Sheriff’s office allows inmate tied to ‘honor killing’ case to wear hijab
Lost on the sheriff’s office and everyone else in this case is that this Muslim is in jail because she took part in killing a woman who chose to reject the hijab!
Source: Sheriff’s office allows inmate tied to ‘honor killing’ case to wear hijab – Houston Chronicle
Nadia Irsan was wearing an orange jail uniform, an olive green long-sleeved shirt and a black head scarf with a small patch of maroon when she sat down across from her lawyer Thursday in a glass-partitioned conference room in the Harris County Jail.
The 31-year-old observant Muslim, who will likely remain behind bars at least another year before she goes to trial on a charge of stalking, smiled at her attorney.
“It was a lot of colors,” said lawyer Jackie Carpenter. “But that wasn’t an issue. She finally looked comfortable.”
A day after Carpenter and attorney Eric Davis went public with their concerns that Irsan’s religious rights were being violated because she was not allowed to wear the covering that are tenets of her faith, officials with the sheriff’s office saw to it that she had a hijab and a long-sleeved shirt.
“It was like she said, ‘oh my God, I can breathe again!’” Carpenter said of the immediate change in her client. “She was far more focused and energetic. She’s happy.”
You know who can’t breate again? The brother-in-law Irsan stalked and told, “I cannot wait until my dad puts a bullet between your eyes.” The father did so. The best friend of Irsan’s sister can’t breathe again either – because Irsan helped kill her too because she rejected wearing the hijab and all that is Islam.
Irsan has been convicted in a federal fraud scheme, but she is awaiting trial along with her father, Ali Mahwood-Awad, and his wife and adult son. They are all accused of gunning down her sister’s husband and her sister’s best friend, Iranian activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh.
Prosecutors say the family conspired to commit the shootings after the sister disavowed the family to marry a Houston man.
More: Prosecutor: Woman repeatedly stalked victim of “honor killing”
Irsan is charged with stalking her sister, Nesreen Irsan, after Nersreen left their father’s home to marry a Christian man, Coty Beavers.
Their father, Ali Irsan, is Muslim. Prosecutors call him controlling and domineering, and they say he murdered Coty, and Nesreen’s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, because he thought she helped convert his daughter to Christianity.
In court Tuesday, prosecutors said Nadia also threatened Coty before his murder.
“At one point made the comment, I cannot wait until my dad puts a bullet between your eyes, to Coty Beavers,” said Thomas.
Nadia is accused of putting a GPS tracker on her sister’s car and driving around her home.
“Almost consistently on a daily basis was encircling the apartment complex,” said Thomas.
Prosecutors say the GPS showed Nadia taking that route, up until the day Coty Beavers was murdered in the apartment he shared with Nesreen in November 2012. The GPS was later found buried at the Irsans’ house.
Honor killing is a family tradition for these Jordanian Muslim immigrants:
