Australian Mother Sentenced for Deadly Arranged Marriage

Forced marriage turns fatal - mother gets 1-Year sentence...

Australian woman Sakina Muhammad Jan sentenced to 3 years in prison for forcing daughter into fatal marriage, marking first conviction under Australia's anti-forced-marriage laws, as Attorney General highlights alarming rise in reported cases.

Sakina Muhammad Jan has made history as the first person to be imprisoned in Australia for forcing her daughter into a fatal marriage, under the country's pioneering anti-forced-marriage laws.

Sakina Muhammad Jan, an Afghan Hazara refugee, has been convicted and sentenced to a minimum one-year prison term for coercing her daughter, Ruqia Haidari, into a disastrous marriage to Mohammad Ali Halimi in 2019. Tragically, the union ended with Haidari's brutal murder just six weeks later, highlighting the devastating consequences of forced marriage.

Mohammad Ali Halimi is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Ruqia Haidari, whom he married in 2019.

Sakina Muhammad Jan, a woman in her late 40s, has been found guilty of forcing her daughter into the ill-fated marriage, exerting “intolerable pressure” in exchange for a modest payment. This violates Australia's forced marriage laws, introduced in 2013, which carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. This case marks the first sentencing under these laws, with several other cases pending, setting a significant precedent in the fight against forced marriage.

The court heard that Ruqia Haidari, who had already been forced into an unofficial religious marriage at just 15, had explicitly expressed her desire to postpone any future marriage until she was older, hoping to focus on her education and career goals.

Despite her daughter's clear wishes, Sakina Muhammad Jan callously disregarded them, abusing her parental authority to force Ruqia into the doomed marriage, perpetuating a profound injustice and denying her daughter the chance to shape her own future.

Despite maintaining her innocence, Sakina Muhammad Jan was sentenced to three years in prison, with the possibility of release after one year to serve the remainder of her sentence under community supervision.

In a show of defiance, Jan refused to accept the judge's verdict, challenging the legitimacy of the ruling. Meanwhile, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus highlighted the gravity of forced marriage, labeling it "the most reported slavery-like offence" in Australia, with a staggering 90 cases reported to federal police in the 2022-23 year alone, underscoring the need for continued action against this form of exploitation.