Keeley Hawes drama does not honour Banaz, says Mahmod's sister

Banaz Mahmod’s sister Payzee Mahmod has said ITV’s planned drama about Banaz’s murder does not honour her memory.

Keeley Hawes is set to executive produce and star in crime drama Honour, about Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode's investigation into Banaz’s murder by her uncle and father.

Banaz was just 20 when she was murdered in 2006, after she left her violent husband and began a relationship with another man.

Read more: Keeley Hawes 'honour killing' drama faces objections

Payzee told the BBC: “It doesn’t really sit too well with me that that’s the angle they chose to go with. That’s not Banaz’s story, that’s somebody else’s story. This is about somebody who lost her life very tragically and it’s not about somebody [else] getting to tell their story.

“I don’t believe that it’s honouring Banaz.”

Before her death Banaz had sough help from the police five times.

Payzee said: “I think that one of the craziest things about this whole situation was Banaz solved her own murder. Everything my sister did to scream for help - there was nothing more she could have done.”

Payzee said, “every day has been hell”, since her sister was killed 13 years ago.

She went on: “I would have never wanted Banaz to be labelled as the victim of an ‘honour killing’. It’s not something that I want the world to remember her as.

“She was somebody who lost her life tragically and very, very horriblY, but she was os much more than a victim.”

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ITV drama Honour has already come under fire for switching the focus from Banaz to the white police officer who investigated her murder.

Mahmod had been raped and tortured before she was killed. Her father and uncle were found guilty of her murder.

Her boyfriend Rahmat Sulemani was found hanged aged 38 at his home in Poole 10 years after her death.

ITV said in a statement: “Gwyneth Hughes, who has written Honour, has spoken at length with Banaz’s younger sister Payzee to give her the assurances she needs about he drama, which focuses on the investigation into Banaz’s death.”