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Oakwood bride court case: 'Bossy' mother-in-law shunned
Throughout much of her month-long trial, Phullan Bibi sat stony faced as she and her family were accused of turning a blind eye to Sabia Rani's agonising death.
Her head always wrapped in a scarf, and flanked by her two daughters and son-in-law – her co-accused – Phullan (Punjabi for flower) seemed the image of the stern Asian matriarch.
Lonely death of Oakwood bride amid the silence: Click here to read the background on the circumstances surrounding the death of Oakwood's Sabia Rani.
Many more women are slipping though net says doemstivc violence expert: Click hrere for full interview.
She stared blankly out on to the packed courtroom, occasionally stopping to speak to her family or her interpreter, but snippets of overheard conversation betrayed a deep anguish.
That was because the girl who died was not only Phullan's daughter-in-law, a stranger plucked out by her son to become part of the family, she was also her niece, her own sister's daughter, sent to her with the hope of a better life and as the 'honour of her house'.
This publicly private grief seems at odds with the picture presented at the family home in Roundhay, Leeds, just a day after Sabia's death in May 2006. One family acquaintance, who attended the teenager's funeral gathering there recalls: "The family didn't say very much, not a word.
"It had only happened the day before and normally people would be crying and wailing.
"It was really strange.
"Everybody sat there, the mother in law was very quiet. The other girls were coming in and out. But no-one said what had happened.
"There were no tears. It was almost like (Sabia] was never part of the household."
The community from which the Khan family – an extended brood of nine who lived together – come was a tight-knit one.
Former acquaintances from Harehills – from where the family had only recently moved – recall Phullan was domineering.
Well known as a skilled seamstress, she made clothes for many local ladies, some of whom described her as "bossy" towards her family and her husband, known locally as 'Bholla' Khan.
Mr Khan, who is not involved with the trial, was a "respectable and reserved" man, according to a fellow worshipper at Harehills mosque.
Their children were also seemingly doing well for themselves. More than anything the picture was of "a very normal family". But tellingly, none of these acquaintances can recall ever seeing or speaking to Sabia Rani.
The shock of what happened to the seemingly invisible teenager is still reverberating around the community, and the once close network that surrounded the Khans seems to have collapsed around them since that awful day 18 months ago.
One acquaintance revealed: "They have been shunned by the community.
"They have become pariahs."
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