WUNRN
UK-PAKISTAN - PARENTS CONVICTED IN
HONOR KILLING OF SHAFILEA AHMED - VIDEO
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UK COURT FINDS PARENTS GUILTY IN
HONOR KILLING
File photos dated
April 8, 2004 of Iftikhar and Faranza Ahmed (left, center), the parents of
suspected honor killing victim Shafilea Ahmed (right). (Press Association
via AP Images)
(AP)
Justice Roderick
Evans on Friday sentenced Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49, to life for
killing their daughter, Shafilea, in 2003. The couple — first cousins from the
Pakistani
"She was being
squeezed between two cultures — the culture and way of life that she saw around
her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose
on her," Evans said during the sentencing at the Chester Crown Court in
northwest
In
Shafilea was only 10
when she began to rebel against her parents' strict rules, according to
prosecutor Andrew Edis.
The young girl would
hide make-up, false nails and western clothes at school and then quickly change
before her parents picked her up.
But it was the last
year of her life that proved to be the most traumatic for Shafilea.
During the trial that
began in May, jurors were gripped by testimony from Shafilea's younger sister,
Alesha, who said she witnessed the murder when she was 12.
After an argument
about Shafilea's dress, her parents pushed her down on a couch, stuffed a thin
white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her mouth and nose
until she died, Alesha testified.
As she was
struggling, her mother said, "just finish it here," according to
Alesha's testimony.
Although Shafilea's
other siblings contradicted the testimony, the last-minute emergence of a diary
convinced jurors.
The diaries belonged
to a friend of one of Shafilea's sisters, Mev. In it, the friend relays
conversations she had with the sister about the night Shafilea died — details
that supported Alesha's testimony.
"The strong
message goes out and should be very clear: if you engage in honor killings — if
you engage in forced marriages — you will be caught and brought to
justice," said Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Manchester-based
Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organization.
When Shafilea became
a teenager, she became interested in boys — something that spurred punishment
from her parents.
School officials also
alerted social services after Shafilea repeatedly told them of regular beatings
and a looming forced marriage.
Despite multiple
reports to social services, Shafilea's file was closed in 2002.
In February 2003, she
ran away and told council officers she needed emergency accommodation as her
parents were trying to force her into an arranged marriage.