Honor Crimes Among Us: The Ryan Case

On the night of May 22, 2024, Ryan Al Najjar, 18, left her family home in Joure, a village in northern Netherlands, accompanied by her brothers, Mohamed and Muhanad. They took her out with a false excuse, drove her for more than two hours to a nature reserve and there, following her father Khaled's instructions, tied her hands and feet, gagged her and threw her alive into a swamp where she drowned. She died a horrific death. When her body was found six days later, her father's DNA was under her fingernails.

Ryan belonged to a Syrian refugee family. Like any young girl living in Western culture, she loved to wear makeup and post videos on TikTok, have friends and have fun. She had a Dutch boyfriend and refused to cover her head. To her family, who did not accept the culture that had sheltered them, these were unforgivable transgressions and made her pay for them with her life.

Ryan's horrendous crime is now in the midst of trial. The Dutch prosecution demanded 25 years in prison for the father and 20 years for each of the brothers.The trial has reignited the national debate on refugee integration and the limits of multiculturalism.

'Honor' crimes, a global problem.

The murder of Ryan Al Najjar falls into what is known as "honor crimes," a silenced drama that exposes the limits of protecting vulnerable people under ghettoization. It is one of those few cases in which the system managed to document every piece of the puzzle: the victim identified, the perpetrators arrested, the motive confirmed, the DNA preserved, the context reconstructed. Yet in quiet suburbs, small towns and even big cities, this brutal practice continues to claim lives: the deliberate murder of daughters and sisters in the name of family honor. These are not impulsive acts of rage. They are planned, often collective, and executed with chilling precision.

In August 2025, the U.K. Labour Party announced clear legislation defining and addressing honor-based violence, acknowledging that the problem, far from diminishing, has worsened. Between 2000 and 2022, there were dozens of murders in Norway that are presumed to have honor killing as a motive. It is estimated that more than ten honor killings are committed each year in Britain. Among the well-known cases is that of Banaz Mahmod, whose father, uncle and other relatives conspired to murder her after she left her marriage. Germany accumulated nearly half a hundred cases in recent years. In Sweden, honor-related motives were identified in about one-third of the murders of women. The Netherlands, France, Italy and Belgium report similar situations.

But these official numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Most countries do not record "honor" as a separate category in their judicial systems. Investigators must gather figures from court records, police reports and media monitoring. Many cases are misclassified as common domestic violence, family disputes or even suicides.

The repeating pattern. The victims are usually very young women who have refused an arranged marriage, entered into a relationship without parental approval, refuse to wear religious dress or simply claim their right to education, etc. The aggressors are almost always close relatives: fathers, brothers, uncles, sometimes even mothers or cousins who participate in the planning or execution.

"On average, one woman was killed every two days for 'honor' reasons in Iran."

The stated motive is always the same: the woman's behavior has dishonored the family, and only her death can restore that lost honor.

Worldwide, two-thirds of the victims of this type of crime were killed by their families of origin. Internationally, parents play an active role in more than one-third of honor killings. Ryan had received police protection from her family after she fled barefoot to a neighbor's house in 2023, screaming, "My father wants to kill me." But that protection ended shortly before her death. In the Netherlands, at least five women a year need police protection from family members because they face honor-related violence. Crimes related to family honor range from threats and coercion to forced marriages, assaults and severe domestic control. Only a fraction of these cases reach the courts.

Globally, the magnitude of the problem is overwhelming. The United Nations estimates that 5,000 women and girls are killed each year in honor crimes, although some researchers and non-governmental organizations estimate that the actual figure could be much higher. Crimes of honor occur in many parts of the world, but are most widely reported in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that in 2024, at least 405 people were recorded as victims of honor crimes across Pakistan, with the highest numbers in Sindh and Punjab provinces. In Iran, the situation is particularly alarming. In 2024 alone, at least 186 cases of honor crimes were documented and analyzed throughout the year by the Stop Honor Killings campaign. In the first quarter of 2024, 49 cases were reported, followed by 43 in the second quarter, 43 in the third quarter and 51 in the fourth quarter. This means that, on average, one woman was killed every two days for honor reasons in Iran. These figures do not reflect the exact number of women killed due to limited access to data.

Caught between integration and ghettoization

One of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting these crimes is the complex international bureaucratic network that makes it difficult to bring perpetrators to justice, especially when they cross borders. The case of Ryan Al Najjar perfectly illustrates this systemic frustration. Within days of the murder, his father, Khaled Al Najjar, fled to Syria, where he remarried. The authorities in the Netherlands maintain that they have no way of bringing him back because the legal cooperation structures with Syria are not currently operational. What is certain is that Ryan's father lives freely in Syria, probably without ever facing consequences of his daughter's murder. This loophole is systemic. Many perpetrators of honor crimes flee to countries of origin.

Large-scale immigration from regions where honor-based violence is more common explains the persistence of the drama. The second generation raised in Western culture often has the expectations of personal choice proper to European nations, which clash head-on with their inherited cultures and the result can be catastrophic. The average age of the victims is around 23 years old. They are young women who have grown up watching their classmates choose their own partners, dress as they wish, study what they want. But in their homes, the rules are different. For many families, the Westernization of their daughters is seen not as integration but as betrayal.

There persists a political and social tension between respecting cultural diversity and upholding human rights. Council of Europe Resolution 1327 states that while so-called honor crimes emanate from cultural rather than religious roots and are perpetrated worldwide, most of the cases reported in Europe have been among Muslim communities.

Karma Nirvana, a British charity that supports victims of honor-based violence, claims that the latest government statistics on honor-based abuse crimes show a seven percent increase in recorded offenses. Karma Nirvana's national helpline handled 3,079 individual cases in 2024/25, the highest number of complaints ever. The increase in people seeking help reveals a different story: that of need growing faster than action. The charity wants a new review of honor-based abuse monitoring by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, as it says many of the recommendations in the latest report do little to protect victims.

The verdict in the Ryan Al Najjar case will be known on Nov. 5. But beyond the verdict, his story already exposes a deeper failure: that of societies that tolerate cultural codes irreconcilable with Western culture to thrive within their own borders. The Ryan case is exceptional in one thing: it left a clear, complete trail, impossible to relativize. Most victims do not. When integration, multiculturalism and diversity are discussed as abstract concepts; people caught between integration and the ghetto are overlooked, Ryan's case exposes that egregious reality.