  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | I am proud I killed her. She deserved to die. | „ |
| ~ Jaleel bragging about killing his own sister. |
Jaleel Amir is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Honor". He is a young man from a wealthy Afghani family whose father, Saleh, manipulates him into murdering his own sister in an "honor killing".
He was portrayed by Anil Kumar.
Biography[]
Jaleel was born into a wealthy, influential Afghani family in New York City. His father, Saleh, is a well-connected diplomat with unofficial ties to the Taliban, who came into a fortune after promising his daughter, and Jaleel's sister, Nafeesa to one of the regime's ministers.
While his family was wealthy, however, it was deeply dysfunctional. When he was eight years old, Jaleel witnessed his grandfather strangle his own daughter, Jaleel's aunt, to death because she cheated on her husband. He grew up terrified of his father, a brutal disciplinarian who demanded that his family, especially the women, live by an archaic code of honor in which they do whatever he says, on pain of death.
Nafeesa falls in love with David Hamoud, one of her classmates, had premarital sex with him, and planned to run away with him. When Saleh found out, he beat her; when Jaleel begged him to stop, Saleh ordered him to kill her. Desperate to please his father and maintain his family's status, he stabbed his own sister to death. He and his father then dumped her body in Central Park.
In "Honor"[]
When Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigate Nafeesa's murder, they question Saleh and Jaleel, who both say that she had dishonored the family. They at first suspect Hamoud and arrest him, but he insists that he loved her, and reveals that she was terrified of what Saleh and Jaleel would do to her if they found out about their relatiosnhip. The NYPD's lab technicians then inform Benson and Stabler that the blood found on Nafeesa's sheets belonged to a relative; they put two and two together and realize that Jaleel is the killer. Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola arrest Jaleel onboard a plane that is departing to Afghanistan, and he declares that he is proud of killing Nafeesa.
Despite his bragging, however, Jaleel is in fact wracked with guilt, and has nightmares about what he did while in jail awaiting trial. He tells forensic psychiatrist Dr. Emil Skoda about witnessing his aunt's murder and admits that he sees Nafeesa's face every time he closes his eyes. Jaleeel's lawyer enters an insanity plea on his behalf, arguing that Jaleel had been brainwashed to believe that Nafeesa having premarital sex would destroy his family's honor and thus destroy his family, and that he believed he had no choice but to kill her.
However, Jaleel's defense unravels when his and Nafeesa's mother, Saleh's wife Aziza, testifies that Saleh had ordered Jaleel to kill Nafeesa to restore the family's honor and prove his manhood. The jury finds Jaleel guilty of second-degree murder; Saleh, meanwhile, kills Aziza for defying him and escapes back to Afghanistan, never to return. Jaleel is then sentenced to life in prison.
External links[]
- Jaleel Amir on the Law & Order Wiki
