Pak-origin Muslim couple in UK killed daughter for her western lifestyle 22 May 2012 A teenager was killed by her

Pakistan-born parents because they believed her Wes ternised lifestyle had brought shame on the family, a court heard yesterday. Nine years after their daughter Shafilea vanished, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed ha ve gone on trial accused of murder. The court heard that police made a breakthrough in the case when Shafileas sister told them she saw them kill the 17-year-old. Shafilea had wanted to go to university to study law and have boyfriends like ot her girls her age, a jury was told. But her parents are alleged to have resorted to violence in trying to force her to follow a traditional lifestyle, sending her to Pakistan for an arranged marri age. There she swallowed bleach and was flown back to Britain for medical treatment. She vanished from the family home in September 2003 just days after she enrolled at college and started a part-time job. Her parents failed to report her missing, and the alarm was raised a week later by a teacher. Her decomposed body was found five months later in undergrowth on the banks of a river. Andrew Edis, QC, prosecuting, said Shafilea had been a thoroughly Westernised you ng British girl of Pakistani origin who was subjected to violence for refusing to conform to her parents expectations. The defendants, having spent the best part of 12 months trying to crush her will , realised they were never going to be able to succeed and finally killed her be cause her conduct dishonoured the family, bringing shame on them, he added. The eldest of five children, Shafilea was a keen student at her school in Warrin gton, Cheshire, and enjoyed trips to shopping centres and wearing Western clothe s, Chester Crown Court was told. In particular she wanted to have boyfriends as most 16 and 17-year-old girls do, Mr Edis said. That caused intense friction, stress and anger in this family. Her parents began to seek to control her. They would take away her mobile phone to stop her ringing boys and she complaine d that they stole money from her bank account. Friends and teachers became concerned when she went to school with injuries that she said had been caused by her parents, Mr Edis added. Shafilea then began to run away from home. In February 2003, she fled in the night and attempted to cut her ties with her p arents entirely, only for her father to abduct her in his taxi when he saw her wal king to school, the prosecutor said. Mr Edis said it was at that point that her parents put together a hastily arrange d plan to fly to Pakistan with Shafilea and persuade her into an arranged marriag e with a cousin.

However while staying with her grandparents in rural Pakistan, she drank from a bottle of bleach, causing severe damage to her throat. If it was not a suicide attempt, it was an act of desperation, Mr Edis said. It put an end to the idea that she was going to get married and live in Pakistan. Shafilea flew home in May and spent the summer receiving regular hospital treatm ent before enrolling at sixth-form college to study A-levels while also working in telesales. The court heard she resumed her Western lifestyle, bringing her into fresh confl ict with her parents concept of shame and honour. She was last seen alive on the evening of September 11 when her 49-year-old moth er picked her up from work. A week later, Mr Edis said, one of Shafileas teachers reported her missing after hearing that her sister Alesha had told friends her parents had killed her. But Alesha then 15 retracted her claim, and her parents insisted they did not know w here Shafilea was. Mr Edis said the family made no effort to find Shafilea and even put their home on sale. One potential buyer was told by Mr Ahmed, 52, that they were moving because thei r daughter had brought shame on the family. Shafileas remains were found in February 2004 near Sedgwick in Cumbria, close to where the M6 leads north from Warrington. Mr Edis said analysis of the scene showed she had been dumped there shortly afte r going missing. No more light was shed on her killing until two years ago when Alesha then 22 wa s arrested over a robbery at the family home. She later told police she had witne ssed the killing of her elder sister by her two parents, both of them acting tog ether, Mr Edis said. http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=33526:par ents-murdered-westernised-teenage-daughter-in-front-of-her-sister&Itemid=4 ----------