STOCKHOLM -- Thousands of Swedes including Crown Princess Victoria attended a memorial service on Monday for a Kurdish woman killed by her father in a case that called into question Sweden's ability to integrate immigrants.

Fadime Sahindal, 26, was shot dead two weeks ago for dating a boyfriend she had chosen instead of one chosen by her family.

She was shot at point-blank range in front of her mother and a younger sister during what was meant as a secret visit to the family's Swedish home town of Uppsala, 60 km (37 miles) north of Stockholm.

The Sahindal family came to Sweden from a rural village in Turkey over 20 years ago. An older sister married according to the family's wish but Fadime rebelled and lived away from her kin in fear of male relatives for the past few years.

The father, who Kurdish immigrants close to the family say never felt comfortable with the Swedish way of life, has confessed to the killing, telling police he did it in desperation at the way his daughter had shamed the family.

All six pallbearers carrying Fadime's coffin out of Uppsala cathedral, where the secular memorial service was held and where Fadime had said she wanted to be married, were women.

The case is the latest in a series of so-called "honour killings" that have shocked Sweden.

The outpouring of sympathy from Swedes and immigrants alike was a "reaction by Swedes standing up for traditional Swedish values, protesting against alien ideas which they see as archaic," Anders Hellner, director of the Institute of International Affairs, told Reuters.

In recent decades, Sweden has opened its doors to tens of thousands of newcomers, many from traditionally patriarchal societies -- both Muslim and Christian -- in the Middle East.

Studies show many have found it hard to accept the Swedish system, despite official efforts to teach them Swedish, instil local civic values and integrate them in the labor market.

Sweden was one of the first countries to give women the right to vote and prides itself on having one of the world's highest ratios of women in the labor force.

Gender equality is a priority for legislators -- represented at the service by Parliament Speaker Birgitta Dahl. National elections are due in September.

"What has happened is not representative of all Kurds, but all Kurds are implicated by it," said Sirwan Senin, a Kurdish psychologist who has lived in Sweden for 20 years.

Swedish immigrants have suffered violence in recent years but organized anti-foreigner political groups that have emerged in neighbouring Norway and Denmark have not won public support.