• Mom gets probation for locking up daughter for talking to a boy

    By Reuters

    PHOENIX - Members of an Iraqi family in Arizona who beat a teenage relative and padlocked her to a bed after she violated their traditional values by chatting to a male friend were spared jail time in a plea deal approved by a county judge Tuesday.

    In exchange for a guilty plea, Yusra Farhan, 51, was sentenced to two years’ probation on a charge of unlawful imprisonment of her daughter, 19-year-old Aiya Altameemi, at the family's Phoenix home in February, court officials said.


    The young woman's father, Mohammed Altameemi, also received two years’ probation for disorderly conduct, and her 18-year-old sister, Tabarak Altameemi, received the same sentence for assault, officials said.

    Prosecutors said the incident started when Aiya was spotted leaving her high school with a young man. The father and younger daughter Tabarak confronted the young woman.

    Police said Mohammed Altameemi became angry and took her home, striking her several times. Mother Farhan and daughter Tabarak also admitted to tying her to a bed with a rope around her waist that was secured with a padlock and beat her, according to court records.

    'Not allowed to have boyfriends'
    Farhan told police she hit her daughter because she "was speaking to a male subject and her Iraq culture states a female is not allowed to be having contact with males because females are not allowed to have boyfriends," court records said.

    Aiya told school officials about the incident two days later and explained that "her family is trying to protect her and they want her to be a virgin for an arranged marriage," according to court documents.

    A county attorney spokesman declined comment on the sentence. Attorneys for the young woman's family members could not be reached for comment.

    In April 2011, Faleh Hassan Almaleki received 34 1/2 years in prison for running down his 20-year-old daughter in a Phoenix parking lot in what was described as an "honor killing."

    The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., has said such cases are isolated instances that occur sporadically and are widely chastised by the American Muslim community.

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  • Affidavit: Iraqi beating victim in California had friction with daughter, husband

    Atef Hassan / Reuters

    The husband of Shaima Alawadi, Kassim Alhimidi, holds a picture of his slain wife at her father's house in Samawa, 160 miles south of Baghdad on April 1. Alawadi, an Iraqi-American woman who was beaten to death in her U.S. home is a possible hate crime victim, although new court documents raise questions about family members.

    By Kari Huus, msnbc.com

    Court records released Thursday show that an Iraqi immigrant who was killed last month in her California home had a rocky relationship with her teenage daughter and apparently was planning to divorce her husband, NBC San Diego reported.


    Kari Huus


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    No arrests have been made in the killing of Shaima Alawadi, 32, who died from blunt force injuries to the head.

    NBC San Diego said the records include the description from a neighbor of a possible suspect running from the area of the house on March 21 about 45 minutes before her daughter Fatima called 911. Fatima told reporters and police that she discovered her mother unconscious in a pool of blood in their El Cajon home. Alawadi died in the hospital three days later.

    A  "dark skinned male" in his "late teens or early 20s" was seen running from the  area, NBC San Diego reported, citing an police affidavit for a search warrant filed in Superior Court in San Diego.

    Read the police affidavit

    The affidavit indicated 17-year-old Fatima was upset about the family's plan to have her marry one of her cousins, NBC San Diego said.

    It noted that on Jan. 31, Alawadi called the police to report Fatima missing. The daughter was located 20 minutes later and the call was canceled, according to the affidavit.

    The document says police records show officers answered a call reporting two people were possibly having sex in a parked car — a couple identified as Fatima and Rawnaq Yacub, 21. After Alawadi arrived to pick up her daughter, the teen reportedly jumped out of her mother’s car when it was moving about 35 miles per hour and was injured. In the hospital, she told paramedics she was being forced to marry her cousin against her will. 

    A search of Fatima's cellphone showed that while the teen was being interviewed by detectives, she received a cryptic text from someone that read: "The detective will find out tell them cnt talk'," NBC San Diego reported, citing the affidavit.

    A note left near Alawadi on the day of her death called her a "terrorist" and sparked the theory that her killing was a hate crime based on religious or ethnic bias. Police have cautioned against rushing to that conclusion, noting that it was just one possibility that was being explored.

    Mike Blake / Reuters

    Mourners hold a candlelight vigil to remember Shaima Alawadi outside her home in El Cajon, Calif., on March 28.

    The news site UT San Diego, which obtained the police records first, said a sheriff’s lab examination of the note showed that it was a photocopy of the message, not an original.

    UT San Diego also reported that a search of the family’s cars turned up court paperwork — not yet completed — used to file for divorce. Another form requesting a waiver of fees had been filled out by hand with Alawadi's name, adress and phone number.

    Alawadi's husband, Kassim Alhimidi, and Fatima are reportedly in Iraq, where they traveled for Alawadi’s burial.

    The records initially were released inadvertently to UT San Diego by the the Superior Court in El Cajon, a press officer at the court said. Other press organizations were then given access to the information.

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