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The mother of a young Afghani woman who was murdered by her husband has been accused of forcing her daughter into an arranged marriage for a $15,000 payment.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 45, is facing a single charge of causing another person to enter a forced marriage, and faced a court hearing for the first time on Wednesday.
Police will allege Ms Jan pressured Ruqia Haidari, 21, to marry 25-year-old Uber driver Mohammad Ali Halimi in November 2019.
The couple met just four times when they were married in front of hundreds of guests just outside of Shepparton, 180km north of Melbourne, in a community hall in Mooroopna.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 45, is facing a single charge of causing another person to enter a forced marriage, and faced Shepparton Magistrates Court for the first time on Wednesday
The marriage quickly soured after the couple flew to the opposite side of Australia to Perth just ten days after Ms Haidari finished her last year at McGuire College.
The young girl repeatedly rebuffed her husband’s attempts to consummate the marriage, which saw him angrily phone her brother several times.
On January 18, Muhammad Taqi Haidari listened helplessly as the pair argued not realising this would be the last time he heard his sister’s voice, the Herald Sun reported.
Mr Haidari would however, speak to his brother-in-law again, when he phoned back to tell him: ‘If you’re a man, come get your sister’s dead body.’
During the time between calls, Halimi found a stainless steel knife from the kitchen and slit Ms Haidari’s throat twice, Western Australia’s Supreme Court eventually determined.
Halimi was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year.
During the first day of a three-day hearing this week, Shepparton Magistrates Court heard Ms Jan visited her daughter in Perth to teach her how to cook and clean.
Abbey Gawne, Ms Haidari’s best friend (pictured together on the day of graduation), previously told Daily Mail Australia she had dreams of travelling
During the hearing it will be determined if there is sufficient evidence that she forcibly arranged the marriage to stand trial.
Friend of the family Shukria Muqadas, 31, revealed in court she was the matchmaker who introduced Ms Haidari to the man who would ultimately end her short life, the Herald Sun reported.
Ms Muqadas said she had acted off the advice of his sister Fatima, who had lived close-by to her in Pakistan and said he was ‘a good boy’ looking for a wife.
She said joked with Ms Haidari about the union for months before the high schooler said she could mention it to her mother.
Ms Muqadas explained it was Hazaragi custom to consult families of the union with two traditional nikah ceremonies held to draw up the agreement and be witnessed.
She said by the second ceremony Ms Haidari had been beside herself and confided in her she no longer wanted to marry the Perth Uber driver.
Ms Muqadas told the court the young bride had felt pressured by her mother and sisters to wed and ultimately decided to accept her fate.
The hearing continues.
Ms Haidari (right) married Halimi (centre) in November 2019, and by January 2020, she had been killed
Previously, Abbey Gawne, Ms Haidari’s best friend, told Daily Mail Australia she had dreams of travelling and adored her new home for the freedoms it afforded her.
‘She would say how much she preferred Australia to Afghanistan, how she wanted to go overseas [to travel] but not too much.’
Ms Haidari and her family had fled Afghanistan for Australia when she was 16 years old, seeking a better life for themselves.
‘We’d try to call and text, but her phone was always switched off. We were all so worried about her.
‘When our friends said her phone was off whenever they tried too, that indicated something was up,’ she said.
Police taped off Ms Haidari’s home home and conducted forensic testing after her husband led them to the body
Forced marriage is considered a form of slavery in Australia and a criminal offence, but statistics show up to 80 have taken place in the last financial year alone.
Nobody has ever been convicted for orchestrating a forced marriage in Australia.
AFP 131 237
www.mybluesky.org.au assists people who are at risk of a forced marriage
Source: dailymail
