An Italian court has sentenced a mother and father to life in prison for the murder of their 18-year-old daughter.
The body of Saman Abbas was found in a farmhouse in Northern Italy in November 2022, months after the girl had gone missing.
Abbas lost her life in what was described as an ‘honour killing’ after she refused to participate in an arranged marriage.
Her father, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan where it is believed that her mother, Nazia Shaheen – who was convicted in her absence- is still in hiding.
The teen girl’s uncle, Danish Hasnain, was given a 14 year sentence for his involvement in her death, while two of her cousins were cleared of all charges.
Italian authorities said that Saman’s family wanted her to travel to their native Pakistan for an arranged marriage in 2020 and that Saman was murdered in 2021 after her refusal to obey their wishes.
A post mortem revealed that the teenager had had her neck broken.
It was reported that Saman, who had immigrated to Italy with her family in 2016, had begun seeing a young man also of Pakistani origin and that a photo of them sharing a kiss taken in nearby Bologna had sparked outrage among her family.
Italian media reported that Saman’s boyfriend Saqib and his family had received threats from her family over the course of their relationship as the girl was already arranged to be married to her cousin.
After she disappeared her parents fled to Pakistan, with her uncle and two cousins travelling to France and Spain.
Human rights activists estimate that approximately 1,000 women are killed yearly in Pakistan as the result of so-called honour killings.
In 2021 UK police recorded an 81% increase in the number of ‘honour based offences’ over a five year period.
Last month an 18 year old girl was shot dead in Kohistan district by her father and uncle after an image of her with a man emerged.
Reuters reported, “ Police said the woman had been killed after a council of elders, known as a jirga, had ordered that she and a friend, who also appeared in the picture, be killed.”
In May this year two ethnic Pakistani sisters who had been living in Spain were tortured and shot dead in Pakistan’s Punjab province after refusing to help their arranged marriage husbands travel to Spain.
It was reported that Arooj Abbas (21) and Aneesa Abbas (23) who had Spanish nationality were “emotionally blackmailed” into travelling to Pakistan after being told that their mother was unwell.
Spanish media reported that the young women were forced to marry their cousins in Pakistan in 2021 after travelling there.