Free Republic

New York Senator Hillary Clinton acknowledges a 3-minute ovation during the Democratic National Convention 2008 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, August 26. Democratic women Senators appears on stage at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 26, 2008. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is expected to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at the convention on August 28. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama watches New York Senator Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention on a TV screen in Billings, Montana on August 26. Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (R) (D-DE) stand at the podium...

A Clayton County man faces murder charges in the strangling death of his 25-year-old daughter early Sunday over her desire to end an arranged marriage. Chaudhry Rashad, 54, apparently got mad during an argument in which the victim, Sandela Kanwal, told him she wanted out of the marriage, Clayton police officer Timothy Owens said. Authorities were called to their Utah Drive home in Jonesboro just after 3 a.m. Sunday. Kanwal lived with her father when she was not with her husband, who is in Chicago, Owens said. She hadn't seen the husband in three months, he said. Both Rashad and...

Muslim leaders have given warning against “malicious” intervention by third parties into legitimate arranged marriages. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has welcomed plans to allow third parties to take legal steps to protect young people from being forced to marry a person. But it has urged the Government to ensure that cultural norms are safeguarded. Those given the new powers should receive training, the council said. Muslims and other minority groups in Britain with a tradition of arranged marriage say that the issue is not one of faith, but of culture. Arranged marriages have long been practised in the...

A second Birmingham woman has been found dead following a dispute over an arranged marriage. Student Balqis Akhtar, aged 20, was discovered with two gunshot wounds to her head in the village of Kangar, near Gujar Kahn, in Pakistan. She was sent abroad from her home in Birmingham for an arranged marriage but is said to have argued with her father about the match. Police in Pakistan have now launched a murder inquiry and are liaising with detectives in the West Midlands who are also investigating the death. News of the killing comes just days after Sahda Bibi, 21, of...

Woman sentenced to 15 years for killing husband 4 days after wedding By Rana Husseini AMMAN — A 22-year-old Ramtha woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Sunday on conviction of killing her husband four days after their wedding in Oct. 2001. The tribunal reduced the premeditated murder charge against Thraa Abdullah to manslaughter and handed her the maximum penalty for strangling her husband, Ahmad Hussein, with an electric cord in their house in Ramtha on Oct. 15 last year. The defendant's family had forced her to marry the victim, and the marriage took place on Oct. 12,...