A verdict has been reached in the trial of a mother and father accused in an attempted “honor killing” of their teenage daughter Fatima — and the result was not what BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales expected.
The jury found 44-year-old Ihsan Ali not guilty of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. He was found guilty of second-degree and fourth-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment.
“This has become so much more than an attempted murder trial because with this acquittal, with the evidence that they had, and these parents still being acquitted of attempted murder, this trial is all about the ways that the United States of Islam now — it’s what we are — has failed this girl,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.
And the evidence was staggering, as video captured the father appearing to choke his 17-year-old daughter on the ground outside Timberline High School in October 2024. The attack was prompted by Fatima running away from home, claiming her parents wanted to send her to Iraq to marry an older man.
Witnesses reported seeing the daughter’s eyes roll back as her father choked her. Fatima’s boyfriend tried to intervene and was also allegedly attacked by the father.
Fatima’s mother, Zahraa Ali, was found guilty of violating a protective order but not of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault, or second-degree burglary. The mother was present at the attack and was accused of attacking her daughter in a similar manner.
“The judge blocked key evidence in the trial. She actually had told police that she was afraid to leave the country and join her family on a trip to Iraq because they had an arranged marriage planned for her, and she didn’t want to go because she didn’t want to be in an arranged marriage because she, of course, lives in the United States, where you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” Gonzales says.
“But the judge, Christine Schaller, didn’t allow the prosecution to enter this into evidence. Why? Well, it’s interesting that you asked,” she continues.
Schaller claimed the backstory of the attack would be “too prejudicial.”
“Well, we can’t have the jury hearing true things, true crazy things that the defendants did because it would just be too prejudicial to them. Now, this is obviously insane. Because who cares if it’s too prejudicial if it’s actually the truth?” Gonzales says.
“Of course, everything that led up to the attack matters,” she continues, “but to a judge, ‘Uh-oh, we don’t want to bring in arranged marriage talk. … They might get a bad impression of the Islamic culture, the Islamic religion.’”
“I, just, the mind boggles as to how in the world you can throw out that testimony when it’s entirely relevant to literally everything you’re watching happen in that video,” she adds.
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