Muslim man jailed in UK for killing wife over 'looking after men'

Husband continuously threatened wife for 'contravening Islam'

A Muslim man has been jailed in Manchester for stabbing his care worker wife to death because she 'looked after men'.

Imran Khan, 38, who displayed 'medieval' attitudes towards women sent his spouse a series of text messages claiming she was contravening Islam. "If you go to men's houses and lie to me I get angry. If you play games I get angry," read one  of the texts. He later stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife during a furious row at their home which they shared with their three children.

As police arrived at the scene, Khan told the officer, "Never get an arranged marriage bro." Amid investigation, police also found a text message sent to Nasreen reading, "I have told you 10 times there are three people whose prayers will not be accepted by Allah - a fleeing slave until he returns to his master, a woman whose husband is angry with her, until he is pleased with her, and a drunkard until he becomes conscious. If you don’t listen to me I get angry."

In the time leading up to the murder, the court was told that he had warned his wife. "It's not halal for you to work with men," Khan had reportedly told Nasreen.

He admitted to murder at Manchester Crown Court where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and with a minimum requirement to serve 20 years.

 The judge rejected the notion that the murder was a result of a culture clash as he said both Khan's parents and sister were supportive of his wife's choice of job. "Nasreen worked hard to support her family and was good at that job but by contrast you are a selfish and controlling man, did little to support your family and your wife, instead you sought to determine how she should live her life, expressing your disapproval of her choice of work," the judge said in court.

"You did not want Nasreen to have contact with other men, even though they were her clients, and her duties involved no more than administering medication and warming their food," he added.

"It appears your disapproval was born out of some outdated, almost medieval notion of how a wife should behave. You ordered her to stop - and she wouldn’t," the judge went on to remark. The judge also spoke about Khan's jealousy of his wife's independence and the resentment he felt towards her.

Nasreen had taken up a job with Homecare Services in December 2015 where she looked after vulnerable men and women telling relatives she wanted to "gain experience and independence, and help support her family".

On the day she was killed, Nasreen confided in her boss about her husband's behaviour saying, "I can’t take it anymore, I don’t know what to do." Her supervisor had then offered to speak to Khan.

While discussing the situation, Nasreen got another text from her husband saying, "It’s not halal for you to work with men. I don’t give permission. I told you no men when you started."

"If she can’t get you a rota with no men then leave the job, I don’t give you permission for that, so listen to what I’m telling you, you are my wife, let me remind you you are married," he said in a text, while another said, "if you go another man’s house again then you are doing haram. Don’t ignore this again and again It’s haram what you’re doing."

The night the couple began arguing, Nasreen showed the text messages to her eldest daughter. Khan stormed out and when he returned later he said, "I have got no choice - I’m going to kill her and kill myself."

Khan claimed in court that he killed his wife at a time when he was "shocked and devastated" after his wife told him "she never loved him and the marriage was over.

This article originally appeared on Mail Online