Iranian parents Ali Safaraei, 56, and Mitra Eidiani, 42, marched their teenage daughter to the doctor for a virginity test.
The couple who live in south London also told her boyfriend that they were ‘dangerous’ because they were Muslims.
The couple also threatened to kill their 18-year-old daughter Sophia Safaraei and her secret boyfriend, with the mother saying: “You have seen what our people do on the news.”
According to a statement read to Kingston Crown Court, “Sophia said she didn’t want to be examined by anyone.”
Doctor Helen Lewis told her that she couldn’t continue unless the teenage girl agreed. “I explained to Sophia I could not even touch her without her permission and I would not examine her unless she consented to this.
Mitra voiced unhappiness with this. She said I didn’t understand her culture and then called Sophia’s father, Ali Sarafaei, who was waiting outside. She told me he was strict, not liberal like her, and would insist on me performing a virginity test.”
Mr. Safaraei threatened to call the police while Ms. Eidiani drew unfavorable comparisons between their culture and UK’s culture.
The court heard the 18-year-old told authorities she was from a ‘strict Muslim family.’ She also said: “it was more of their upbringing than mine.”
Sophia added: “There’s more of the culture than religion.”
Eidiani, the mother, allegedly bit Sophia and Mr. Safaraei is accused of threatening their daughter with a kitchen knife. Sophia was also told by her parents she would be sent “back to Iran to marry a cousin.”
When the parents found out that their daughter was in a relationship with Bailey Marshall-Telfer, also 18, they visited him at work and Eidiani warned him “that they, as Muslim people, were dangerous.”
Mr. Marshall-Telfer told the court Eidiani told him: “Don’t come near my daughter again. I don’t want you communicating with her or anything like that.”
He added: “She was like, “how can she be with someone like you?” She went on to say that she is a Muslim and her husband is a Muslim and “you have seen what our people do on the news and stuff, we’re dangerous people, be careful.”
When asked by prosecutor David Povall what else the mother said, Mr. Marshall-Telfer continued: “That her husband was more angry than she was and he was going to kill me and that there would be a shadow around me and they might come back the next day with someone else.
I was really quite scared, nervous, it shook me a bit when I was trying to do my job. I believe I was just saying ‘alright’ most of the time because I was not trying to do anything to make her more angry or say anything else or create a scene in the store.”
The teenage boy, who started a relationship with Sophia in January this year, said that his girlfriend’s father repeated the threats.
He added: “He came up to me and was like, was I the one that was in his house? I was like yes, I made a big mistake and I apologise. He didn’t really address the apology.
He just kept asking me what had happened in there and that he had CCTV in his house just to, I guess, play mind games so I would say what happened. He said he was going to keep coming back and at the right place and at the right time that he would kill me.”
After that incident, Sophia sent his boyfriend a message about her parents forcing her to go to a GP clinic for a virginity test.
The message informed Mr. Marshall-Telfer that: “her parents were trying to get her examined at the GP and that they were going to get her to tell lies to get me in trouble.”
When asked by Mr. Povall: “Do you remember what lies?” the teenage boy answered: “I think it was along the lines of rape.”
Talking from behind a screen, Sophia told the court: “My father then came into my room armed with a big kitchen knife and said you have to get checked. They were saying if I’m a virgin why can’t you prove it? What are you scared of?”
A photo of a huge yellow bruise on her harm was shown to the jury. Mr. Povall also said that: “She was called a prostitute, her father threatened to kill both her and Bailey. She was told she was disowned, it was suggested she might be sent back to Iran to marry a cousin.”
Eidiani and Safaraei deny one count of making a threat to kill and two counts of coercive behavior. The mother also denies one count of assault but pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage.
Parveen Mansoor, who represented Safaraei, told the jury that he is not a Muslim and “would have been fine” about his child having a boyfriend. Their trial continues.
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