Pakistani woman, 18, killed in Italy for not marrying cousin

Italy is outraged by the case of a Pakistani girl, Saman Abbas Missing 18-year-old murdered by her family after rejecting a combined marriage with another relative.

Saman Abbas, a pretty 18-year-old Pakistani girl, disappeared and the numerous police officers with dogs and electronic devices searched for her body in a large agricultural field behind her house, as forensic investigators are convinced that she was murdered by her own family.

The reason is that Saman wanted to live his life according to the lay canons you learned in Italy and She refused to accept a marriage that his parents had combined in Pakistan, with a cousin.

Death sentence

This is not the first time that an immigrant Islamic family has applied the death penalty to a young woman who rebels taxes. But the case of Saman Abbas awakened Italian public opinion, in the light of the testimonies of a terrible homicide in the family.

The crime scene is at Novellara, in the rich region of Emilia Romana, in central Italy. The girl’s father, Shabbar, 43, had worked there for 15 years.

The family home is located next to a farming business with vast fields where hundreds of farm workers, mostly foreigners, harvest. fruits and vegetables.

Saman arrived in Italy as a child and quickly adapted. Her family forced her to dress strictly all black, covered from head to toe. They forced her to drop out of school.

The girl asked the neighbors to talk to her parents to let her study. At 17, after the umpteenth fight because her father and mother wanted to send her back to Pakistan, she denounced what was happening to the social service of the commune, which He sent her to a safe house.

When he was 18, he returned home to get his papers and left for good. The night of April 30, he fought again with his family.

An empty house

A few days later, when the police noticed Saman’s absence due to a complaint from the municipality and came to the house, they found it empty. The parents had suddenly returned to Pakistan. There was no trace of where the young woman was.

The investigation produced immediate results. An external camera from the farm business had recorded an event that looked like the worst.

Three of the girl’s family members, including an uncle, were seen walking in the fields behind the house. They carried shovels and other items that could be used to dig a grave. They returned three hours later to the company where they also worked.

Other images showed Saman leaving the house accompanied the day before by his parents, who returned later. without her. Soon after, they fled to Pakistan.

The youngest son remained, who is also in a protected community and who has been summoned by magistrates from the neighboring town of Reggio Emilia, who are investigating the case.

One month of research

The search for Saman in the fields became an action followed by millions of Italians on television and other information media. It has lasted almost a month so far. His case has reached the networks.

One of the relatives with a shovel in his hand who fled was also captured a few days ago in France on a bus to Spain, where other relatives live.

Reconstruction of the crime

The magistrate in charge of the investigation, Laura Galli, has reconstructed what happened.

Father Shabbar, after the disagreements with his daughter and Saman’s decision to leave his home for good, called a young woman uncle, who was waiting on the ground.

The father and mother forced their daughter to accompany them with an excuse. “In fact, they entrusted it to the uncle,” explains the prosecutor. The man prevented her from escaping and took her to an as yet unknown location and murdered her.

The video showing the family leaving the house and returning without her confirms the worst suspicions.

The younger brother sheltered in a sheltered house has not yet declared in court, but it’s likely he told investigators everything.

The case moved public opinion so much that popular outrage led to a major announcement by the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy.

According to the Islamic Association of Imams and Religious Guides, “we will publish a fatwa (religious phrase) against forced mixed marriages and also against the tribal custom of female infibulation ”.

Infibulation is a barbaric practice of female genital mutilation.

It is expected that in the coming days the Italian judiciary will issue Research Orders relatives of Saman in Pakistan and clarify the charges against the uncle of the young woman and other close accomplices.

Meanwhile, the search for the body continues in the agricultural estate of Novellara. Of the girl who wanted to be free, only two photos remain: one with traditional clothes, the other shows a beautiful girl in the foreground, her smile, light makeup and dark hair.

Rome, correspondent

ap