Cut, because of TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic abuse, violence, threats of harm, misogyny.

Harry Potter star 'beaten after meeting non-Muslim man'

A young Muslim actress who appeared in the Harry Potter films was beaten by her brother and told by her father that he would kill her after she began a relationship with a Hindu man, a court heard yesterday.

Afshan Azad, 22, who played Padma Patil, a classmate of the boy wizard, was called a “slag” and a “prostitute” in a violent confrontation at her family home which left her so scared she fled through a window, Manchester Crown Court heard.

She later told police that her father wanted to “force her” into an arranged marriage.
Abul Azad, 53, and his son Ashraf, 28, were charged with making threats to kill following the incident in Longsight, Manchester, on May 21. Both were cleared of the charge yesterday after a judge heard that Miss Azad had refused to give evidence despite “expensive and time-consuming” attempts to encourage her to attend court. After going to the police, she “made it plain” that she did not want any action taken against her family, saying that the arrest of her father or brother would put her in “genuine danger”, the court heard.

…

Describing the incident, Mr Vardon said that Mr Azad was awoken by his son shouting: “Sort out your daughter! She’s a slag!” Mr Vardon added: “He continued to further assault her, in disputed Bengali, shouting, ‘Just kill her!’ There was a discussion where she was being called a prostitute.”

Describing a statement Miss Azad gave to police the next day, Mr Vardon told the court: “My father began saying he would do it, a reference to kill her, as he did not want his sons to have her blood on their hands and he would do time for it. Then she began to feel very scared .?.?. she having apparently been so scared of her family she left her home address via her bedroom window.

He added: “Part of her version of events was that he was going to force the complainant into a forced marriage of some sort.”

The prosecutor said Miss Azad later made “retraction statements” and said she had found it hard to understand her father’s heavy Bengali accent and could not be sure what he had said. Chudi Grant, defending the father, told the court that he “emphatically” denied any wrongdoing. “At the forefront of his mind is the welfare and happiness of his daughter,” he added.

GODDAMNIT, MUSLIM MEN. D:<

ETA: Wait, hang on, this news report was dated mid-2010 this year. Oh, wait... has this come up before? >_>;;

META: I just saw a whole slew of comments calling me out on tarring Muslim men out with the same brush.

Okay, that’s a fair interpretation of what the original post says. And it isn’t immediately clear from the context that I’m a Muslim man, and I’m more frustrated and angry at the level of privilege seen by Messr. Azad’s statements & actions, rather than expressing some kind of anti-Muslim prejudice.

I really apologize for not making it clear that I was frustrated and angry at seeing what both these men did to their family member, not only as fathers and brothers but as Muslim men. Men who are in the position of familial and community power, who belong to a religion that constantly tells the whole world that they are a peace-loving religion, that their principles of justice and equality are universal, and yet violate these principles when dealing with members of their own community.

And I speak this as a dominant-culture Muslim male living in a country that privileges my needs over the needs of people of other religions, genders and orientation, and treats those who question or attempt to move beyond such a broken paradigm as munafiqs and ignorant.

If you thought I was being Islamophobic and unfair towards all Muslim men in general, frankly, I don’t blame you, because after a second reading of this article, yes, it does sound Islamophobic. So I’d like to apologize about that, and I hope the context I provide here compensates for that pretty massive FAIL on my part.