Early morning, January 28, Lareeb Khan, 19, was murdered by her own father, Asadullah Khan, 51, after dishonoring the family with her actions by not wanting to wear her scarf and shoplifting condoms.
The father of late Miss Khan also states that the dishonor of stealing the condoms lies in, what he figures, agenda hereof: Lareeb wanted to use the condoms to have sex with her boyfriend. It might sound unbelievable, that a girl with such a religious family had a boyfriend, and. of course, this relationship was not approved by her family. Lareeb was forbidden to see her boyfriend and the family never talked or were even allowed to talk about the boyfriend of the young Muslim woman.
It was revealed that after the killing both the father and mother, Shazia Khan, 41, dressed the body of their daughter, brought her body out in a wheelchair to their car, and then drove her to a forest where they rolled her body down an embankment.
There has been much doubt about the mother’s part in this tragedy as she has played the “forced marriage”-card and claimed that she was not in a position nor had the strength to fight her husband off as he killed their daughter. Doubt was cast on her argument, however, after testimony against the parents was heard. Nida Khan says the mother also took part in the physical abuse of Lareeb.
“My mama was not suppressed, she could do what she wanted. She used to hit me with a stick. We were never allowed to talk about her [Lareeb’s] boyfriend. My father used to say my sister should be forcibly married in Pakistan,” states the sister.
The boyfriend, Raheel, 25, who works as a taxi driver to support his loans studying told the court that the couple planned on getting married. He also revealed that Lareeb had notified him of the abuse her mother caused her, like holding her hand on a hot stove, beating her with sticks and the fact that the father had attempted to strangle her before the deathly incident.
The mother describes the prelude:
Lareeb stayed away from the home for several nights in a row and stopped wearing the headscarf. One day we received a letter from the police saying she had been caught trying to steal condoms. At this point, it became clear that there was sexual contact. When I showed the letter to my husband he snapped.
And to underline the bizarreness of this family tragedy, Mr. Khan states during the trial “If I could do it all undone, I would do it. My wife has just obeyed me. I love my wife and my daughters.”
The statement is very much is in contradiction with the whole honor kill concept, as the father regrets his actions while Islam has no mercy for adultery (especially not in women’s cases).
Image via Youtube/BBC News
