Phoenix, AZ – Members of an Iraqi family who beat a teenage relative and padlocked her to a bed after she violated their traditional values by chatting to a male friend were spared jail time in a plea deal approved by a county judge on Tuesday.
According to NBC News , in exchange for a guilty plea, Yusra Farhan, 51, was sentenced to two years of probation on a charge of unlawful imprisonment of her daughter, 19-year-old Aiya Altameemi, at the family’s Phoenix home in February, court officials said.
Aiya Altameemi’s father, Mohammed Altameemi, also received two years of probation for disorderly conduct. The victim’s 18-year-old sister, Tabarak Altameemi, received the same sentence for assault, officials said.
Prosecutors said that the incident started when Aiya was spotted leaving her high school with a young man. After seeing her leave school with the boy, her father and his younger daughter Tabarak confronted the young woman.
Police said that Mohammed Altameemi became very angry and took her straight home, striking her several times. Her mother Farhan and sister Tabarak also admitted to tying her to a bed with a rope around her waist that was secured with a padlock. After being secured to the bed, they beat her, according to court records.
Farhan told police that she hit her daughter because she “was speaking to a male subject and her Iraq culture states a female is not allowed to be having contact with males because females are not allowed to have boyfriends,” court records said.
Aiya told school officials two days that “her family is trying to protect her and they want her to be a virgin for an arranged marriage,” according to court documents.
A county attorney spokesman declined to comment on the sentence.
Attorneys for Aiya Altameemi’s family members could not be reached for comment.
