Sakina Muhammad Jan is the first person in Australia to be jailed over its forced marriage laws.

A mother has become the first person to be jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws, for ordering her daughter to wed a man who would later murder the 21-year-old.

Sakina Muhammad Jan, who is in her late 40s, was found guilty of coercing Ruqia Haidari to marry 26-year-old Mohammad Ali Halimi in 2019, in exchange for a small payment.

Six weeks after the nuptials, Halimi killed his new bride - a crime for which he is now serving a life sentence.

On Monday, Jan - who pleaded not guilty - was sentenced to at least a year in jail, for what a judge called the “intolerable pressure” she had placed on her daughter.

  • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
    131·
    4 months ago

    Arranged and forced marriages are two very different things. Plenty of places where arranged simply means “your parents send you on a date to get to know someone once in a while”.

    As to spousal abuse rates: Irrelevant because it’s wrong to coerce people in the first place.