A Muslim man in Germany has confessed to strangling his 19-year-old daughter to death as her mother watched, because she was caught shoplifting condoms. The man was planning a forced marriage for his daughter and did not approve of the boy she was dating.
Asadullah Khan, 52, and his wife Shazia, 41, both Ahmadiyya Muslims originally from Pakistan, are accused of murdering their daughter Lareeb for bringing so-called “dishonor” on the family, reports German paper Bild.
They allegedly dressed her body, placed it in a wheelchair, and pushed it off a ravine near their home city of Darmstadt.
Khan, who speaks no German, was planning a forced marriage for his daughter, as he and his wife had been married in Pakistan. He told the court that he was angered because Lareeb, a dental technician, had stayed away from the family home for a number of nights and had stopped wearing a headscarf.
Lareeb had met a young man, also from the Ahmadiyya community, of whom the father did not approve. She argued with the father, and their relationship began to break down. Then a letter from the police was delivered to the house, informing them their daughter had shoplifted condoms.
“At this point it became clear that there was sexual contact. When I showed the letter to my husband he snapped,” read a statement from the mother in court.
Lareeb’s younger sister, Nida, 14, was sent to stay with a relative on the night of the killing, the court heard. Nida said that her sister had hit her father that night following a row.
Later, Kahn entered Lareeb’s room and strangled her as she slept. The mother watched.
The mother said that she was screaming, but claimed that as a subordinated woman with rheumatism she was powerless to stop her murderous husband.
Sister Nida denied this: “My Mama was not suppressed, she could do what she wanted. She used to hit me with a stick,” she said. “We were never allowed to talk about her boyfriend. My father used to say my sister should be forcibly married in Pakistan.”
Nida, who speaks perfect German, refused to acknowledge her mother in court, Bild reports. She has reportedly moved away from home and has no contact with her parents.