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Lonely death of Oakwood bride amid the silence
The tragic story of Oakwood bride Sabia Rani is like something out of a twisted fairy tale, where unfortunately for this young girl, there was no happy ending.
The saga started in December 2005 when 19-year-old Sabia arrived in Leeds to marry her 25-year-old cousin Shazad Khan.
Having grown up in a small, remote village in Kashmir, finding herself in an arranged union of this kind was probably not unexpected.
'Bossy' mother-in-law and a family shunned: Click here to read more.
It was common in their community, an old fashioned 'joining of families' which should have strengthened existing bonds.
But in Sabia and Shazad's case, those bonds would soon be horrifically and permanently severed.
The young pair had first been introduced when she was 15 and he was 21.
Persuaded perhaps by the promise of a better life, or by family pressure or maybe even love, she agreed to an initial ceremony in 2002 and then flew to England at the end of 2005 where the wedding proper was conducted in January 2006.
Just five months later Sabia was dead, after suffering three weeks of savage and relentless beatings at the hands of her new husband.
The picture drawn of Khan at his trial last year was of a tortured soul, unhappy at being rushed into a marriage he did not want, working every hour he could, under pressure from his parents and perpetually at breaking point.
Unfortunately for Sabia – shy, quiet, mindful of her perceived duties to her husband and in laws and of the honour of the family – she was his closest and easiest target.
The court heard in gruesome detail that after several savage beatings from her husband, Sabia's immune system had broken down and her body fat and tissue had melted from the sheer impact.
She had 15 broken bones, bruises to 85 per cent of her body and her injuries were described by an expert as like those of a serious car crash victim. She had been punched, kicked and stamped on.
Her mother-in-law, Phullan Bibi, claimed during her own trial that had she known of the beatings, she would have thrown her son out of the house.
She would have taken her niece back to Pakistan, she said, after all Sabia was a human being, not an animal.
And yet the teenager was treated worse than an animal.
Doctors said that with such catastrophic injuries, she would have struggled to walk, sleep or breathe.
Yet the people around her claimed not to have noticed anything wrong with her, and insisted that she was moving around and acting normally.
In a bizarre twist, Shazad's family had also claimed to have been advised by a peer sahib – a Muslim holy man – that there were evil spirits hanging over her.
Even Sabia herself had blamed her injuries on the spirits, it was claimed.
In extreme cases, such 'spirits' have often been beaten out of the 'possessed' person.
As more and more details of Sabia's suffering emerged, it became clear that even among relatives, she was completely alone.
One sister in law, Uzma Khan – one of those accused of turning a blind eye – said she had been very shy at first but had opened up and they were friends.
The other sister in law, Nazia Naureen, even told the court Sabia had "integrated well".
But while other young brides like her were out learning English, taking driving lessons and building new lives in a foreign land, Sabia was doing chores at home.
She was never allowed out on her own, the court heard, and she had never attended her GP's surgery although she was registered.
One family acquaintance claims she had other relatives in Birmingham
but evidently had little or no contact with them.
Of many who knew the family, most can hardly ever recall seeing or meeting Sabia.
Admittedly she had only been in the country for a few months and had she lived, she might eventually have summoned the courage to venture outside her cloistered world.
But at the time of her deepest suffering, she was in complete isolation. She died utterly alone.
Sabia Rani and her in-laws come from a very small world where honour is everything.
Where 'innocent' brides from abroad are imported into England to help 'sort out' errant sons and where the honour – or 'izzat' – of the family lies in the hands of its women.
But it is also a world where poverty-stricken families will send their young daughters to a foreign land, in the care of trusted relatives, in the hope of securing them a better life.
A life that Sabia Rani was shamefully robbed of.
Where is the honour in that?
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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