Honour is based on the real-life murder of Banaz Mahmod, who was killed on the orders of her own family.
The gripping drama Honour, which first aired on ITV back in 2020, has landed on Netflix and captured the attention of viewers worldwide, with many wanting to know more about the heartbreaking true story that inspired the programme.
The two-parter, which is on our screens courtesy of screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes, charts the events leading up to the so-called ‘honour killing’ of Banaz Mahmod, a young Iraqi Kurdish woman from a Sunni Muslim family, in 2006.
The Honour cast is led by Keeley Hawes as Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode, the police detective who headed up the investigation into Banaz’s murder and served as a consultant on the series.
Here’s what you need to know about the real-life events that inspired Honour.
Honour true story: Who was Banaz Mahmod?
Banaz Mahmod (played briefly in Honour by Buket Komur) was a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurdish woman from South London who was brutally murdered in 2006 in a so-called ‘honour killing’ on the orders of her father and uncle, after she left her arranged and unhappy marriage to be with another man of her own choosing.
In October 2005, Banaz went to the police to tell them she believed she was being followed by Kurdish men. But without Banaz realising, she had been spotted kissing Rahmat outside a London tube station which would lead to multiple attempts to kill her. It was the second attempt that led to her death.
Banaz’s boyfriend, Rahmat Sulemani (played by Moe Bar-El), reported her disappearance on 25th January 2006. Police began an investigation, and discovered that Banaz had previously gone to the police multiple times, even providing officers with the names of the men who she believed were all ready to kill her. However, her allegations weren’t taken seriously at the time.
Rahmat, who testified for the prosecution in the trials related to Banaz’s murder, died by suicide in 2016, a decade after her death.
Who is DCI Caroline Goode?
DCI Caroline Goode, the former Scotland Yard detective portrayed by Keeley Hawes in Honour, led the investigation into Banaz’s disappearance and murder. She received the Queen’s Police Medal for her efforts.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press at the time of the ITV series release in 2020, Hawes said: “With something like this [Honour], we were all so mindful that we were dealing with real people – Banaz, Caroline, their families, everybody involved, the team – and so there is that element of course, and with this even more so, much more than probably anything I’ve ever worked on.
“The responsibility is huge, it’s huge. I felt it everyday, I felt it everyday since. I really have, it’s – I haven’t taken it lightly, and you know, you want to do the right thing by everyone involved because it is about those two women, and you want to give Banaz the utmost respect you know, and also by Caroline.”
She continued: “These are real people and it’s always going to be actually unimaginable what Banaz and her family have been through, and Caroline dedicated her life to this case.”
What happened in the police investigation into Banaz Mahmod’s death?
DCI Caroline Goode helmed the investigation after the case was taken over by the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command.
Mohamad Marid Hama, who had previously threatened to kill Banaz and her boyfriend, was charged with murder in February 2006. He was covertly recorded in prison, bragging about the killing – those recordings, coupled with the phone records of Banaz’s family, were instrumental in the eventual recovery of Banaz’s remains in April of that year.
Banaz’s father, uncle, and two of her cousins were all later convicted of her murder. Banaz’s cousins Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar Hussain had fled to Iraq following the murder, and were eventually extradited to the UK.
Asked about how closely Honour mirrors the real-life events it depicts, series star Michael Jibson (DS Stuart Reeves) previously told RadioTimes.com: “In terms of the dramatic license that’s taken, like with anything, you have a whole pool of producers and experts looking into this, making sure first of all everything in the story is taken care of and honoured properly, and also tells the story that doesn’t in any way become negative towards the situation… Occasionally we’d ask questions but we all trusted our directors and producers.”
On the filming locations used, he said: “A lot of this story took place in South London and up in Birmingham in real life, whereas we filmed the majority of it in North London, just because that was where the production office was. There’s a great location in Watford that’s basically this disused office building – if you see any cop drama on TV at the moment, they film it there, because it’s just the perfect location to turn into police offices with sprawling corridors.”
Who is Bekhal Mahmod?
Bekhal Mahmod is Banaz’s older sister, who had run away from the family home prior to the events of the ITV drama Honour. She testified for the prosecution in the trial relating to her sister’s murder, and was placed into witness protection.
Facing her uncle and father in court at the time made Bekhal the first female in British legal history to give evidence against family members in an honour killing trial.
Gwyneth Hughes, who spoke to Bekhal Mahmod for Honour, said: “I’m unable to meet [Bekhal], she’s in witness protection… She can call me. Ten minutes into this [press Q&A], she called me. I always know it’s her, because it says No Caller ID.
“She watched last night and I’m very, very pleased to say that she thought it was great and she ‘cried a lot’, she said, and I said ‘Are you OK?’, she said ‘Yeah’, and I’m gonna talk to her as soon as this [press] session is over. She’s the most fantastic young woman, honestly, you’d be so proud to have any of these young women as your daughter.”
Bekhal has since released a book,
Honour is available to stream on Netflix and ITVX.
Contact IKWRO Women’s Rights Organisation for more information about “honour” based abuse.