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Cloudy with t-stormsNews
Shefilea Ahmed missing, feared dead
Were these her final words of despair?
19/12/2003
THE parents of missing Asian teenager Shafilea Ahmed have been
arrested on suspicion of kidnapping her.
Police swooped at the family home in Liverpool Road, Warrington,
Greater Manchester, around 8am on 18 December and took Iftikar
Ahmed, 44, and his 41-year-old wife, whose name has not been
released, to a Cheshire Police station for questioning.
Police have confirmed that Shafilea has not yet been found and that
the search for her is continuing.
Last month detectives announced they suspected that Shafilea was
dead and launched a murder investigation.
Her father categorically denied harming his daughter and he claimed
that there was no arranged marriage planned and the trip to
Pakistan was only a family holiday.
The taxi driver said that a family in Pakistan had asked for his
daughter's hand in marriage and he had replied that the choice was
his daughter's.
Shafilea, who was born and raised in Warrington, turned down her
would-be husband and later suffered a severe throat injury when she
swallowed a caustic liquid, possibly drain cleaner. She was treated
in Pakistan - her family said she swallowed it after mistaking it
for mouthwash. They said they last saw her on the night of 11
September.
Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati was called in earlier this
month to help in the murder hunt. Oldham-born Shobna read extracts
from poetry written by Shafilea, aged 17, before she vanished. The
verse describes how she was depressed after being offered a
"suitor" while attending a family wedding in Pakistan. "I'm
trapped, so trapped," says one line. And another: "I shoulda killed
myself." The verse describes how she was depressed after being
offered a "suitor" while attending a family wedding in
Pakistan.
The poems, in the style of song lyrics, show the teenager's
internal turmoil and torment and how she was desperately trying to
rationalise her family's sense of `honour' with her own different
cultural situation.
In `Happy Families' she writes: "All they think about is honour, I
just wanted to fit in but my culture was different."
She goes on to talk about how she wanted them to be proud of her
but all they felt was `"shame".
In `'I feel trapped' she described her sorrow and pain and
expresses the wish that she was dead.
Police are hoping the reading at the Palace Hotel, Manchester, will
have raised the profile of the case.
Soap star Shobna Gulati said that she had been asked to become
involved by Cheshire police.
She added: "Hopefully she is not dead and by doing this we can at
least make one more push and appeal for help on this.
"I am getting involved as a young Asian woman. By doing this I hope
to jog people's memories and make people more aware of what has
happened."
Shafilea, who was born and raised in Warrington, Greater
Manchester, turned down her would-be husband and later suffered a
severe throat injury when she swallowed a caustic liquid, possibly
drain cleaner.
She was treated in Pakistan and then spent 10 weeks in intensive
care at Warrington General.
Shafilea's poem in full - 'Happy
Families
I don't pretend like we're the perfect
family no more
Desire to live is burning
My stomach is turning
But all they think about is honour
I was like a normal teenage kid
Didn't ask 2 much
I jus wanted to fit in
But my culture was different
Now I'm sitting here
Playing happy families
Still crying tears
But no we're a happy family
I have these fears
I wish, I wish, I wish
For a happy family ----- oh yeah
I lay in bed hoping the next day would be better
It was just a thought
Because it never happened no
But still I dream of this today yeah hey
I wish my parents would be proud of wot I done
Instead it's you've have bought shame
Or something else lame
I don't wanna hear this no more
No no no.
I feel trapped
I feel trapped, so stuck I don't wot 2 do the feeling is mutual, I
don't know how to explain
Im a trapped so trapped (so trapped )
Now u know where I stand, when I fall back I got no where else to
land
I don't know how to say
I'm trapped so trapped I'm trapped wit u.
It was my last year in school, so happy with my friends I got lots
to do ---
But came this day when everything changed
I came home it seemed like a normal day
But sumthing wasn't right ----
I wish I coulda changed the event
I shoulda killed myself instead
I'd rather have been dead
Coz now I have a burden on my chest
And no it won't go away, the guilt, the pain
When I look back on things I coulda changed coulda stop, prevented,
exchanged
But i had to turn out this way (so trapped)
Now I'm sitting on my window bay
Looking at the rain ----
Drowning sorrow and pain
Will this ever go away ----
I feel trapped so trapped, I'm trapped
I'm trapped, so trapped I'm trapped
(I don't know wot do) I feel trapped.
But my family ignored
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