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Shafilea Ahmed Was Murdered by Her Own Parents
A robbery almost 7 years later finally broke the case open.
Introductions
Farzana and Iftikhar were married cousins from Pakistan that migrated to Bradford, Yorkshire, England. They were devout to the Islam faith and culture. On July 14, 1986, Farzana gave birth to Shafilea Ahmed.
Shafilea grew up in England but dreamt of moving away from her parents, the culture, and strict guidelines of her parents. She ran away from home for the first time at age 11.
Murder
In March 2003, the Ahmed family were in Pakistan for a family vacation when first responders were called to the house. Shafilea drank bleach in an apparent suicide attempt although her parents claimed Farzan thought she was using a mouthwash during a power outage in the home. This incident caused severe damage to Shafilea’s throat that resulted in an ongoing appointment with a doctor to check her progress.
Seven months later, on September 11th, 2003 Shafilea went missing. Her teacher waited a week to report her missing because the parents stressed there wasn’t an issue. Her parents didn’t report her missing because they claimed when Shafilea ran away at age 16 the police told them “there is nothing we can do”. A nationwide…
