— Judge dismisses motion by Rifqa Bary’s parents asking for a trial to determine where Rifqa Bary should live
— Judge dismisses motion by Rifqa Bary to set aside January 19 agreement to deal with family’s issues through counseling
— Both sides previously agreed that Rifqa Bary would live in foster care until she turns 18 on August 10
— Columbus Dispatch also reports in “Rifqa Bary, parents back in court”:
— “Angela Lloyd, Rifqa’s attorney, said Rifqa remains in genuine fear of her parents and feels that, through court actions, they continue to attempt to isolate and control her. She said Rifqa is an undocumented immigrant and expressed concern about her legal status upon her 18th birthday Aug. 10. ”
Columbus, Ohio - Rifqa Bary (right) talks to attorney Angela M. Lloyd (left) at December 22 hearing (Columbus Dispatch / Tom Dodge)
Malaysia: Most Support Caning of Women, Says Malaysian Official
— Jakarta Globe reports: “Most Malaysians accept the caning of women under the country’s Shariah courts, Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said on Wednesday.”
— ” ‘Jakim held a seminar to discuss caning long before it became an issue among Malaysians. The outcome was encouraging because the participants understood the whys and hows of it,’ he said as quoted by newspaper Web site thestar.com.”
— ” ‘We are aware that some parties are still unable to accept the punishment but given time and more explanation, I believe they will come around.’ ”
— “He added that Jakim was ‘willing to explain the issue all over again, to whoever needs an explanation.'”
— “Malaysia’s Women’s Minister, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, said on Tuesday that she hoped to organize a conference with representatives of other Muslim-majority countries to discuss the punishment.”
Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak calls for death for those "mixing" sexes (Photo: Reuters)
Saudi cleric backs gender segregation with fatwa
A prominent Saudi cleric has issued an edict calling for opponents of the kingdom’s strict segregation of men and women to be put to death if they refuse to abandon their ideas.
Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak said in a fatwa the mixing of genders at the workplace or in education “as advocated by modernisers” is prohibited because it allows “sight of what is forbidden, and forbidden talk between men and women.”
” Whoever allows this mixing … allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam … Either he retracts or he must be killed … because he disavows and does not observe the Shariah “
“All of this leads to whatever ensues,” he said in the text of the fatwa published on his website (albarrak.islamlight.net).
“Whoever allows this mixing … allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam … Either he retracts or he must be killed … because he disavows and does not observe the Shariah,” Barrak said.
“Anyone who accepts that his daughter, sister or wife works with men or attend mixed-gender schooling cares little about his honor and this is a type of pimping,” Barrak said.
New report on the Noor Almaleki “honor killing” states that her father, charged with first degree murder, after he allegedly ran her over and murdered her with a Jeep in October 2009, will not face the death penalty in Arizona.
A Glendale man accused of killing his daughter in an “honor killing” will not face the death penalty.
After sparring with the suspect’s defense attorney over its death-penalty-review process, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has said it will not seek death for Faleh Almaleki, 49.
The Iraqi immigrant is accused of killing his daughter, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, for being “too Westernized.”
Police say he used his Jeep Cherokee to run down his daughter and another woman in a Peoria parking lot Oct. 20. Noor later died of her injuries.
Almaleki is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of leaving the scene of a serious accident. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The decision not to seek the death penalty comes after Almaleki’s attorney, Billy Little, a public defender, asked a judge to take special precautions to ensure the County Attorney’s Office wouldn’t wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim.
Little requested that the office make public the process it uses to determine whether to seek capital punishment.
“An open process provides some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs,” Little wrote, referring to County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ Christian faith.
Laura Reckart, a county prosecutor, responded that Little’s concern about the “supposed bias” of the office’s death-penalty-review process was “without legitimate factual or legal basis.”
She wrote that the state can seek the death penalty for any person convicted of first-degree murder if it can prove the existence of at least one aggravating factor, not because of religion.
However, the debate stopped there. On Tuesday, Reckart filed a motion indicating prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.
Mike Scerbo, a spokesman for the County Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the decision.
Prosecutors said Almaleki has admitted killing his daughter because she disgraced the family by not following traditional Iraqi or Muslim values.
They liken the case to honor killings that occur in the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world. In tribal societies where the practice occurs, male family members feel they must kill a rebellious relative who shames them by not adhering to traditional values.
