Two parents have been arrested after reportedly attempting an “honor killing” of their 17-year-old daughter outside her high school, all because she allegedly refused their arranged marriage.
Oh, and did I mention this happened in Lacey, in Washington State? Not Iran. Not Pakistan. Washington State, in the United States of America.
Josh Wagner, another Lacey resident, told KOMO he was driving by Timberline High School on October 18 when he saw what he thought was a fight between a group of students, and went to help break it up. It turns out, however, that the fight was actually between a teenage girl and her own dad, who had her face shoved into the dirt, and her mom, who was attempting to choke her to death.
According to court documents obtained by the New York Post, the firm said her parents, identified as Ihsan and Zahraa Ali (who, I'm gonna just take a wild educated guess here, are of Arab descent), had told her they’d arranged for her to marry a much older man in another country. When she refused, her father allegedly threatened her with an “honor killing,” prompting her to run away and report the situation to her school.
Her parents then showed up to the school and attacked their own daughter outside, attempting to strangle her. Ihsan Ali, the girl’s father, also reportedly punched the girl’s boyfriend when he tried to intervene, then choked his daughter. By the time Wagner got to the scene, the girl had already passed out, according to court records.
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“The dad was on his back, and his daughter was on top of him, and he had her in a choke hold,” Wagner said.
“What I saw was the adult male had the teenager in a headlock, choking her from the back, so I removed his arm from her, and then she got up and ran with another kid, who come to find out, was her boyfriend and she was the daughter of the adult male,” he explained. “So then I just held him on the ground till the police arrived and then handcuffed him and searched him and then moved him to the police car.”
Disturbing cell phone footage shows the harrowing moments when the 44-year-old father held his daughter to the ground in a chokehold, while terrified students screamed and tried to pull him off.
An attempted honour killing on US soil:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 17, 2024
Ihsan Ali, 44, and Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, face charges of attempted murder and attempted kidnapping
The girl fled to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after her parents tried to send her to Iraq.
This footage allegedly… pic.twitter.com/SNwsYXCzZ4
The incident triggered a school lockdown, as staff members tried to shield the girl from her parents while bystanders detained her father until police could arrive.
Victor Barnes, the father of the girl’s boyfriend, said there have been ongoing issues with the Ali family, which were apparently sever enough to prompt his son to get a restraining order against the parents and which forced the school to take steps to ban Zarhaa Ali from school property.
The girl has since been housed in a "safe" location, and the Alis have been jailed and charged with assault, kidnapping, and attempted murder.
All men are created equal. All cultures? Not so much.