Pakistani parents found guilty of murdering daughter in so-called honor killing in UK

[cali]

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, August 3, 11:34 AM

LONDON — The Pakistani parents of a teenage girl have been found guilty of murdering a daughter who rebelled against a forced marriage to her cousin — a conviction that was clinched with the girl’s younger sister testifying that she saw her parents suffocate her older sibling.

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 village of Uttam — were ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.


“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 England.

In Britain, more than 25 women have been killed in so-called honor killings in the past decade. Families have sometimes lashed out at their children, often believing they have brought them shame by becoming too westernized or by refusing a marriage.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pakistani-parents-found-guilty-of-murdering-daughter-in-so-called-honor-killing-in-uk/2012/08/03/5eab32aa-dd67-11e1-8ad1-909913931f71_story.html

This story details the utter failure of British Social Services at keeping this girl safe.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Dreadful case.

Good that they got such long minimum sentences.

[Marrah_G]

2. I can't imagine what it must be like to knowingly die at your parents hands

I also cannot understand how any parent, especially any mother could kill her child.

If my God or Goddess themselves appeared in front of me and told me to kill my child I would tell them to fuck off. And I say that as someone who is what would be the equivalent of a minister in my faith (3rd deg Wiccan HPS).

[HipChick]

3. There have been more cases than mentioned here....

First and second generations in a culture clash for the last 50 years..

[get the red out]

4. Cultures that call for parents to kill their children should die

All cultures are born to die, or we would be speaking Sumarian. Culture is not a permanent thing, they change and are absorbed. The culture these parents come from is horrifically flawed for it to cause them to kill their own child. Of course they are hardly an isolated case.

I hope the younger daughter can be free, without relatives killing her for testifying against her sister's murders.

[samsingh]

5. yes you would think

[Nolimit]

6. I just don't understand

Why the fuck would you want to move to a Western country like Britain and still practice garbage like honor killings. Is it so damn hard to leave the shitty parts of your culture behind? It's goes against all instincts, human and biological, to kill your own child. It just makes no goddamn sense...