SHAFILEA AHMED - 17 yo - (2003) Jacksonville, United Kingdom

‘Parents killed their daughter Shafilea Ahmed over her Westernised lifestyle’


A GIRL told cops how she watched her parents kill her sister during a row, a
court heard yesterday.





By LAUREN VEEVERS




Last Updated:
22nd
May 2012



Pretty Shafilea Ahmed, 17, was murdered after her Westernised lifestyle
“brought shame” on her strict Muslim family’s honour, it was claimed.


Her body was dumped by a river near Sedgwick, Cumbria, hours after the alleged
killing in September 2003.


Shafilea’s remains were discovered five months later. But her death remained a
mystery for seven years, until October 2010, when sister Alesha spoke to
police. Prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, told Chester Crown Court that the
evidence of Alesha — now 23 but 15 at the time — was “the final piece of the
puzzle”.


Mr Edis told how A-level student Shafilea had clashed with father Iftikhar,
52, and mother Farzana, 49, over her wish to have boyfriends and wear
Western clothes.








Accused ... Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed



The parents took her to Pakistan six months before her death in an attempt to
force her into an arranged marriage. But during the trip Shafilea drank
bleach in protest and they had to bring her back to the UK for medical
treatment.

Mr Edis said the couple killed their daughter at their home in Warrington,
Cheshire, “because her conduct was bringing shame upon them”.


Alesha made her claims after being arrested for a robbery at her parents’ home
which she admitted.


Both Mr and Mrs Ahmed deny murder. The case continues.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4330608/Parents-killed-their-daughter-Shafilea-Ahmed-over-her-Westernised-lifestyle.html

Shafilea Ahmed was slapped and punched by her father, says mother

The disturbing trial of the Pakistani British parents accused of killing their teenage daughter continued with the mother telling the court that she had seen her husband punch and slap the deceased. The mother also informed the court that she herself was a victim of domestic violence.
Friday, July 20th 2012, 02:28 PM

Shafilea Ahmed's mother tells court she was frightened of husband
The mother of alleged honour killing victim Shafilea Ahmed told how her husband had "slapped and punched " the teenager on the night of her disappearance after becoming angrier than she had ever seen him.

The mother of alleged honour killing victim Shafilea Ahmed told how her husband had " slapped and punched " the teenager on the night of her disappearance.

Farzana Ahmed,49, gave the murder trial her version of what happened in the family home on the night that Shafilea,17, went missing in September 2003.

The mother of five said that she had gone upstairs after giving Shafilea her evening meal to find her husband Iftikhar,52, attacking the student.

"I came downstairs and he was hitting her. He slapped her twice and he punched her twice. She was still sat on the stool. She was not screaming but she was crying.

"He said to her ' we have done so much for you and your are still messing about.' I asked him what Shafilea had done.He said to me ' if you had been educated, you would have known what she is doing.'

"I tried to stop him but he pushed me away. I said to him ' sit down and talk to her - what is the point of hitting her ?'

"He was very angry.I have never seen him so angry.I have seen him angry before but not like this."

Mr and Mrs Ahmed both deny murder

She was asked by her barrister Mr Mukhtar Hussain QC: " Did you try to stop him?"

She replied:" Yes. I moved forward but he pushed me away and he also punched me. There is a settee not far from there and I stumbled onto it.

"When I got up I saw Mevish walk in. She also stepped forward and tried to stop her father. I pushed her away to get her out of the road. It was for her own safety. I was scared and I thought perhaps my husband would also hit her."

Mrs Ahmed, who gave evidence through a Punjabi interpreter , said she then took Mevish upstairs to the bedroom that the four sisters shared.

"I lay down on the bed with Mevish and about 20 to 25 minutes later I heard an engine starting.I did not bother to look out because we live on a main road and it could have been a neighbour's car.

"I went downstairs about half an hour later and my husband and Shafilea were not there. I noticed that my car which had been on the drive , was not there.

"My husband came back about 6 to 6.30 a.m. He came upstairs and I went into our bedroom and said ' where have you been and where is Shafilea?'

