UK Father killed family for being too western
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Father killed family for being too western*
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 2:16am GMT 21/02/2007
UK- A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because
he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest
heard yesterday.
Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to
be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to
reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages.
On Hallowe'en last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home
in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight.
Caneze Riaz, 39, woke and tried to protect her three-year-old child,
Hannah, who was sleeping with her, but was overcome by fumes. Her other
daughters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, and Alisha, 10, died elsewhere in the
house.
Riaz, who had spent the evening drinking, set himself on fire and died
two days later.
Relatives broke the news to the couple's son, Adam, 17, as he lay
terminally ill with cancer at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. He died
six weeks later.
Michael Singleton, the coroner, recorded verdicts that Riaz killed
himself and that his victims were unlawfully killed.
Riaz, who had spent all but the last 17 years of his life in the North
West Frontier region of Pakistan, met his Anglo-Pakistani wife when her
father sent her to the sub-continent to find a husband.
After an arranged marriage, she developed a career as a community leader
in Accrington while he, handicapped by a lack of English, took on a
series of low-paid jobs.
After Mrs Riaz's father died she "suddenly felt less beholden to
Mohammed", a friend said. "She started to develop her own circle of
friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way."
She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and
many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.