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| Mohamad Mokdad of Grand Blanc can't believe his daughter Jessica Mokdad, 20, was shot by her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi: "I thought it was a sick joke." Alfetlawi says it was an accident. Others say Alfetlawi was angry his stepchild didn't live a conservative Muslim lifestyle. |
US - Twenty-year-old Jessica Mokdad just wanted to live a normal American life. But her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi, wanted to control her every move in an effort to force her to live his idea of a very conservative Muslim lifestyle, her family and police said. Now Alfetlawi is in jail, awaiting trial on charges that he killed his stepdaughter. With his hands and feet in shackles, the Iraqi refuge who said he was a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime listened in court May 12 as his attorney, Richard Glanda, asked to have him examined to see whether he's mentally competent to stand trial. The proceedings were translated into Arabic. "He thought she was becoming too Westernized," said Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Contaldo. "I think this was a very nice young lady wanting to experiment with Western culture without control and without abuse." Mokdad was born in Dearborn and spent her early years as a typical American child. She was a "girly girl" who enjoyed experimenting with clothes, hair and makeup, said her stepmother, Cassandra Mokdad. "When she was around friends, she was always laughing," she said. Jessica Mokdad's parents were divorced; Alfetlawi became her stepfather shortly before her ninth birthday. The family moved to Minnesota, where Alfetlawi forced his stepdaughter to wear a hijab and made her almost a prisoner in their home, said her father, Mohamad Mokdad. Her mother told police Alfetlawi felt shamed by his stepdaughter's Western ways: She wore shorts and sleeveless tops. She didn't want to wear the hijab. Full Story>>
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