Laura Wilson was just 17 years old — a
happy but headstrong girl whose love story across the racial divide
would have a tragic ending.
‘She
was feisty — if she had anything to say she would speak out,’ her
mother Margaret says, as she showed me a picture of a smiling,
mischievous teenager.
Laura’s
Asian boyfriend, Ashtiaq Ashgar, also 17, was born in Britain but when
Laura challenged his family’s traditional cultural values by confronting
them with details of their relationship, she had to be silenced.
One night in October 2010, Laura was
lured to the banks of a canal in Rotherham in South Yorkshire, where
Ashtiaq attacked her before throwing her into the water.
He was subsequently arrested and found guilty of Laura’s murder last June and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
So does this mean that Laura was the first white victim of an honour killing in Britain?
Margaret
Wilson has never spoken publicly before, but she told me she is
convinced her daughter was murdered because she challenged the code of
honour which some ethnic communities still follow in the UK.
‘I honestly think it was an honour killing for putting shame on the
family. They needed to shut Laura up and they did,’ she says.
In south Asian and Middle Eastern communities, controlling the behaviour of women is seen as key to the family’s honour.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115984/Is-Britains-white-honour-killing-victim-The-happy-headstrong-girl-17-love-racial-divide-tragic-end.html#ixzz1pNfSia1O
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