In a landmark case, Sakina Muhammad Jan, an Afghan Hazara refugee, has become the first person to be jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws.
She was sentenced to at least one year in prison for coercing her daughter, Ruqia Haidari, into marrying Mohammad Ali Halimi in 2019. Halimi, who murdered Haidari six weeks after their marriage, is currently serving a life sentence.
Jan, in her late 40s, was found guilty of placing “intolerable pressure” on her daughter to marry Halimi in exchange for a small payment. The forced marriage laws, introduced in Australia in 2013, carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. Several cases are pending, but Jan is the first to be sentenced under these laws.
The court heard that Haidari, previously forced into an unofficial religious marriage at 15, had expressed a desire not to marry again until she was older, wanting to pursue her studies and work. Judge Fran Dalziel stated that while Jan might have believed she was acting in her daughter’s best interests, she ignored Haidari’s wishes and abused her power as a mother.
Jan, who maintains her innocence, was sentenced to three years in jail, with the possibility of release after 12 months to serve the remainder of her sentence in the community. Following the sentencing, she refused to accept the judge’s ruling.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus described forced marriage as “the most reported slavery-like offence” in Australia, with 90 cases reported to federal police in 2022-23 alone.
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