Nizar’s Blog

A devout Muslim woman from Pakistan who wed a fellow countryman who did not share her faith tried to stab him to death as he slept in their Staten Island home because she claimed he forced her to drink alcohol, eat pork and dress provocatively, officials said today.

Rabia Sarwar, 37, climbed onto her husband Sheikh Naseem’s chest around 3 a.m. yesterday and repeatedly slashed at his neck as he slept, officials said, screaming, “It’s time for you to die!”

Naseem, a 41-year-old high school math teacher who goes by the name Eddie, said he woke up with the knife to his neck and as he wrestled with his wife – whom he wed five months ago in an arranged marriage — for the weapon.

He begged her to consider his two children from a previous marriage.

“She just screamed, ‘They are going to be orphans now!’” he said. “She kept on coming after me with the knife and I grabbed it and broke it into two pieces and ran out of the room.”

He then realized that Sarwar had hidden all the phones, so he ran into the hall and pounded on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, and Sarwar arrested. Naseem suffered only surface wounds to his neck, face and hands and was later released from a local hospital.

Naseem – who was born in Pakistan, but is half Norwegian and is a Unitarian – said he moved to the US more than 20 years ago and quickly adapted to American culture, taking to drinking casually and developing a taste for barbecued ribs.

He even twice married outside his culture.

But since both marriages failed, he decided to try marrying within his culture, and wed Sarwar five months ago through nuptials arranged by relatives in New Jersey. Although Sarwar has lived in the US for more than a decade, Naseem said “she had never been exposed to American culture.”

At first everything seemed fine, he said.

“She was getting adjusted. She was trying to live the way I live, but on the same token she tells her parents ‘I went out drinking with him,’ and her mother started making derogatory statements about me,” he said. “There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things.”

Sarwar’s lawyer, Joe Licitra, admitted his client had been hospitalized in the past for depression, but insisted she had been “emotionally abused.”

“He got her to drink alcohol, eat pork and change her clothes. She wanted to dress traditionally. I think he was a cruel person who preyed on her,” he said.

Sarwar – who appeared in court wearing a blue, velour tracksuit, but later put on a headscarf – was charged with attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. She was released after her family came up with $25,000 bail.

Naseem said he would immediately file for divorce but did not think she should be in jail.

“I think she’s a lunatic and she should be in a mental hospital,” he said. “I want the best for her in her life. I hope she gets herself corrected.”

Source.

Now this was quite different from the usual honor killing crimes that we are used to hear about, which usually involve the husband, father or a brother committing a crime against a sister, daughter or a wife for cultural or religious reasons, I think that the uniqueness of this event made it quite interesting since it is usually the other way around.