Afghanistan mother jailed for forcing daughter to marry her killer

Sakina Muhammad Jan forced her daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019. Photo / Getty Images

A mother who forced her 20-year-old daughter to marry a man who later murdered her has been jailed.

Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, did not react as Victorian County Court Judge Fran Dalziel sentenced her to three years behind bars.

She will be released from custody on a recognisance order after 12 months and faces deportation to Afghanistan once released from custody.

Jan forced her daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019.

He killed his young bride five months later and is serving a life prison term for her murder.

The court was told Jan coerced Haidari into the marriage after the 20-year-old’s first arranged marriage ended in divorce.

Haidari was considered “bewa” by the Hazara community, meaning she had lost her value.

Jan arranged the second marriage to try and restore her family’s reputation despite her daughter’s objections, prosecutor Darren Renton SC told the court.

A jury in May found Jan guilty of causing a person to enter into a forced marriage.

She is the first person in Australia to be sentenced on the charge after it was criminalised more than a decade ago.

Judge Dalziel told Jan she had abused her power as a mother.

“While you believed you were acting in (Haidari’s) best interests, you were not in fact doing so,” the judge said.