"Honor killing" dad secretly taped girls (Irving, Texas)

Investigating journalists now say that dad YASER SAID secretly videotaped the teen daughters he "allegedly" shot to death in a 2008 honor killing.

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/06/honor-killing-dad-secretly-taped-girls/

“Honor Killing” Dad Secretly Taped Girls

August 6, 2010 - 12:30 PM by: Danielle Cangelosi

On New Year’s Day 2008, two Texas teenagers Amina and Sarah Said were shot dead, their bloodied bodies left in a taxi cab. The alleged shooter: their father Yaser Said.

In fact, Sarah appears to identify her Dad as the murderer in a 9-11 call – her dying words.

For more than two years the Fox News Reporting team has been following this story and the search for Yaser Said, who vanished the night of the murders.

We learned this dark tale began long before the girls were born. Their mother Patricia married the Egyptian-born Said when she was only 15 years old. She says her husband violently abused her during their 20-year marriage.

Over the course of our investigation, Fox News’ Gregg Jarrett and I made multiple trips to Texas, taping hours of interviews with investigators, relatives and family friends.

We also obtained never-before-broadcast video of the girls that was secretly shot by their father. In light of what happened to Amina and Sarah, it’s extremely disturbing footage.

If Yaser Said killed his daughters, what was his motive? His American wife Tissy claims he did so because their girls were dating boys that weren’t Muslim.

While friends and family call the murders honor killings, it’s a label the FBI and local police have been hesitant to use.

In fact, 8 months after the deaths of Amina and Sarah the FBI added the words “honor killing” to their wanted poster but days later, removed them.

Click here for more on the story.

In the hour, we also speak with former FBI counter-terrorism chief Steve Pomeranz and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Both provided a broader perspective to this story.

Hirsi Ali – born a Muslim in Somalia, she was subjected to female circumcision as a child and fled to Europe in 1992 after refusing an arranged marriage. In 2003 she won a seat in the Dutch Parliament. The following year she wrote and co-produced a film about Islam's subjugation of women with director Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh was murdered by a radical Muslim, who pinned a note to Van Gogh's chest vowing that Hirsi Ali was next. Hirsi Ali fled again this time to the United States, where she lives under round-the-clock security but continues to be a forceful critic of Islam. She’s been following the Said case from the beginning. To Read more:

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/06/honor-killing-dad-secretly-taped-girls/#ixzz0vrHpVvT3

Dad who mutilated 5-year-old daughter's genitals gets custody (Bahrain)

UNNAMED DAD has managed to strip the mother of the custody of their 5-year-old daughter despite the fact that the girl's genitals were mutiliated (that's what female "circumcision" is) while under his "care." The only question that seemed to matter to the courts is whether it was "illegal" or "legally" performed by doctors. Utterly revolting.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=279866

Circumcision girl's father wins custody
By RASHA AL QAHTANI , Posted on » Wednesday, June 09, 2010

A FATHER at the centre of a row about the circumcision of his five-year-old daughter was yesterday awarded custody of the child.

The girl's Bahraini mother, 28, was previously arrested after a six-day hunt when she went into hiding with the youngster, to avoid having to hand her back to the Emirati following a custody visit.

She was released the following day and filed an official complaint against her ex-husband, accusing him of performing illegal circumcision on the child.

Sharia Court judges yesterday refused mother's request to impose a travel ban to keep the girl in Bahrain, during a closed-door session but awarded the father custody.

The father's lawyers earlier admitted that the girl had been circumcised, but said it was a tradition practised in the UAE and was done legally by doctors.

Medical experts previously ruled out the mother's claims that a maid assaulted her daughter in the custody of her father in the UAE.

The couple married in 2004 and their daughter was born the following year.

They divorced a year later and the father returned to the UAE with the child.

However, the mother then fought for legal custody of her daughter in Bahrain's courts, which granted her full custody in 2006.

But the child's father also filed a case in the UAE, where a court awarded him full custody in 2008, although the mother later won visitation rights.

The mother now plans to continue her custody battle at the Islamic Sharia court.

It is understood the girl was not immediately handed over to the father after yesterday's ruling.

Dad on trial for female genital mutilation of daughter (Haarlem, The Netherlands)

Dad MUSTAFA EL M. (last name not given) is charged with mutilating the genitals of his daughter, now 5 years of age.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/lifestyle_leisure/news_focus/Trial-opens-in-first-Dutch-genital-cutting-case_14625.html

Trial opens in first Dutch genital cutting case
A unique court case opens today in Haarlem: for the first time in the Netherlands, a man is on trial for female genital mutilation.

A 30-year-old man of Moroccan origin is charged with mutilating his daughter. During a pro forma hearing earlier this year, the public prosecutor read the charges:

“The accused is charged with wilfully and severely abusing his child. He is charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on his daughter, Zoë, born in 2003, by cutting away the labia minora and the clitoris using scissors or another sharp implement.”

The accused, Mustafa el M. (surname withheld for legal reasons) denies everything, including the charge that he repeatedly beat and bit the child in the face and on the arms.

Islamic

Dineke Korfker is a cultural anthropologist and midwife. She lived in Africa for 12 years and now works as a researcher on female genital mutilation for research organisation TNO in Leiden. Female genital mutilation, also referred to as female circumcision or genital cutting, is practised in countries that include Somalia, Sudan and Egypt. But not Morocco, the country in which the accused has his roots. Neither is it originally a Muslim practice, says Korfker.

“People often see it as being Islamic and think it’s prescribed by the religion, but the highest Islamic body, the Al-Azhar University in Egypt, has officially distanced itself from the practice and calls on people not to do it. It has taken a long time for them to dare to do so, but now they clearly distance themselves from it. In a country like Saudi Arabia, where you might expect it, it doesn’t occur at all; they don’t have the practice there.”

Hidden

Female genital mutilation is a criminal offence in the Netherlands, and it is outlawed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. But victims often remain hidden, because the cutting takes place in a closed family setting.Vanessa Penn is a policy advisor at the Dutch Child Protection Council, a department of the Justice Ministry, and a specialist in the field of female genital mutilation: “It isn’t often properly detected, so the Child Protection Council doesn’t deal with many cases. It’s estimated that around fifty girls a year undergo genital cutting, but not all of these cases are referred to the Child Protection Council and the practice is not reported to the police often enough – rarely or never. It’s a criminal offence and falls under abuse. It’s a deliberate injury to health and a form of abuse, and if parents are involved it’s an aggravating circumstance.”

Mustafa M.’s defence lawyer sees the five-year-old daughter’s statement as highly questionable and has applied for a second opinion from a legal psychologist. The girl and her sister have been taken into care.