Noor Faleh Almaleki
She wanted what every girl wanted. To look and feel beautiful, to get a degree, a job, settle down with the man she loved. But her ordinary hopes were to her father – rebelliousness.
Noor and her family had moved from Iraq to the US and settled in suburban Pheonix in 1990’s. When Noor made the decision to live with her boyfriend, instead of conform to her family’s pressure for arranged marriage, tensions arose between her father Faleh Hassan Almaleki and Noor. On October 20, 2009 in an Arizona parking lot Noor’s father attempted to run over his daughter and the mother of her boyfriend Amal Edan Khalaf, 43, with his 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Noor spent two weeks in coma fighting for her life, but died as a result of the injuries she suffered.
Following the incident Almaleki had fled across the border to Mexico, then to London. He was subsequently caught, extradited and charged with two counts of aggravated assault but was acquitted of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted-murder charges at the time. Before the 20-year-old died, prosecutor Stephanie Low told a Maricopa County court that, “By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame upon him and his family.”
Faleh Almaleki said he was angry that Noor had become “too Westernized” and “rebellious”. Prosecutors claimed the 50-year-old Muslim man committed an “honor killing” because his daughter had dishonored him by living with her boyfriend and his mother.
In February 2011, Almaleki was found guilty of second degree murder of his daughter and aggravated assault for seriously injuring Amal Edan Khalaf.
Noor was always known to be a loving and cheerful young woman. Described by friends as ‘never complaining’ and ‘patient’ and having a beautiful spirit. May she have found an abode where she wouldn’t have to run away, or be anyone else, but herself…
Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.
~Emily Dickinson
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One Response in “Noor Faleh Almaleki”
Love is compassionate and does not judge, love is the desire to do good and put smiles on peoples faces. Love does not act out of anger but brings reason and understanding to one’s anger and turns it into acceptance.
Forgetting to act from the place of one’s heart even for a moment can spell disaster. This is such a tragic accident of passions misplaced for just one moment but the outcome will be felt forever…
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Monday 13 June 2011
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