Today is Sunday, January 24th, 2021.

On this day in 2006, 20-year-old Benaz Mahmoud was murdered.

Far from mourning, her family felt her death was justified.

In fact, they'd ordered the slaying themselves.

Welcome to Today in True Crime, a Spotify original from Parcast.

Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes,

listener discretion is advised.

Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13.

Today we're covering the gruesome murder

of Iraqi Kurdish immigrant, Banaz Mahmood.

Let's go back to South London, England,

on the morning of January 24, 2006.

At the sound of persistent knocking on the door, 20-year-old Benaz rose from the couch and immediately hesitated. She had a bad feeling in the pit of

her stomach, though she tried to calm herself. Her father had promised that if she returned home,

he wouldn't murder her. It was true that girls like her had been slain in so-called honor

killings for much less than the crimes

she'd committed. But Banaz wanted to believe her father. Besides, it wasn't as if she was home

alone. Her older sister Beza was upstairs with her baby. There was no way that anyone in their

traditional Kurdish-Iraqi community would harm her with a mother

and child so close by. So Banaz opened the door. She saw the three men standing outside her

apartment and instantly understood that her father had lied. He intended to make her pay for

everything she'd done to him.

...