came to Germany when she was 11.

''Many girls in immigrant communities are trapped in rigid patriarchal structures and live in fear of their families.'' In Germany, which has the second largest Muslim population in western Europe after France, 55 attempted honour killings took place between 1996 and 2005, say police.

A case last year propelled the issue into the headlines.

A man of Turkish descent was jailed for shooting dead his sister at a Berlin bus stop after she left her husband to live alone. His brothers were acquitted of conspiracy to murder.

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