Noor had reportedly married a man in Iraq and returned to Arizona to live with a boyfriend and his mother in Surprise, police said.
20 Year Old Noor Almaleki - Died on November 2, 2009 - A Victim of An Ideological Violence Against Women
The German “Express” media reports on the beheading of a mother of four, 37-year-old Ebtisam M., who was murdered in Kerpen-Horrem. The victim was also missing fingers. Her 41 year old husband is being questioned, according to Express, but not as a “suspect.”
— Hurriyet: “Girl buried alive in honor killing in Turkey”
— Hurriyet reports “A 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in southeastern Turkey in a gruesome honor killing carried out because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.”
— “Acting on a tip, police discovered the body of the girl, identified only as M.M., in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a 2-meter-deep hole dug under a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta, a town in the southeastern province of Adıyaman, the news agency reported.”
— “The body was found in December, around 40 days after M.M. went missing. She is being identified by her initials because she was under the age of 18. Her father and grandfather are suspected in the murder.”
— “A subsequent postmortem examination revealed that M.M. had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she was buried alive and conscious, forensic experts told the news agency. ‘The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl – who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood – was alive and fully conscious when she was buried,’ one anonymous expert said.”
— “The girl’s father and grandfather have been formally arrested and jailed pending trial over her killing, according to the agency. The father is reported to have said in his testimony that the family was unhappy that M.M. had male friends.”
— “The girl was reported as missing and no clues about her disappearance were found for 40 days. Her mother was arrested along with the father, Ayhan, and grandfather, Memi, but later released. The two men were sent to prison by a local court and did not speak in the court.”
— “Police had found the body of the girl using an anonymous tip saying that M.M. had been killed based on a decision by a family council and buried under the chicken pen, daily Milliyet reported. The family has nine children, including the girl, and was reported to have told neighbors that she was missing. The girl had made a complaint to police about her grandfather two months before she went missing, saying that he beat her because she talked to boys.'”
— “A preliminary hearing began on Tuesday in the case of three Montrealers charged in the deaths of four family members.”
— “Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their son Hamed Shafia were transported under police escort from the Quinte Detention Centre in Kingston, Ontario to the Kingston Courthouse.”
— “The three are accused of killing the couple’s three teenaged daughters — Zainab, Sahari and Geeti — and Shafia’s 50-year-old first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad.”
— “Their bodies were found June 30 in a car submerged in a lock on the Rideau Canal.”
— “The family members were later charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”
— “Details of testimony under publication ban”
— “After swearing in translators for the three accused — who speak an Afghan dialect of Farsi — the crown questioned a Kingston police identification officer about 159 photos taken at various locations in Montreal and the Kingston area.”
— “At one point in the testimony, at least one of the parents sobbed quietly. Though police investigated claims the deaths were so-called honour killings, the crown has yet to spell out any motive or cause of deaths.”
— “In the afternoon, the court heard from a police officer who interrogated Tooba Mohammad Yahya in Farsi, but the details of that and other testimony are under a publication ban.”
— “The mother is the only one of the three accused who had not conceded that there was enough evidence to go to trial.”
— “The defence lawyers said they had not yet received all the evidence but were allowing the preliminary hearing to continue.”
— “The hearing is expected to last at least one month.”
Globe & Mail image showing path of Shafia girl's car into canal
Globe & Mail: Police are left to sort through a myriad of theories, each with glaring problems and unlikely probabilities.
“We’re still trying to ascertain the why, the why, the why,” said Constable Menor, a 20-year veteran of the force. “It’s the unknowns. I can’t recall anything like it. It was there for a reason, it didn’t drop out of the sky.” …With picnic tables along the canal shore, the tourists from Montreal may have stopped for a moment before the plunge. But 3 a.m. would be an unusual time for a picnic in the secluded spot.
Perhaps the driver didn’t know the canal was there, or perhaps she didn’t care. Police have not excluded a suicide pact, murder-suicide or something as simple as the bad luck of a misguided U-turn or mistaking “drive” for “reverse.”
Another possibility is that the passengers were already dead and someone else pushed the Nissan into the canal, with the four females inside.
— Montreal Gazette: — “Zainab Shafia, 19, and her two sisters Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, were found dead inside a car submerged in three feet of water northeast of Kingston on June 30. Rona Amir Mohammed, 52, was also found dead in the car.”