"He said ' If you care for your life and your children's life , do not ask me that question ever again.' I was crying, I was in shock, I was upset."

Mr Hussain asked her:" What did you think had happened to Shafilea ?"

She replied:" I could not think. I thought wherever my daughter was, she was safe. I am a mother and it was my maternal instinct. I could not think she was probably dead."

Mrs Ahmed said that later that day he told her and the children that if anyone asked about Shafilea, they were to say that she had left the house by herself.

"I asked him again where Shafilea was and he repeated the same thing. If I cared for myself or the children's lives, I would not ask that question again. He said it angrily. He was very angry - his eyes were red."

Mrs Ahmed claimed that her husband beat her up regularly and had done so since they were married in 1986. She had left home once with the children and sought refuge from the local council but had returned home because the children were hungry.

She told the jury that she had supported her husband's story that Shafilea had run away from home for the last nine years because she was frightened of him.

She also said that if they divocred , her sister , who was married to his brother , would have to divorce and joint family land in Pakistan would have to be divided up.

Mrs Ahmed said she had decided to tell the truth after being remanded in custody two weeks ago and had been separated from her husband for the first time.

"I was in prison and so was my husband. I felt safe. I decided to tell the truth, " she said.

Cross examined by Tom Bayliss QC for Iftikhar Ahmed, she denied that she had changed her story to fit in with an account given by her daughter Mevish to her friend Shahin Munir.

She said:" I have lied because I have been told to by my husband.I was scared. I was telling what my husband told me to say.I admit I have lied but it is because my husband told me to. I was scared for my other children."

Farzana and Iftikhar Ahmed both deny murder. The trial at Chester Crown Court continues.

Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/50097cb9c3d4ca3c73000000/shafilea-ahmed-was-slapped-and-punched-by-her-father-says-mother#ixzz21I6pgFAl

Posters note: This story should have been placed above the one above.

Murdered Shafilea Ahmed begged council for emergency housing

Friday, July 13th 2012, 03:05 PM

Murdered Pakistani girl Shafilea Ahmed was desperately trying to obtain housing from the Warrington Borough Council before she died, claiming she was being forced into an arranged marriage. Shafilea was taken to Pakistan just days later and allegedly murdered in an honor killing.

Shafilea Ahmed was desperately trying to find emergency housing away from her parents just days before being flown to Pakistan, a court heard yesterday.

In her application to Warrington Borough Council the 17-year-old said she wanted to leave home because she was being “forced” into an arranged marriage.

Shafilea, whom the prosecution alleges is the victim of a so-called honour killing, went on to claim she had been the victim of “regular incidents of violence” from the age of 15 or 16.

“One parent would hold me while the other would hit me,” she wrote.

The murder trial was told yesterday that Shafilea sought emergency accommodation just days before she was taken to Pakistan in February 2002. The teenager disappeared the following year.

Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Chester Crown Court the document showed that the teenager – who would have been 29 on Saturday – intended to leave home “for good”.

In the letter she went on: "I have been prevented from attending college and my part time job. I am scared of going back to my parents and frightened enough to flee my home.

“There has been a build up of violence toward me, and my mother told me I was about to go to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

“My mother started to pack. My parents had been into school to say I would be absent to go to Pakistan.

“My teachers have approached my parents in the past about preventing me from going into school and have threatened to get social services involved.

"I would prefer to stay in Warrington and feel that if I was given accommodation, then my parents would leave me alone because of the involvement of police and the social services."

Her father, Iftikhar Ahmed, who is accused of killing his daughter along with mother Farzana , was asked why she would have written the letter.

Mr Ahmed, 52, replied: “Because she feared she was going to get married off. It was her perception of marriage but what she wrote down is not the truth.

"It was her perception and had she mentioned it we would have assured her there was no such thing.”

Mr Ahmed acknowledged that he had bought Shafilea a one-way ticket to Pakistan, while the rest of the family were given return tickets a week later.

His eldest daughter had been keen to go on “the family holiday”, and once there decided to stay for a few months because she liked it so much.

