Parents tried to ‘honor kill’ 17-year-old daughter because she refused an arranged marriage: police

Police say two parents tried to strangle their 17-year-old daughter outside her high school in an attempted “honor killing” because they refused an arranged marriage to an older man.

Ihsan Ali and his wife, Zahraa Ali, were charged with attempted murder over the shocking attack outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, in which the father also allegedly punched their daughter’s boyfriend in the face, police said.

Their daughter, who was not identified, said that “her father had recently threatened her with an honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage to an older man in another province,” according to charging documents obtained by The Post.

She ran away and sought help from school staff on October 18 – which enraged her parents, who showed up and attacked her outside, some of which was caught on camera.

Her father, Ihsan, strangled her “to the point where she lost consciousness” as other students — including the girl’s boyfriend — desperately tried to pry her away, the documents alleged.

“It’s not right… you can’t do this,” her father told her with his hands around her throat before she passed out, the girl told police.

Video obtained by Fox 13 Seattle shows Ihsan on top of his daughter, pushing her face into the mud, surrounded by a group of students yelling at him to stop.

According to police, the father also punched the girl’s boyfriend in the face.

The girl’s mother, Zahraa Ali, also grabbed her daughter and tried to strangle her, the documents said.

Witness Josh Wagner said KOMO he was driving by with his family when he stopped to break up an argument between a group of children at the bus stop until he saw the father holding his daughter in a headlock.

“It was quite angry. All the kids were screaming and yelling,” said Wagner, who held the father until police arrived.

Wagner said he was able to rip the father’s arms from her and hold him until police arrived.

The girl escaped with her boyfriend and ran to the school’s main office screaming, “My father tried to kill me” — leading to a closure of the school as school staff blocked the girl’s parents from entering, according to court records documents.

The friend’s father, Victor Barnes, told KOMO that there have been problems with the Ali family for months, including an alleged physical altercation that forced them to obtain a temporary protective order.

Court records show the mother was also banned from the school building.

Honor killing is a practice in some societies in which family members justify killing a person, usually a woman, by claiming that the victim has brought shame on the family. according to Britannica.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that around 5,000 women are killed in such situations every year.

The victim’s school has found a safe place for the girl to stay while authorities continue their investigation.