An Iranian couple is on trial after allegedly forcing their 18-year-old daughter to visit a doctor for a virginity test, and threatening to kill her boyfriend after they uncovered the teens’ secret relationship.
Mitra Eidani, 42, and Ali Safaraei, 56, are thought to be the first parents to be tried under laws brought into effect in 2015 against psychological abuse in a family or intimate relationship and are accused of controlling or coercive behaviour, making a threat to kill, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, reports The Telegraph.
It is alleged that Ms Eidani and Mr Safaraei had attempted to force their daughter, Sophia Safaraei, 18, to have a virginity test after her boyfriend, Bailey Marshall-Telfer, 18, was discovered visiting the family home in Wandsworth, South London, in May 2018.
Mr Marshall-Telfer is said to have climbed onto the roof of the house to hide, leaving Sophia in her room, after the parents had returned home unexpectedly.
After finding the young man’s belongings, prosecutor David Povall said: “Her father came up to the room shouting at her angrily, telling her that he would kill her and insisting that he and his wife should take Sophia to the doctor so that it could be checked whether she was still a virgin.”
The parents took Sophia to a surgery and ordered the female GP to perform a virginity test, which the doctor refused, resulting in the parents accusing the medic of not understanding their culture.
According to Dr Helen Lewis’s statement read to Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, “Sophia said she didn’t want to be examined by anyone”.
“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.”
Dr Lewis’s statement added that Ms Eidani made negative comparisons between the Iranian couple’s culture and “your” (British) culture, with Mr Safararei then allegedly threatening to call the police.
The court then heard allegations that upon the family’s return home, Ms Eidani allegedly bit her daughter, with jurors being shown pictures of a yellow bruise on the complainant’s forearm.
Sophia, speaking from behind a screen, told the jury: “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?”
The 18-year-old also alleged that her passport was taken away from her, she was called a “prostitute”, and was told that she would be sent “to Iran to marry a cousin”.
Kingston Crown Court heard that Sophia and Mr Marshall-Telfer, whose relationship began in January 2018, were students and both had part-time jobs at Sports Direct.
The court heard the day after the incident, Ms Eidani confronted Mr Marshall-Telfer at Sports Direct where, according to the young man, the mother suggested that “they, Muslim people, were dangerous”.
“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’,” Mr Marshall-Telfer alleged, and claimed that Ms Eidani said her husband would kill him.
The court heard that Mr Marshall-Telfer was then visited by the father who allegedly threatened to “keep coming back and at the right place and at the right time that he would kill me”, according to the young man’s statement.
On the 18th of May, Sophia reported the alleged abuse and threats to police.
Ms Eidiani denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and both she and Mr Safaraei deny two counts of controlling or coercive behaviour and one count of making a threat to kill.
The trial continues.
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