Who Killed Shaima
When Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi American mother of five, was beaten to death it drew attention to Islamophobia in the US. But was her murder a hate crime or an honour killing within the Iraqi community?
"I'm sure she is in a better place now," says Fatima, Shaima's daughter, the first person to find her mother after she was beaten to death. The family had previously received a note saying, "Go back to Iraq" and another left beside Shaima's body called her a terrorist. Integration is still a proving a tough process in the city of El Cajon, home to the second largest community of Iraqi migrants, where dozens settled after the first Gulf War. "It's a difficult place to settle several thousand refugees from a very different culture," explains Will Carless, a New York Times reporter. As Shaima's family refuse to trust American police and "hang out their dirty washing", the mystery of Shaima's death remains unresolved.
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