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March 21, 2007
France: Muslim Rips Out His Wife's Eyes, Is Jailed
News from Agence France Presse via Expatica and Sydney Morning Herald, though so far not in French online newspapers.
A court in Nimes yesterday sentenced a Moroccan man, Mohamed Hadfi, to thirty years' jail, after he "ripped out his wife's eyes in a fit of rage". The attack happened in their apartment in Nimes, southern France in 2003, after the woman refused to have sex with him.
The 31-year old had been in an arranged marriage with his 23-year old wife Samira Bari. The woman had grown up in France, and had apparently ordered a divorce before she was permanently blinded by Hadfi.
After the attack, Hadfi fled to Germany, but was detained and deported to stand trial. He was found guilty of "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability".
The prosecutor called for Hadfi to serve at least 20 years of the 30-year jail sentence, after which he will be deported and prevented from returning to France.
To those who would say "What has this got to do with Islam?" - the lawyer for the man, Jean-Pierre Cabanes had argued: "This is the result of a marriage that was arranged, not chosen." The lawyer made a point of the cultural differences between the French-raised wife and Hadfi who had grown up in southern Morocco.
Arranged marriages are abuses of people's human rights, particularly those of Muslim women who are often treated by their families as mere chattels. The difference between an arranged and a forced marriage is hard to prove in law. One thing is certain - almost all Muslim "honour killings" happen where a family either intends to, or has created, an arranged marriage.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 21, 2007 11:52 AM
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