Gruesome Honor Killing

Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49 (resident of UK, originally from Pakistan) is sentenced to life in prison (minimum 25 years) for killing their daughter, Shafilea, in 2003.

Families have sometimes lashed out at their children on the belief that they have brought their household shame by becoming too westernized or by refusing a marriage.

Shafilea was only 10 when she began to rebel against her parents’ strict rules, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis. The young girl would hide make-up, false nails and western clothes at school, changing into conservative clothes before her parents picked her up. But it was the last year of her life that proved to be the most traumatic.

During the trial that began in May, jurors heard from Shafilea’s younger sister, Alesha, who said she witnessed the murder when she was 12.

After an argument about Shafilea’s dress, her parents pushed her down on a couch, stuffed a thin white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her mouth and nose until she died, Alesha testified.

As she was struggling, her mother said, “just finish it here,” according to Alesha’s testimony.

Full news.

ShiaChat is on the maintenance mode

You can't access the forum because it's on the maintenance mode. It was up a few hours ago.

I'm off to bed now. Hopefully it's up by morning.

Largest Bank Fraud in Iran

I was reading about a huge corruption case in Iran. Thirty nine people have been convicted of a bank fraud/scam. Four bankers are set to be hanged.

Another banker, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, managed to dodge the bullet by fleeing to Canada.

Name of the convicted felons are not released to the public.

But one of the defendents complained that, while the judiciary had pursued some low-level players in the fraud vigorously, senior officials involved in the scandal had gone unpunished.

Based on comments from a news site, many seem to agree that it's about time people who are involved in bank frauds get harsher punishment than just a slap on the wrists.

Halting my reading

I'm halting reading of the book Secret Sects of Syria.

I've finished reading chapter one to eleven. The next chapter will be about the Ismailis.

I'm slightly bored now, so I have to stop reading the book. I'm definitely going to continue reading sometime in the future.

Summary of the teaching of the Karmatian / Qaramite

Here's a summary of the teaching of Karmat.
- Four inclinations daily: two before sunrise, and two before sunset
- Two days worth of fasting in a year (one of the days is the Nawrooz)
- Allowed the consumption of wines made from grapes
- Abstain from Ghusl (ritual shower), wudu is okay
- Allowed killing of all who fight against him

The chapter ended with stating that not much was heard of the Karmatians of Iraq and Syria after the year 989 AD, but they were found in Bahrain until the year 1037 AD.