The fact that Shafilea Ahmed could face a forced marriage to a cousin is bad enough. But the coroner states that "the concept of an arranged marriage was 'central' to the circumstances leading up to her death."
Eurabia Alert. "Muslim girl afraid of forced marriage was murdered, says coroner," from Asian News International:
London, Jan 12 : A teenage Muslim girl who feared a forced marriage was being arranged by her parents was killed unlawfully, a coroner said yesterday.
Shafilea Ahmed (17) was found dead on a river bank five months after she disappeared, following claims from friends and teachers that she feared being forced into marriage.
Police launched a murder inquiry and arrested her parents on suspicion of kidnapping the teenager, from Warrington, Cheshire, but both were released without charge.
Ian Smith, the East and South Cumbria Coroner, told the inquest: "Shafilea was the victim of a very vile murder. I believe she was taken from her home on September 11, 2003. I do not believe she ran away. She was murdered."
"I'm convinced of that because of the way in which the body was disposed. It had been hidden and she had been taken many miles away from home," Smith added
He said the concept of an arranged marriage was "central" to the circumstances leading up to her death.
During the four-day inquest in Kendal, Cumbria, Shafilea's mother accused detectives of not doing enough to find her daughter's killer.
Shafilea's body was discovered after heavy floods washed away the dense undergrowth in which it was hidden on the banks of the River Kent at Sedgwick, Cumbria, in February 2004.
On Thursday Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, said they would challenge the coroner's ruling of unlawful killing.
Their solicitor Nadeem Ullah said: "The Ahmeds disagree with the decision of the coroner's court and they are currently receiving advice regards appealing the decision of the coroner by judicial review."
"Shafilea was a very frightened young woman and she was frightened of the consequences of an arranged marriage," Smith said.
He said her fears were first aroused after a phone conversation in 2002 between her father and his uncle in Pakistan. They had discussed a possible arranged marriage between Shafilea and the uncle's son.
Shafilea ran away for 10 days in February 2003 and told housing officers: "My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there."
Only problem - unlike in Islamic countries, real evidence would also be needed. Hope they get it.
The coroner did a very good thing. Although everyone who heard the evidence must have gone away with the moral certainty that the family was somehow guilty, there simply is not enough evidence to charge anyone. So the coroner weighed his words as heavily as he could. He made it clear that her death was certainly murder, and that there were no possible suspects outside her family, and any amount of reasons to suspect them. The father did not do himself any favours by trying to deny the charge on TV: his oily smirk and evident lack of grief about the death of a daughter must have convinced everyone who watched that this was not a man you could believe. The family now know that they have been held up as murderers before public opinion (the results of the inquest led all the main news programs and were on the front page of nearly every newspaper) and that the reputation of being the torturers and killers of their own daughter will follow them around. They are so angry that they say they are actually going to try to get the results of the inquest overturned by judicial review - something I did not think was even possible, and I do not think they are going to make it.
From now on, the 12th January will be known as Remember victims of honour killings day.
Some things were left out of the report. On a trip to Pakistan, the girl drank bleach to avoid being forced into marriage. The parents accused the police of racial stereotyping. Then in a news interview, the father made some pathetic defense that she wasn't going to be forced into marriage because they wanted her to finish her education first. Well, that's ok then. Let her finish school then force her into marriage.
Ms Ahmed was last seen on 11 September 2003 and was reported missing by a teacher at Sankey High School on 18 September.
and in the comments
# ImNoDhimmi Says:
January 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Interesting, isn’t it, that it was a teacher who reported her missing, not her loving and worried parents.
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://bp3.blogger.com/_-k3RrGAJo6w/RkoIe1i4-zI/AAAAAAAAAl4/PzTvxsn0diY/s400/mm.bmp&imgrefurl=http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2007/05/on-this-day-may-15.html&h=300&w=400&sz=47&tbnid=5g6tRJJDmWlBYM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124
"On Thursday Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, said they would challenge the coroner's ruling of unlawful killing."
Oh, yes. She ran away, killed herself, then hid her body. Either that, or words like "peace", "tolerance", and now "unlawful" mean something different to Muslims.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
OOps
Here is the correct URL
http://sheikyermami.com/2008/01/10/uk-another-honor-killing/
Pamela has more on this today here:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
"On Thursday Shafilea's parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, said they would challenge the coroner's ruling of unlawful killing."
....are they going to claim that under Islamic rules, the killing was lawful?....
Throughout the interview with her parents, Shafilea's father constantly refered to her as 'the daughter'. I thought that was very odd.
""My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there."
...a fate akin to death sentence....must have found out the groom to be lives in Naseems neighborhood.....
Well I tellya one thing, when I take my livestock to the pork yard the hogs whine and squeal and piss all over the place, terrified at what I have arranged for them.
