A Victorian mother has been sentenced to at least 12 months in jail over a forced marriage that led to her daughter’s murder in WA.
Content warning: Domestic violence
In 2019, Ruqia Haidari was forced to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi.
Six weeks later, he used a knife to murder his wife in their Perth home.
Haidari’s mother, Sakina Muhammad Jan, has become the first person to be sentenced for forced marriage in Australia.
Ruqia Haidari
Ruqia Haidari and her family fled Afghanistan after her father was killed by the Taliban. They moved to Shepparton in regional Victoria in 2013.
In mid-2019, during her final year of school, Haidari was introduced to Mohammad Ali Halimi, who lived in Perth, by a family acquaintance. A week later, Haidari’s mother went against her wishes and told the man he could marry her daughter.
The pair were wed in a traditional Islamic ceremony and moved to Perth later that year, where Halimi killed Haidari six weeks into their marriage.
Murder
In August 2021, the WA Supreme Court handed Halimi a life sentence for murdering his wife, with a minimum of 19 years behind bars.
The judge in the case called the marriage “dysfunctional” and noted Haidari had been “unhappy” during their brief relationship.
The WA court also heard evidence Haidari had approached the Australian Federal Police asking whether she could be forced into marriage shortly before she wed Halimi.
Forced marriage
Jan was arrested in October 2020, ten months after her daughter was murdered. She was released on bail before appearing in court earlier this year.
A Victorian court heard testimony from people Haidari had confided in, including her driving instructor and school teacher, who said she didn’t want to marry Halimi.
Witnesses told the court about the 20-year-old’s plans to study and work, before she aimed to settle down in her late twenties.
The court heard Jan placed “intolerable pressure” on her daughter to marry someone she didn’t want to, including threats to kick her out of the family home if she refused.
Halimi had also paid Jan and her family $14,000 for the marriage.
Haidari had previously been married under Islamic law for two years when she was around 15, before a divorce.
According to court documents, “Haidari was happy” when the relationship ended, “and she was excited to finish school… She was keen to try to expand her life choices.“
Sentencing
The judge sentenced Jan to three years in jail this week for the forced marriage that led to her daughter’s murder.
However, she will be released under strict conditions after one year.
She is the first person in Australia to be sentenced for forcing someone into a marriage.
In Australia, a person’s visa can be cancelled if they are sentenced to more than a year in prison. The judge said that while the possibility of deportation was a consideration in sentencing, it couldn’t be entirely avoided.