WUNRN
USA-Pakistan
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Pakistani
man accused of killing his daughter because she wanted out of an arranged marriage
told a judge Tuesday that he had done nothing wrong.
Chaudhry Rashid is accused of killing his daughter because she wanted to end
an arranged marriage.
Chaudhry Rashid, 54, later said he was "very
disturbed" and "not in a state of mind" to talk because of the
death of his daughter, Sandeela Kanwal.
A somber and tearful Rashid made his first court appearance
Tuesday. He was advised through an Urdu interpreter of the murder charge and
his legal rights.
A judge also admonished Rashid, of Jonesboro, Georgia, to not
make any statements without clearing them with his attorney.
"My client is going through a difficult time. As you can
imagine, he is distraught," attorney Tammi Long said after the hearing.
When asked about Rashid's comments in court, Long said her
next move was to speak with him in depth.
"We will work diligently to provide the best defense for
our client against these charges," she said.
She requested that Rashid's family be given privacy, but said
Rashid is holding up as well as can be expected.
Court records indicate that a preliminary hearing in the case
has been scheduled for July 24.
Officers found Kanwal dead in an upstairs bedroom of the family's
suburban Atlanta home early Sunday, according to a Clayton County police
report.
Police discovered possible ligature marks on her body and
made note of an iron and a necklace as potential causes of the bruising.
Authorities arrived at the home around 2 a.m., shortly after
Rashid's wife called police.
She reported that she had been awakened by screaming but
couldn't understand the language, the report said. She said she was afraid and
left the house to call police.
Rashid's wife told authorities that Kanwal recently had wed
in Pakistan in an arranged marriage. The young woman's husband was living in
Chicago, Illinois, police said, but Kanwal remained at her father's home and
worked at a metro Atlanta Wal-Mart for a brief time.
"The victim was not interested in marrying, nor
remaining married to her husband," the police report said, citing
information authorities received from Rashid's wife. "This was causing a
great deal of friction between the victim and her father," so much so that
the two had not spoken in two months, the report said.
Police found a "distraught and possibly mournful"
Rashid sitting behind a vehicle in the driveway.
"My daughter is dead," he told police.
When asked how she died, police said Rashid did not answer.
"He just dropped his head," the report states.
"Apparently she and the father had argued over the
marriage and the fact that it was arranged, and at some point during the
altercation he did end up killing his daughter," said
Clayton County Police spokesman Tim Owens.
Neighbor Veronda Luckett said the family had always been
"relatively quiet."
"They seemed to be decent, lovely people," she
said.
"Honor killings" -- the slaying by family members
of a woman or girl thought to be bringing them shame -- are usually kept quiet,
making it difficult to determine how frequently they occur.
The United Nations Population Fund estimated in September
2000 that as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to such killings each
year.
Ajay Nair, associate dean of multicultural affairs at
Columbia University, said many immigrant families struggle over cultural and
generational gaps, but that most South Asian communities enjoy
"wonderful" relationships within their families.
"My immediate reaction was that this is an anomaly in
the South Asian community," Nair said Tuesday. "This isn't a rampant
problem within South Asian communities. What is a problem, I think, is domestic
violence, and that cuts across all communities."
Nair said he believes a "significant human
rights campaign" is needed to address such killings.
"It's not just a U.S. issue. I think it happens across the world, and I think people need to recognize domestic violence and any kind of violence related to women as a serious, serious issue," Nair said.