A mother has begged a judge not to jail her as she was sentenced to three years behind bars for forcing her 20-year-old daughter to marry her eventual murderer.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, cried and yelled in the Victorian County Court today, telling the judge through an interpreter she hadn’t done anything wrong and could not accept her sentence.
She is the first person in Australia to be sentenced on the charge of causing a person to enter into a forced marriage since it became an offence in 2013.
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One of her supporters collapsed in the courtroom as Jan was led out by corrections guards, with the woman later being taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Jan was found guilty of forcing her daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019, after the 20-year-old’s first marriage ended in divorce.
Ms Haidari was considered “bewa” by the Hazara community, meaning she had lost her value, so Jan arranged the second marriage to restore her family’s reputation.
Ms Haidari told friends, teachers and driving instructors she did not want to marry the older man, wanting instead to focus on her studies.
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The 20-year-old begged her mother to end the engagement but Jan told her, “no matter what, you need to listen to me, to your mother”.
Ms Haidari and Halimi were married in Shepparton on August 21, 2019. The couple moved to Halimi’s home in Perth later that year.
He killed his young bride five months after their wedding and is serving a life prison term for murder.
Judge Fran Dalziel on Monday found while Jan clearly grieved her daughter’s death, she had shown no contrition for her offending.
“You abused your power as a mother – as the person (Ms Haidari) loved and respected,” the judge said.
“While you believed you were acting in her best interests, you were not in fact doing so.”
Jan blamed others for organising the marriage and said she didn’t know her daughter wanted to back out of the engagement, but the judge rejected her claims.
“Ms Haidari told you she did not want to get married. You told her it was not up to her,” she said.
Judge Dalziel accepted Jan had faced cultural expectations from the Hazara community, but said the law prevented her from considering those customs as a mitigating factor.
The judge noted Jan, who fled Afghanistan with her family, would face deportation if she was jailed for 12 months or more.
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Judge Dalziel said the punishment needed to reflect the serious offending, regardless of potential deportation.
“It must be made clear to everyone in our country that forced marriage is against the law,” Judge Dalziel said.
Jan was jailed for three years, but will be released from custody on a recognisance order after 12 months.
Jan initially refused to sign the order, maintaining she could not accept it.
Once the judge had left the bench, Jan’s son Taqi Haidari said it was shameful his mother was being sent to prison after losing her daughter.
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