Western Resistance

We reported on this case on May 6, and described how witnesses had seen 25 year old Samaira Nazir covered in blood, trying to escape from the front door of the family home in Abbotts Road, Souhall, West London.She was dragged back inside by her hair, still screaming. Police arrived to find her dead in the hallway. Her 16-year old cousin and her 30-year old brother Azhar Nazir were stained with blood. A trail of blood led from the front of the house to the back door and then to the hallway, where her dead body was slumped down.

The killing happened on Saturday 23 April, 2005. Earlier, neighbours had heard Samaira screaming. One concerned individual had knocked on the door, only to be told by the father that Samaira was suffering from epileptic fits. Another had heard Samaira shout: "You are not my mother any more," followed by the cries: "No! No! No!"

As Azhar Nazir was led away by police, he said: "There had been a problem with my sister. She does not wish to have an arranged marriage. We only allow marriage within the family. My sister wanted to run away from the house and was stopped."

In 2004, Samaira was taken to Pakistan to view potential husbands, but she had rejected them all.

We have reported extensively on arranged marriages and forced marriages among the Pakistani Muslim community, and how they are almost indistinguishable, and can so easily lead to honour killings. The Muslim community, including the Muslim Council for Britain, recently persuaded the government to back down from making forced marriage illegal.

Samaira's crime was that she had fallen in love with the wrong man, rather than the man of the family's choosing. The object of her love was an Afghan asylum seeker, Salman Mohammed, who had arrived in the UK, smuggled inside a lorry in 2000. Her father apparently wanted her to marry into the same caste of family as himself.

Samaira had told her family in January last year that she was in love with Salman. The asylum seeker had been befriended by her brother Azhar, a greengrocer, shortly after entering the UK. Azhar had helped him to find lodgings and employment.

Samaira's father threatened the couple that he would track them down and kill them, no matter where they fled to. When he first heard of the couple's engagement, the father ran at Salman with a knife and threatened to kill him. At the time, Salman worked on a stall, selling phone cards.

Salman told the court: "We were as boyfriend and girlfriend for about five or six years. But we couldn't tell her family because Samaira said her father was a very strict man who would not allow any female in his family to marry outside of his caste or tribe. We had discussed marriage. Samaira wanted to tell her family herself. Her father was very upset and said I was only after their money."

The 61-year old father had assumed that Salman only wanted to marry her for the family's money. According to prosecutor Sally Howes, 30-year old Azhar had told the asylum-seeker over the phone: "We can get you anywhere if you get married, even if you are not in this country."

On the day that she was killed, Samaira and Salman had tried to arrange a meeting with her mother, Irshad Begum, at a relative's house, to discuss the issue, but her mother refused to countenance such a meeting.

Samaira had been stabbed a total of eighteen times. She had been held down while a scarf was tied about her neck, and her throat was sliced in three places.

When police arrived, they found that Azhar's two daughters, then aged two and four, had been spattered with blood. Azhar had allowed such young children to witness this act of violent depravity. The two small children were screaming as the attack took place. Police think the two girls were ordered to watch the killing.

The cousin and her brother had used four knives to assault Samaira. The court was informed that the 16-year old cousin believed that Samaira had become a victim of black magic, wreaked upon her by Salman Mohammed. During the trial, he admitted that he had helped to kill Samaira, but claimed "diminished responsibility".

The 61-year old father was originally charged with murder. He was originally bailed to return to a West London police Station on August 15, but claimed that he could not attend on grounds of ill-health. He subsequently fled to Pakistan, and went into hiding. Pakistan has no extradition treaty with Britain, despite the amount of arranged marriage partners who are constantly imported. Frequently Muslim criminals flee to Pakistan, beyond the reach of British law. Irshad Begum was also indicted with murder, but for some reason, charges were later dropped.

Samaira was a bright woman, who had studied at Thames University, and worked in a recruitment company, S & F Staffing, owned by her brother Azhar, which supplied workers for the Hilton hotel group. She was made a director of the company.