Victoria’s mother on trial accused of forcing her daughter to marry

A young woman felt her voice and future were being taken away from her when her mother allegedly forced her to marry an older man from another state, she told a jury.

Prosecutors accused Sakina Muhammad Jan, from northern Victoria, of forcing her 20-year-old daughter to marry a Western Australian man in 2019.

Jan has pleaded not guilty and denies that her daughter Ruqia Haidari, who has since died, told her that she did not want to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi.

Sitting in the dock with the support of a translator, Jan faced the first day of a trial at the Melbourne County Court today.

Haidari was the youngest of five children, all of whom were born in Afghanistan and emigrated to Australia with his mother as refugees in 2013, after his father was killed by the Taliban.

The family settled in Shepparton and became part of the city’s Hazara community.

Prosecutor Darren Renton said Ruqia Haidari married a man in an Islamic religious ceremony called nikah, but it ended in divorce before the alleged forced marriage.

Haidari was deemed to have “lost his value and has no good prospects for remarriage” due to the divorce.

“This is a relevant circumstance in the Crown’s case because it concerns the motive of the defendant’s desire to force his daughter into marriage,” Renton told a 13-person jury.

In 2019, a matchmaker spoke to Haidari about her marriage prospects, but she said she wasn’t ready and wanted to wait until she was 27 or 28, she said.

Then the matchmaker, Shukria Muqadas, was told about a man from Perth who was looking for a wife and agreed to help.

A meeting was arranged with the man, Halimi, who flew from Perth to Shepparton on June 1, where he met Haidari for the first time.

He offered to marry Haidari, but Jan said the family needed time to think about the proposal and flew back to WA.

Less than two weeks after meeting Halimi, Haidari married him temporarily, allowing him to remain in Shepparton with his family.

However, Haidari told several people that he did not want to get married, including two of his driving instructors, a teacher, a counselor and a police officer, Renton told the jury.

“She felt like her voice and her future were being taken away from her,” he said.

“It all happened in a very rushed way…she didn’t know her fiancé, he wasn’t even from Victoria, she was worried about living her life with someone she didn’t know.”

Haidari allegedly told police he was permanently marrying Halimi on Aug. 20 but did not want to go through with it, Renton said.

He also said Jan had received a dowry of A$10,000 (NZ$10,968.40) from Halimi.

Renton alleged that Haidari told his mother on August 19 that he did not want to marry Halimi and Jan told her that it was not up to her.

“Are you my mother or am I your mother? I can make decisions for you,” she claimed Jan told Haidari.

Two days later, Haidari’s brother arranged for an officiant and she was permanently married to Halimi.

While she gave verbal consent at the ceremony, Renton said she was coerced.

Jan denies all allegations of coercion and denies that his daughter told him she did not want to marry Halimi.

“She denies that her daughter did not give her full and free consent to the permanent nikah, she denies that her daughter entered the nikah by coercion, threat or deception,” defense lawyer Andrew Buckland said.

He asked the jury to discard any feelings of sympathy or prejudice and to put aside any preconceived notions about the arranged marriage.

The trial continues.