Teen Girl Beaten by Family Over Boyfriend Photo - Father Charged Again

JÖNKÖPING - A 16-year-old girl was beaten by her parents after a friend of her brother secretly photographed her with her boyfriend at a shopping centre. All three family members have been convicted of assault. Now the father is being prosecuted again, accused of threatening his daughter after she testified against him.

It happened on 8 April this year at the Asecs shopping centre in Jönköping, where the girl was shopping and spending time with her cousin and her boyfriend.

According to the police investigation, the family - father Hikmat Salihi, 48, mother Narmin Hassan, 50, and brother Kawan Salihi, 18 - kept the girl under honour-based control. She was not allowed to go out when she wanted, talk on the phone to whoever she wanted, dress as she wanted - and above all, she was not allowed to have a boyfriend.

"They say it's about culture and religion. Girls like me shouldn't have anything to do with a boy before marriage," the girl told police in an interview.

A Secret Photo

She was seeing the boyfriend in secret because of the family's rules. What she did not know was that a friend of her brother was watching. He took a photo of the couple and sent it straight to Kawan, who showed it to their mother.

When the girl came home that day she went to her room. Shortly afterwards her father returned, called her downstairs and, according to her account, dragged her by the hair into the living room.

There, she told police, her mother pulled her hair until she fell to the floor. She was kicked, then grabbed by the throat by her mother when she got back up, and hit in the face. Police documented an injury to her lip.

The family told her she was shaming them and hurled sexual slurs at her, while her father spat on her. They demanded to know who the boy was - in order, as she understood it, to find him and kill him. According to the family's culture and religion, she explained, relatives have the right to kill a boy who spends time with a daughter before she is married.

Four Months in Prison

On 24 September, Eksjö District Court convicted all three of assault. They denied the charges. The father and mother were each sentenced to four months in prison, and the brother to two months. Together they must pay their daughter 50,000 kronor in damages.

The brother did not take part in the beating itself but was convicted anyway. The court found it obvious that he must have understood the photo would have consequences for his sister, that he was present throughout and tried to stoke his father's anger. In practice, the court said, he came close to instigating the attack and did nothing to stop it.

Threat Sent on TikTok

On 23 October, prosecutor Anna Mårtensson charged the father again - this time with interfering in a judicial matter, the Swedish offence of pressuring or retaliating against a witness.

Barely a week after the verdict, he allegedly sent his daughter a threatening message on TikTok, writing among other things that he prays "God will do to you what you did to us". The prosecutor says it is clear the message was sent because she had given evidence to police.

Hikmat Salihi denies the charge. He says the purpose of the message was to make his daughter feel ashamed and stop her livestreams in which, he claims, she spreads information about the family. He also says she lied in court about having no contact with the family.

He has a previous conviction in Denmark for forging a document. Since 15 October he has been under a restraining order banning him from visiting, contacting or following his daughter.

Sweden has spent years debating how to tackle honour-based oppression, and a specific offence of honour oppression was introduced in 2022. In this case, the family was convicted of ordinary assault.