BELGIUM: A Pakistani family of four went on trial Monday for the "honour killing" of their 20-year-old child and sister, who defied them by living with a Belgian and refusing an arranged marriage.
Sadia Sheikh, a Belgian law student of Pakistani origin, was shot dead by three bullets allegedly fired by her older brother Mudusar on October 22, 2007, when visiting her family in the hopes of patching up their quarrel.
Her parents and sister are accused of aiding and abetting the killing.
The four face sentences of life imprisonment if found guilty by a jury of five women and seven men at a high-profile trial also involving rights groups pleading for gender equality as part of a civil suit at the hearings.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
Sadia Sheikh left the family home to study after her shopkeeper parents tried to arrange a marriage with a cousin living in Pakistan she had never met.
Before moving in with a Belgian man her age named Jean, she was helped by fellow-students and teachers and also spent some time in a centre for victims of domestic violence, where she drew up a will as she felt threatened.
She had nonetheless agreed to visit the family in hopes of making peace the day she was shot.
Her father Tarik Mahmood Sheikh, 61, mother Zahida Parveen Sariya, 59, and sister Sariya, 22, also facing charges of "attempting to arrange a marriage," have denied involvement in the murder, saying Mudusar, now aged 27, killed his sister in a fit of anger.
COMMENTS (14)
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oh. for pity's sake.These kind of incidents will only increase as more and more girls are getting better education and go forward in life. Where will it stop?
@Grace: Well the answer is very simple as to why they all like to come to europe, its not that they are political or persecuted, more a case of economics, where they can get free housing, education, healthcare etc..... while they work for cash in hand jobs and avoid taxes too !!! let alone even bother to learn the language,culture or even make effort to intergrate in their host country's society !!! We have plenty of these types in UK !!!
It is all about control by bullying the weak and the helpless. Muslims will continue to slide intro a bottomless gutter as long as they don't allow their females to breathe free.
@hedgefunder: Just like the Afghani man in Canada who killed his wife and three daughters because she had a boyfriend. These so called honour killings are nothing but a source of shame for all Muslims - be they from a Turkish person, Afghani, Arab , Iranian or Pakistani. These people need to think twice about asking for asylum in Europe and staying there. We all know that most Muslims in Belgium went there as asylum seekers escaping persecution because they could not legally migrate there from their countries of origin. Why then do they practice this type of crime?
Unfortunately majority of the muslim immigrants fall in this category of bigoted.
Some reputation this community is bringing to the fellow pakistanis in the western countries !!! If they are so concerned about their Honour, than why not just stay in Pakistan, as possibility is that one will get away with crimes there, however in Europe , you are going down for murder !!!!
'her shopkeeper parents tried to arrange a marriage with a cousin living in Pakistan she had never met.' .. stereotype on so many different levels.
As long as our men continue to have the barbaric medieval mentality of wrapping up their honour in the virginity status of their female relatives,we'll have such barbarities occurring.it is time such murders were stopped being called 'honour killings' becuase there can be no honour in killing people.
stop attaching a family's honour to the sex lives of their female members.no pakistani ever shoots their son for living with a foreigner when these people live in the west.how many times have we heard that the father or brother killed their son or brother for marrying out of his own choice? it's always the daughter,the sister,the mother who gets killed in this ''honour killing'' .why is their dishonour only when a girl marries out of her own choice?
hang them!
typical story again...
Why migrate to these countries when they are unwilling to leave behind their barbaric and misogynistic traditions? RIP, poor girl.