Tea and Politics: Italy: Husband kills wife because she opposed their daughter's arranged marriage

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Italy: Husband kills wife because she opposed their daughter's arranged marriage

They were Pakistani immigrants. Telegraph:

The daughter, 20-year-old Nosheen Butt, was admitted to hospital with a cranial traumatism and a broken arm after her 19-year-old brother beat her with a stick in the courtyard of their building in Novi, near the north Italy city of Modena.

According to Modena prosecutors' initial findings, the father Ahmad Khan Butt, a 53-year-old construction worker, threw his wife to the ground and beat her with a brick while the brother Umair attacked his sister.
"The victim did not want her daughter to have an unhappy relationship like the one that had been forced on her," said deputy Modena prosecutor Lucia Musti, who is in charge of the investigation.
"The mother and the daughter were on the same side and this could be called a 'cultural' homicide because in addition to domestic violence there is the issue of the traditions that may have motivated the crime," Ms Musti said.
The family's three other children have been taken in by Italian social services.
The Italian political class reacted with indignation at the incident which was highly similar to the cases of a girl of Pakistani origin in 2006 and a Moroccan girl in 2009 who wanted to lead Western lives with Italian boyfriends.

According to Italian portal ADNKronos, the father didn't like his daughter's Western ways and that she had rebelled against his wishes. Among other reactions:

The Minister for Equal Opportunities, Mara Carfagna, asked to be admitted in the civil trial. "This is another way to be close to the young immigrant women, to understand that our country is with them every time they see injured freedom and the right to be free citizens," said the minister. "Whoever does violence and abuse against women, even those who think to can dispose of their lives, can not and should not be welcomed in our country, as Italy rejects and rejects any form of abuse by a decision of men over women. And not surprisingly, we severely punish those who, whether they are Italian or not, is guilty of such crimes. There are no ethnic, religious or "father's delusions' alibis or excuses of any class (for ths violence). "
From the Union of Islamic Organizations and Communities in Italy (UCOII) in fact the vice president Patrizia Khadijha Del Monte recalled that "no compulsion marriage can never be justified as coming from Islam. The more pure and proper Muslim tradition - she said -. " The Muslim leader Emilian says that "Islamic jurisprudence, for its part has established that the choice was sine qua non condition for the legitimacy of the marriage."