Jordan: Father beats daughter to death for low university grades

Dubai: A Jordanian was arrested for beating his daughter to death for getting low grades in Amman, local media reported.

Sources told local media that the 21-year-old university student Rania Al Abadi died on Wednesday as a result of severe beating by her father, with the help from the girl’s mother and aunt who covered her mouth.

Criminal Prosecutor Judge Muwaffaq Obeidat charged the father with ‘murder’. He will be detained for 15 days, pending investigation.

A source close to the investigation told local media that the victim was a first-year student of Al Balqaa Applied University in Al Salt where she studying on a scholarship. The suspect beat his daughter with an electric wire, reports said, fearing she might lose the scholarship due to low grades.

The victim’s father was referred to the Public Prosecutor where he confessed that he beat his daughter but had no intention of killing her. The victim’s brothers were also interrogated.

The source said that the father tried to save his daughter’s life after she lost consciousness and fell to the ground. An autopsy was conducted at a private hospital. Adnan Abbas, director of the National Centre for Forensic Medicine, said that 50 per cent of the victim’s body was bruised.

The horrific crime sparked a wave of outrage on social media platforms where users expressed their anger and demanded severest punishment against the father. They launched #StopKillingWomen hashtag and demanded justice for women. The murder of Rania is the latest of a series of crimes committed against women in Jordan.