Reported in the Independent today, the short life and brutal death of a 19-year-old Pakistani bride, Sabia Rani, transported from her rural village (where she’d had a few scant years of education) to 21st-century Britain, then brutally beaten to death, in a household with eight of her in-laws, for being unable to live up to her husband’s expectations about make-up, sandwiches and going to the supermarket.
When a “holy man” confirmed she was “possessed by evil spirits”, through touching an item of her clothing, that probably sealed her fate.
Khan told his work supervisor that he was unhappy with his marriage because he had been rushed into it, and soon began kicking and beating his wife.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Ms Rani’s injuries, similar to those of a car crash victim, were so severe that she would have been in constant pain and ill for at least three weeks before she died.
Yet Khan’s sister said she had seen no evidence of injuries. She and Ms Rani had been great friends, she said.
Much is made of the difference between “forced marriage” and “arranged marriage”. Yet could poor Sabia Rani be said to have had any meaningful agency, any real choice?
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