610 * 623 * 632 * 1066 * 1215 * 1453 * 1492 * 1683 * 1928 * 1938 * 1948 * 1996 * 2001
My advice to the Paki expat parents here is to demand of the UK gov't the same sensitivity on marriage that Moslem UK men are accorded on the question of bigamy.
In both cases, it's all about good breeding and prosperous livestock recovery.
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islam_and_honor_killings/0015416
Islam and Honor Killings
Imam Zaid Shakir
I am confused about some of the details. Did Shaflea first run away in 2003, which would have made her about 12 or 13 at the time? Had she been running from her parents since then? This is a tragic story, repeated over and over again. Can't safe houses be built for these young girls, eventually giving them a new identity and place to live? In the meantime, the police should make life so uncomfortable for the families of these victims, that they want to leave the UK, or where ever they are in the West, and go back to the 'old country.'
As an aside, was she, and would the coroner have known to look, circumcised?
How many women, women living in Western nations, killed in the name of some backwater family's 'honor' had also suffered the barbarity of FGM before their murder?
Here's the more informative Scotsman article from which this Asian News International article was taken:
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Girl-afraid-of-marriage-was.3666239.jp
Notice 'her song':
TEENAGER'S TRAGIC SONG
LYRICS were found in the bedroom of Muslim teenager Shafilea after she disappeared .
In one song, Happy Families, the westernised teenager refers to a clash of cultures and her family's preoccupation with "honour".
She wrote: "I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more/Desire to live is burning/ My stomach is turning/But all they think about is honour/I was like a normal teenage kid/Didn't ask 2 much/I just wanted to fit in/But my culture was different/But my family ignored."
And two Guardian articles:
Ambitious teenager torn between her future and family
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2239255,00.html
Teenager unlawfully killed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2239258,00.html
I am intrigued by the use of "unlawfully" as an adverb for killed. Could this coroner not have said "murdered?" The way the English language is being destroyed on both sides of the Atlantic is maddening.
Marrying cousins? Bad for the gene pool. You don't think that's the reason why Islamic countries are not as advanced....................oh boy, here comes the PC police!
Pelayo,
it does not say "murdered" because this was only an inquest, not a trial in a criminal court, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_killing
as Paolo says above, the coroner probably expressed himself as he was able to.
i meant to say:
the coroner probably expressed himself as STRONGLY he was able to.
Voltaire wrote:
"From now on, the 12th January will be known as Remember victims of honour killings day."
Excellent idea...in all seriousness, I believe JW/DW readers should mount an effort to commemorate this day next January 12.
OT...a girlfriend of mine cracked open my paperback Qur'an just to see a few passages. Lo and behold if she didn't open the book to the pages which contain the "Admonish then beat your wife" passages...blind luck.
I am doing all I can to educate people about the horrors of Islam, and warning them to start reading this site and others, including comments. This includes the Mexican Nationals I communicate with, who have invited themselves to my country without permission, for they are in the same danger as we all are.
M Al-Content, in the US jurisdiction where I live, a formal coronor's inquest is a rare thing. Usually, the ruling comes from whoever (detective or forensic pathologist) does the investigation. I have never heard the words inlawful killing, "homicide" is the usage I am used to.
But the usage of the adjective 'unlawful' to describe a killing outside the confines of the law make it look like the Guardian accepts that certain types of non-judicial killings are not only morally, but also legally okay, regardless of what the law actually says. Pelayo is right - the way the English language is being destroyed on both sides of the Atlantic is maddening.
There is nothing that shocks or surprises me, when coming face to face with the UN-holy subject of Islam anymore!!!.
Intolerance and Insanity are endemic in the hearts and minds of every blood-thirsty creature raised in the shadows of this Mohammedan cult.
When the human life of their own flesh and blood can be readily snuffed out, in honour of an indoctrinated deity, only the term, "insanity" can possibly be diagnosed as an excuse. Insanity of mind - insanity of cause - and insanity of reasoning!!!.
Their is no humanity or sense to Islam what-so-ever!!!.
Infidel Pride and Pelayo: you are both guilty of American cultural imperialism. Stop imagining that everything must be as it is in your little local circle. Any Briton understands what a coroner's jury means when they pass a verdict of "unlawful killing": it is usually the prelude to a murder trial. And if you do not know what a coroner's inquiry looks like, then do not pretend to judge one.
if anyone is interested in the long history of this case, and the legal issues, there is some informative stuff here-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafilea_Ahmed
some of the links from there seem to have have expired, but others still work.
probably the most important point to understand is that this story is not over yet.
the police investigation had not been closed, and the coroner's verdict of "unlawful killing" supports that.