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'My pregnant daughter's murder destroyed us - we must tell her story to save lives'

Yasmin Javed wants the Scottish Government to urgently pass a statutory definition of honour-based abuse following the murder of her daughter, Fawziyah, in 2021.

Key Points
  • Fawziyah Javed, 31, and her unborn child died when she was pushed from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh
  • Kashif Anwar, 29, from Leeds, was found guilty of the murder after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh
  • Yasmin Javed, Fawziyah’s mother, says her daughter did everything possible to leave her abusive relationship
  • She now wants the Scottish Government to urgently pass a statutory definition of honour-based abuse
  • Last week, she addressed a group of women as part of the UN-backed 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.

The mother of a pregnant woman murdered by her abusive husband is calling on the Scottish Government to urgently pass a statutory definition of honour-based abuse. 

Fawziyah Javed, 31, and her unborn child died when she was pushed from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh in September 2021.

Yasmin Javed, Fawziyah’s mother, told STV News that her daughter did everything possible to leave her abusive relationship but that it wasn’t enough to save her life.

She now wants to see greater protections in place to prevent further “honour-based” violence, including female genital mutilation, forced and child marriages, and “honour’ crimes”. 

Contributed

She said: “I think people see Fawziyah as this privately educated, very clever, lawyer and think ‘how could this happen to Fawziyah?’

“But what happened to Fawziyah is not down to Fawziyah; it is down to him (Anwar) and others that were complicit in the abuse.

“He got convicted because of the type of person Fawziyah was, because she recorded the abuse and helped to convict him. There isn’t a stereotypical kind of woman this happens to.

“I’ve had messages from professional women, non-professional women, all backgrounds, communities, religions, non-religions, it can happen to anybody.”

Last week, Yasmin addressed an audience of women at The Tramway in Glasgow invited by the Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre as part of the UN-backed 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.

Police Scotland

She said: “I think a lot of people don’t understand what honour-based abuse is – there’s no legal statutory definition for honour-based abuse, it’s not seen as a crime and it is very hidden. In Fawziyah’s case she was experiencing honour-based abuse and obviously her murderer is now behind bars.

“But if honour-based abuse had been identified, then there would have been more people on that stand with him and perhaps behind bars like he is.

“It’s destroyed my family to the core. The grief and pain have brought us down to our knees. We’re not living anymore, we’re just existing – this is a lifetime of pain and grief for us.

“She (Fawziyah) did speak out, although I could tell she was holding things back, she did speak and the police were involved on two occasions. She gave two police statements, she contacted divorce lawyers and she recorded the abuse with voice recordings.

“She was two days away from leaving him, but he found out. As a result, this is what he did. He’s behind bars, but it’s the family that has a life sentence without parole.”

The statutory definition of domestic abuse within the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 specifies the perpetrator as a partner or ex-partner of the victim.

There is no specific legislative protection for victims of honour-based abuse where the perpetrators may include a combination of males, females, partner, ex-partner, and other family or community members of the victim.

Police Scotland has nevertheless implemented an action plan for supporting victims of honour-based abuse, and between 2014 and 2020, they recorded 949 such incidents.

Mariam Ahmed, CEO of Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, said: “Behind every single statistic globally, there is a story to be told, and it’s really important that we do not forget the story of these women.

Mariam Ahmed, CEO of Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre.STV News

“Unfortunately, the prevalence of honour-based abuse and domestic abuse is such that we cannot take a back seat and stop talking about it.

“Honour-based abuse isn’t always fully understood in our communities and within our systems. This is why we work with Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and other agencies to try and increase awareness of this type of abuse.

“Currently, in Scotland and the UK, there is no statutory definition of honour-based abuse. We hope the Scottish Government will work with us to make sure we are leading the way in actually defining this type of abuse because if you can’t define it, you can’t tackle it.”

Earlier this year, Channel 4 aired a documentary called “The Push”, which followed the case of Fawziyah, who was from the Pudsey area of Leeds.

“Ever since this horrific tragedy, I have been inundated with messages from people that are going through similar atrocities,” said Yasmin.

“Some people are telling me that after watching the documentary, they have realised they are in an abusive relationship, which they didn’t realise before.

“There are people who have been in abusive relationships and managed to get out of them – they’re telling me their experiences, and I’ve even had third parties, like mothers, contacting me, saying that their daughters are in similar positions and (asking) what they should do.”

Fawziyah was about 17 weeks pregnant when she was pushed from Arthur’s Seat, using her dying words to reveal it was her abusive husband who caused her to fall about 50ft before her body came to a rest.

Giving evidence during the trial, Yasmin said Anwar was “abusive, controlling, manipulative, aggressive and violent” towards her daughter.

Contributed

Kashif Anwar, 29, from Leeds, was found guilty of the murder after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh last year and was given a life sentence and ordered to serve at least 20 years behind bars.

Yasmin said: “The authorities definitely need to do more to keep women safe. Like I said, every woman that contacts the police in a situation like Fawziyah’s, she should be seen as a potential murder victim.

“It’s everybody’s responsibility because one life lost causes a lifetime of devastation for everybody. It’s that massive ripple effect. Everyone has a duty to make sure every woman is safe.

“I know the horrific consequences this has had on myself, Fawziyah’s father and my family. It’s completely destroyed us and I don’t want another family to be going through this and if I can help save lives then I will.

Memorial bench for Fawziyah Javed.STV News

“Fawziyah was just an amazing, wonderful person. I’ve never had anybody come to me and say Fawziyah has been unpleasant to them. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body, she was just a beautiful soul inside and out.

“Her loss has had a massive impact – not just on my family but on so many other people. She gave so much and she would have continued to do so had her life not been cut short.

“The Fawziyah Javed Foundation has been set up to give practical support to parents of homicide victims, but aside from that, I’m doing work to spread awareness, and no other family should suffer like we’re suffering.

“We’ll be saying ‘don’t suffer in silence, if you are being abused, reach out to people that you trust and don’t keep it to yourself, don’t suffer in silence, tell the police.'”

Amina can be contacted on 0808 801 0301 and here.

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