NOVANEWS
Shafilea Ahmed
This is the shocking story of how a 17 year old girl, Shafilea Ahmed was killed, allegedly by her parents. What could possibly drive parents to kill their own children? Shafilea’s sister said in court that she was physically abused daily and that they even with-held food for several days from her. The reason is simple – they disapproved of her becoming westernised and integrating with white people.
Pakistani Racism
The alleged murder took place in Warrington in 2003. Her sister testified that she had seen her Parents threaten her with a knife and had even witnessed the murder itself. Alesha Ahmed now 23 is currently in witness protection and said in court that Shafilea had..
a secret life which she did not want her parents to know about”.
The courts heard how the parents told Shafilea that she was going to Pakistan for a family trip, but before the trip was supposed to take place, they drugged her and suffocated her.
The crime went unreported until 2010 when her sister who had witnessed the macabre event finally came forward to the police.
The really sad thing is this is not an isolated case. There have been many such ‘honour killings’ in the UK. But people for whatever reasons seem reluctant to talk about the deep racism that underpins these vile crimes.
Last year alone there were 2,823 honour attacks reported from 39 out of 52 forces, but many many more go unreported.
The perpetrators will be even considered as a hero within the community because he is the one defending the family and community’s honour and reputation.”
Freedom of Information requests have show that “honour based attacks” are up 47% in the last year.
The truth of the matter is that many Pakistani communities in the North of England have become virtual self-made ghettos, and often women are positively discouraged from integrating or even learning English, as their is no need in their tightly restrictive communities. This is not good, and Muslims urgently need to confront these issues rather than pretending they do not exist.
