It was an emotional day today as the woman killed in an alleged daylight attack in the West Auckland suburb of Massey was laid to rest.
rore than 100 people attended 21-year-old Farzana (Zana) Yaqubi’s funeral at Manukau Memorial Gardens this afternoon, including family, friends and members of the Afghan community.
As she was carried towards her grave, those who gathered sobbed and wailed with grief, Newshub reported.
Her funeral was filled with grief, love and prayer.
Her family told the Herald Yaqubi was an accomplished student who was quiet, diligent and friendly. She grew up in Auckland and studied law at AUT, receiving a scholarship.
Newshub spoke to a close childhood friend who said Yaqubi “always put everyone before herself”.
“Anything that would happen I would run to her and she would run to me,” the friend said.
“She meant everything to me.”
Police launched a homicide investigation shortly after Yaqubi was found dead near the Waitakere Badminton Centre about 5.45pm on Monday in an alleyway close to her family’s home. Members of the community have been laying flowers in the alley.
Today’s funeral comes just a day after a heated first court appearance for the man charged with Yaqubi’s murder.
A 30-year-old man was granted interim name suppression so his parents in India could be notified of the murder charge.
He looked at the ground as Judge June Jelas remanded him in custody to await his next appearance on February 1 in the High Court at Auckland.
Defence lawyer Paul Borich KC did not enter a plea on the man’s behalf.
Three sisters and two brothers of Yaqubi filled the first row of the courtroom’s public gallery during the brief appearance yesterday. Screams echoed in court as the defendant was shuffled out by security.
“You ****ing bastard!” one of the women yelled through tears.
“How could you? How could you?”
“You coward!” another sibling yelled.
Standing outside the courtroom after the hearing, family friend Wahid Suliman described Yaqubi as a caring and “beautiful young lady” who had plans to become a criminal lawyer after just one more year of studying.
“The tragedy has broken everybody’s heart,” he said.
“She was the youngest [in the family] but she was the smartest.”
Yaqubi’s father was a refugee from the Afghan Hazara ethnic minority, who fled Taliban persecution in 2001 and ended up as one of the Tampa refugees. He was one of 150 refugees granted asylum by Prime Minister Helen Clark after they were rescued from a drifting fishing vessel by container ship MV Tampa, then refused entry to Australia.
A family member told the Herald Yaqubi was born in New Zealand shortly after her father’s arrival in the country.
She grew up in Auckland and studied law at AUT, where she was a top student.
She already had a job offer, the family member said.
Yaqubi was an observant Shia and planned to shortly head to Karbala in Iraq for a pilgrimage.
The family member remembered Yaqubi as quiet, diligent and loved by children.
“My kids, they keep telling me they miss her and asking for her to come back,” he said.
A steady stream of people from the Afghan community in Auckland have been arriving at the home Yaqubi shared with her family to support them in their grief.
Upper Harbour MP Vanushi Walters said news of the alleged attack was tragic.
“My thoughts are first and foremost with the family at this difficult time,” she said.
“I know we’ll all be looking for ways in which we can support those in our Massey community and our Afghan community who will be feeling the weight of this horrific act.”
Assadullah Nazari, president of the Hazara Afghan Association Incorporated, said his community in Auckland is rallying around the family.
The distress of the community was compounded by the grief and worry they still felt from the Christchurch mosque attacks.
“We left our own country, the country that we were born in ... we left to go somewhere to be safe and live our lives in peace, and in the community,” he said.
“And then we come here and we get that shocking thing that happened with the Christchurch mosque attack.”
The worry had again intensified after the death of a Hazara in Auckland, he said.
“The community’s in shock. Everyone is worried, especially with the young ones that they have.”
He was expected in the Waitākere District Court today.