In a landmark case, a mother has become the first person jailed under Australia’s forced marriage laws for coercing her daughter into a marriage that led to her tragic death. Sakina Muhammad Jan, in her late 40s, was found guilty of forcing her daughter, Ruqia Haidari, to marry 26-year-old Mohammad Ali Halimi in 2019 for a small payment. Six weeks after the wedding, Halimi murdered Haidari, and he is now serving a life sentence for the crime.
On Monday, Jan, who pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to at least a year in jail for the “intolerable pressure” she placed on her daughter. Introduced in 2013, Australia’s forced marriage laws carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. While there are several pending cases, Jan is the first person to be sentenced under these laws.
Jan, an Afghan Hazara refugee who fled the Taliban and migrated to Victoria with her five children in 2013, has expressed enduring grief over her daughter’s death but maintains her innocence. The trial revealed that Haidari had previously been forced into an unofficial religious marriage at the age of 15, a union that ended after two years. Haidari had expressed a desire to focus on her education and career before considering marriage again.
Judge Fran Dalziel stated in her sentencing remarks that while Jan may have believed she was acting in her daughter’s best interests, she repeatedly ignored Haidari’s wishes and abused her power as a mother. “Haidari would have known that not taking part in the marriage would raise questions about you and the rest of the family,” said Judge Dalziel. Jan was sentenced to three years in jail but may be released after 12 months to serve the rest of her sentence in the community.
During Halimi’s sentencing for Haidari’s murder in 2021, a court in Western Australia heard that he had been violent and abusive, forcefully insisting that his new wife undertake household chores.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus described forced marriage as “the most reported slavery-like offence” in Australia, with 90 cases brought to the attention of federal police in 2022-23 alone. The Australian government has vowed to eradicate the practice, and in May, parliament voted to create an Anti-Slavery Commissioner to address claims of exploitation.