He denied that tablets he had been prescribed for dizziness the day before the flight were used to drug her to make sure she went on the trip.

Mr Ahmed said:" My daughter was not forced to go to Pakistan. She was not drugged - nobody drugged her."

Her younger sister Alesha claims the parents pushed Shafilea on to the settee in their house and she heard her mother say "Just finish it here" as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and suffocated her in front of their other children.

Mrs Ahmed recently changed her statement to blame her husband for the killing claiming she was too afraid to speak out earlier.

The couple, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, allegedly murdered their "Westernised" daughter because they believed her conduct was bringing shame on the family.

Earlier, the court was told that a listening device placed inside the Ahmeds’ home had recorded Farzana Ahmed, 49, screaming at her husband: “You are a pimp, you are shameless. I swear to Allah everything has happened because of you”.

The Ahmeds, of Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire, both deny murder. Their trial continues.

Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/50008c01c3d4ca856600001e/murdered-shafilea-ahmed-begged-council-for-emergency-housing#ixzz21I9il2zu

Parents of Shafilea Ahmed sentenced to 25-years after being found guilty of her 'honour' killing
A Pakistani couple murdered their westernised daughter because they were more concerned about shame in their community than about their children, a judge said.

Iftikar and Farzana Ahmed, strict Muslims who are first cousins from the same village in Pakistan, were jailed for life after being found guilty of the 2003 honour killing of their “determined” and “ambitious” daughter Shafilea. They were told they would serve at least 25 years.

They suffocated the 17 year-old in front of their four other children at their home in Warrington, Cheshire after she rejected a forced marriage in Pakistan.

The couple escaped justice for almost nine years, accusing officers of victimisation and stereotyping for suspecting them after her body was found months later in a river in Cumbria.

Detectives made a breakthrough in 2010, when Shafilea’s younger sister admitted having seen her mother and father kill their daughter.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans, at Chester Crown Court, told her parents: “Although you lived in Warrington, your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistan and it was those you imposed upon your children.

“She [Shafilea] 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 upon her … an expectation that she live in a sealed cultural environment separate from the culture of the country in which she lived was unrealistic, destructive and cruel.”

He added: “Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than your love of your child.”

Shafilea, who was born in Bradford and dreamed of being a lawyer, was always aware that her parents wanted an arranged marriage for her in Pakistan.

Her father imposed his strict code despite having previously been married to a Danish woman, with whom he had a child and enjoyed drinking and discos. She left him after he married Farzana who was already pregnant.

In her teens Shafilea regularly clashed with her parents over clothing, money and especially boyfriends.

In 2003, after she had run away, they drugged her and put her on a flight to Pakistan, to be married to a man ten years older. But while staying with her grandparents in rural Punjab, she deliberately swallowed bleach. Her throat was so badly damaged that she had to return home, preventing the marriage.

Back in Warrington Shafilea was regularly locked in her room, starved and beaten. On Sept 11 2003, Farzana picked her daughter up from her job. Seeing Shafilea in what she considered indecent clothes, she accused the girl of bringing shame on the family. At home, she pinned Shafilea down and told her husband in Punjabi: “Just finish it here.” The other children saw them force a plastic bag into her mouth and choke her to death.

The couple were arrested in December 2003, but when detectives held a public appeal for information, the Ahmeds gatecrashed and protested their innocence.

Finally, in August 2010, police arrested Shafilea’s younger sister Alesha on suspicion of organising a robbery at the family home. Alesha, who is now 21, told officers that she had seen her mother and father kill Shafilea. During the trial the couple, with the support of three of their children, maintained their innocence. But after eight weeks, Farzana changed her story, claiming her husband had been behind the attack and she had supported him out of fear.

Shafilea’s brother Junyad remained loyal to his parents. The judge said: “I have no doubt that, as the result of the distorted upbringing and values to which you subjected him, he told his surviving sisters within minutes of them seeing Shafilea murdered by you that Shafilea deserved it.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9449374/Parents-of-Shafilea-Ahmed-sentenced-to-25-years-after-being-found-guilty-of-her-honour-killing.html