Raneem Oudeh and Khaola Saleem were killed by Oudeh’s ex-partner Janbaz Tarin in August 2018. Oudeh had broken up with Tarin after finding out he had a wife and children in Afghanistan. Prior to killing the pair, Tarin had threatened them for an extended period of time, even following them to a Shisha bar and slapping them. Oudeh was in the process of making her fifth phone call to police of the night when she was killed. 

Below is a deconstruction of Bas Javid, the chief superintendent’s statement that he made regarding the killings:

Here, Bas Javid clearly de-centres the idea that anything could have been done to prevent this crime – and his appeal to ‘tragedy’ implies the creation of a narrative that randomises Tarin’s crime – despite the fact that we know violence against women is systemic.