A mother has become the first person to be jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws after she ordered her daughter to marry a man who later murdered the 21-year-old girl.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, who is in her 40s, was found guilty of forcing Ruqia Haidari to have sex with Mohammad Ali Halimi, 26, in 2019 Ali Halimi) in exchange for a small payment.
Six weeks after the wedding, Halimi killed his bride – a crime for which he is now serving a life sentence.
On Monday, Jane pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to at least a year in prison, with the judge saying she had exerted “unbearable pressure” on her daughter.
Australia introduced forced marriage laws in 2013, which carry penalties of up to seven years in prison. Several cases remain pending, but Jane is the first person to be sentenced for the crime.
Jane is an Afghan Hazara refugee who moved to Victoria with her five children in 2013 to escape persecution by the Taliban. I am innocent.
The trial heard that Haidari was first forced into an informal religious marriage when he was 15, ended the marriage two years later and did not want to remarry until he was 27 or 28.
“She wanted to continue studying and get a job,” Judge Fran Dalziel said during sentencing.
While Jane may have believed she was acting in her daughter’s best interests, Ms Dalziel said she repeatedly ignored Haidari’s wishes and “abused” her power as a mother.
“[Haidari] You will know that not attending the wedding will raise questions about you and the rest of the family.
“Not only is she worried about your anger, she’s worried about your standing in the community.”
Jan was sentenced to three years in prison but may be released after 12 months to serve the remainder of his sentence in the community.
She then sat in the court dock and told her lawyer that she refused to accept the judge’s ruling, and was eventually taken away, local media reported.
When Halimi was sentenced for Haidari’s murder in 2021, a court in Western Australia, where the couple lived, heard that Halimi had been violent and abusive towards his new wife and forced her to take on household chores.
In a statement on Monday, Justice Minister Mark Dreyfus described forced marriage as Australia’s “most reported slavery-like crime”, with 90 cases brought to the attention of federal police in 2022-23 alone. Notice.
Successive governments have pledged to stamp out the practice – which police say is increasing – and in May Australia’s parliament voted to create an anti-slavery commissioner to respond to allegations of exploitation.
