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Deport them

8th January 2008 by Helena 6 Comments  

A teenage bride who came to Leeds for an arranged marriage has been beaten to death during a “prolonged and vicious attack” by her young husband over a three-week period, all with the collaboration of his relations who apparently took an instant dislike to her.

Sabia Rani, aged 19, from Pakistan, married Shazad Khan, aged 25 in January 2006. She suffered bruising to 90 per cent of her body, sustaining horrific injuries that would normally only be seen in victims of a car crash. Paramedics found her dead in her bathroom.

Sabia Rani

The family blamed “evil spirits, curses and black magic” for the horrendous injuries, but the truth is that Sabia’s broken ribs were caused by her husband stamping on them. He was convicted of her murder last year. The police are now prosecuting Sabia’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her husband for allowing the death of “a vulnerable adult” and perjury.

While I applaud the fact that the rest of the family is being prosecuted, I don’t think it is enough. If you have a dog who repeatedly attacks your children, you put him down. He is not willing or able to abide by the rules of your household so he is no longer welcome.

So it should be with people who are not willing or able to abide by the rules of our society. Personally I would put them down, but a more politically viable option would be to deport them. Unless we send a strong message to those living under these medieval beliefs and customs the “honour” killings and abuse of women will continue.

And before you start writing to me harping on about human rights, do you really believe that someone who does this kind of thing can be called human and therefore have any such rights?

In colonial India the British put an end to the ritual of Sati or Suttee, the burning of a newly-widowed woman on her husband’s funeral pyre.

The locals told Sir Charles Napier that it was their “custom” to burn widows.

“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours,” he told them.

How many more young girls will die at the hands of their families before we have the courage to act against these “customs”?

(Read the Daily Mail article: ‘Family turned a blind eye’ as teenage bride was beaten to death by arranged husband)

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Family, Human Rights, Politics, blog --> Tagged With: deport

6 thoughts on Deport them

  • Anna says:
    8th January 2008 at 1:21 pm

    Wow, you sound like the Daily Mail in human form.

    While no-one could argue that this is not a horrendously cruel crime and that the perpetrators must be punished, it does seem ironic for you to be advocating the death penalty on the day before Kenny Richey, a Scotsman who has served 20 years on Death Row in the US, including 13 stays of execution, is to be freed.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506682&in_page_id=1770

  • helena says:
    8th January 2008 at 1:30 pm

    Hello Anna
    I am not advocating the death penalty, simply a stronger message to people who commit crimes like this. How can you compare a supposedly innocent man on death row with a wife-beater and murderer?!
    Hx

  • Sharyn G says:
    8th January 2008 at 3:15 pm

    I don’t know, deporting tham would be too good for them. Hanging them for their crime would be more just.

  • Snusmormor says:
    8th January 2008 at 5:46 pm

    Stop this now! Killing 2 people does not make one killing any less horrendous. If all our wonderful politicians could concenrate on changing things in the world through above all education, this kind of behavviour may become a thing of the past. All this talk of punishment does not solve anything, it only increases the violence.

  • margaret says:
    8th January 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Well, I would happily become a card carrying member of he Daily Mail Brigade if they took up this cause.

    If it was my daughter who had been beaten to death by her husband, with the complicit help from his family, believe me, my thoughtful, caring, understanding all cultures and customs, live and let live attitude would soon desert me. I would be a banish waliing, revenge seeking mad woman.

    They should be deported and as my Irish mother used to say “may they die roaring for their sins.”

  • Sabrina says:
    8th January 2008 at 11:16 pm

    If he were to be deported, he’d be free to find another wife/punching bag…maybe it’s best he’s locked away forever from all women, unless they are armed prison guards.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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