Shafilea Ahmed inquest: Family deny arranged marriage claims

Jan 11 2008 by Haydon Wood, Liverpool Daily Post

THE father of a murdered girl who feared she would be forced to marry said yesterday she was under no such pressure, an inquest heard.

The body of Shafilea Ahmed, 17, from Warrington, was discovered on a river bank five months after she disappeared.

Iftikhar Ahmed, 48, said: “There’s no question of her being married. There’s no potential suitor. I’ve never discussed the marriage question between me and the daughter.

“That discussion has never taken place. Where she’s heard it from, I don’t know.”

Mr Ahmed, a taxi driver, denied claims made in evidence by Shafilea’s friends that he and his wife beat her and stole her savings.

The teenager's body was found on the banks of the River Kent, at Sedgwick, Cumbria, in February, 2004. She went missing from the family home five months earlier.

Mr Ahmed said that he was a “worried parent” who drove round “like an idiot” looking for his daughter when she ran away from home in January, 2003.

He said he didn’t alert police as last time they had “laughed” at him when he went to report his daughter missing.

The inquest has heard claims that Shafilea’s £2,000 savings were stolen.

Mr Ahmed said: “We had no idea how much money she had in her account.

“We wouldn’t have access to that account.”

He also denied claims that there was an “escalation of violence” towards Shafilea by himself and his wife.

The inquest at the County Hall, Kendal, heard yesterday that Shafilea came to school with a cut lip and bruising on her neck.

She told her friends that one parent would hold her down and the other would beat her.

Mr Ahmed said: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not true.”

He said his daughter never directly expressed her fears about having an arranged marriage to him, and that he found out through a teacher during a meeting at the school.

Shafilea ran away from home before a family trip to Pakistan because she was concerned that “my parents are going to send me to Pakistan and marry me to someone – and left there''.

Her friends said in evidence that the day before she flew to Pakistan she was not aware she was going. Mr Ahmed said his daughter was aware of the trip “a couple of days” prior to leaving and did not protest. He said: “If the girl doesn’t want to go, you can’t basically force her.”

He said the question of an arranged marriage was raised before they travelled to Pakistan when his uncle asked if Shafilea would marry his son, Rafaqat. Mr Ahmed told him: “It’s going to be years before we can even think about it”, on account of his daughter’s education and wishes coming first.

The question was put to Shafilea when they were in Paki-stan. Mr Ahmed said: “This time, in front of Shafilea, I said to Shafilea ’right, this is what this guy’s talking about, what do you think’, she said ’No way’ so I said ’Sorry, it’s not going to happen’.”

He said Shafilea never met Rafaqat because he was working in Saudi Arabia.

During the trip to Pakistan, Shafilea drank bleach and was admitted to hospital. Farzana Ahmed said she believed her daughter’s account of swallowing bleach by accident.

John Bassett, representing Cheshire Police, asked Mr Ahmed if he was involved in his daughter's disappearance.

“No,” he replied.

The inquest continues.