"Too Westernized" Girl Dies after Father Runs Her Over in Honor Killing, Say Police

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

(KPHO/Personal Photo)

Photo: Noor Faleh Almaleki.

PHOENIX (CBS/AP) Twenty-year-old Noor Faleh Almaleki's fight for life ended Monday despite emergency spinal surgery and doctors' desperate two week effort to save her life while she lay in a coma.

Police say her father, Iraqi immigrant Faleh Hassan Almaleki, ran her over Oct. 20 in a parking lot in a Phoenix suburb because he felt she had become "too Westernized." He also ran over her boyfriend's mother Amal Khalaf. She is expected to survive.

Police have called it an honor killing.

(AP Photo/Peoria Police Department)

Photo: Faleh Hassan Almaleki.

The 48-year-old father fled after the attack eventually landing in the United Kingdom.

Authorities there denied him entrance. He was sent to Atlanta, where he was arrested.

Peoria, Ariz., police interviewed him and brought him back to Arizona over the weekend, but have declined to release what Almaleki said to them.

At a court hearing over the weekend in Phoenix, county prosecutor Stephanie Low told a judge that Almaleki admitted to committing the crime.

(KPHO/MySpace Photo)

Photo: Noor Faleh Almaleki.

"By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," Low said. "This was an attempt at an honor killing."

Family members had told police that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he believed she had become "too Westernized" and was not living according to his traditional Iraqi values.

Almaleki, wearing a jail uniform, said only his name and birth date during the hearing. He has declined requests to be interviewed.

Almaleki had faced charges of aggravated assault, but Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef said the charges will be upgraded in light of Noor Faleh Almaleki's death.

Police said the Almalekis moved to Peoria from Iraq in the mid-1990s.

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
November 2, 2009 - Police Charge Iraqi Father Who Allegedly Ran Over "Westernized" Daughter
October 22, 2009 - Father Runs Over Daughter For Being Too "Westernized"

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by sohoo November 7, 2009 5:42 AM EST

for all of you out there who are trying to be so smart while commenting. first I am not justifying what the father has done, but if thats how you think about muslims coming to the US, why dont you have your govenment stop invading Arab world and steeling resources and dropping what is called by you "democracy and freedom" from f-18 and bombers, then muslims done have to go any where looking for work once there wealth and resources are not stolen or destroyed. and if you need something to keep you bussy, why dont you review the women abuse log at American courts and find out for yourself how American democracy has been working out for American women.

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by TIMedWork December 9, 2009 2:25 PM EST: Sohoo, if anyone honestly feels the way you describe about the American way, logic would ask, "Why are you here?" Some came to reduce the oppression of women if, as you say, they cannot eliminate it all together. Actually, the only way to eliminate all human fault is to simply eliminate all humans, which would appear to be what some muslims have in mind.


by juiceblog November 4, 2009 12:36 AM EST: Interesting that his weapon of choice was a car (definitely western) rather than a camel.; Reply to this comment

by Razmataz63 November 3, 2009 12:05 PM EST

"Family members had told police that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he believed she had become "too Westernized" and was not living according to his traditional Iraqi values."

This pisses me off...if you want your children to grow up with "traditional Iraqi values"...then stay in Iraq.

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by careifucan November 4, 2009 11:18 AM EST: Well said, why do all these folks come to America to enjoy our freedom
and then try to reform it to thier home countrys standards. Just don't
come to America and you won't have too worry about your traditions.


by chestnut745 November 3, 2009 10:20 AM EST: honor killing, otherwise known as simply murder. a father killing his daughter. His turmoil is only beginning. put him away forever, and may God not have mercy on his soul.; Reply to this comment