Shafilea Ahmed grave (14th July 1986 to 11th September 2003)

 

I remember the murder of this girl being on the tea-time news. Shafilea was a British-Pakistani girl who refused an arranged marriage so her dad forced a plastic bag into her mouth and held her down until she was no longer breathing. Here I am at her grave.

 

Shafilea’s parents were immigrant parents and settled near Warrington in Cheshire. Their spirited daughter did well at school and wanted to become a solicitor. Her parents planned a different life though and they arranged a marriage for the sixteen-year-old. On a trip to Pakistan to see her suitor Shafilea attempted suicide by swallowing bleach (her parents later claimed she drank mouth wash during a power cut.)

 

Back in England she spent two months in hospital and shrunk to five stones of skin and bones. The police thought something was wrong as she'd not sought treatment for her damaged throat. After years of beatings she asked Social Services to find her a place to live. After disappearing detectives concluded she'd been murdered in an "honour killing". They were right. In front of her siblings Shafilea was pushed onto a settee in the lounge and her mum said, "Just finish it here." She was held down for her sluttish and Westernised way and choked to death. Her siblings were sworn to secrecy and told they'd share the same fate if they spoke out. In February 2004 the River Kent near Sedgwick in Cumbria flooded and some dismembered remains were found. Among the decomposed remains was Shafilea's gold bracelet and blue topaz ring. A DNA test and dental records proved this was the missing girl.

 

Nearly a decade passed before more details emerged. Shafilea’s sister could not take the pressure any more. She confessed to police that Shafilea's refusal to accept an arranged marriage would bring shame on the family and she had been choked to death at home and then carried to the boot of the car to be disposed of. In court in 2012 her parents were sentenced to serve a minimum term of 25 years. Police concluded others probably helped dispose of the body but there was in sufficient evidence.

 

The grave sits in the Muslim section of the cemetery though I doubt there’s much under this grass. Shafilea’s body was so decomposed only a part of her bottom jaw remained (dental records proved it was Shafilea.) On the day she was murdered she was wearing a tee-shirt which revealed too much skin. Perhaps this is what triggered the sudden murder.

 

Poor kid. I did a salute an left.

 

 

 

 

The view from the headstone...

 

 

 

 

 

The murderers...