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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Iona Young

Mum says Edinburgh Arthur's Seat murder victim was killed by 'jealous' husband

The mother of a woman who was murdered by her husband by being pushed from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh has spoken out in her first TV interview.

Fawziyah Javed, from Leeds, was tragically murdered after she was pushed from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh by her husband, Kashif Anwar, in 2021 reports Yorkshire Live.

Yasmin Javed, Fawziyah's mother, appeared in her first TV interview on BBC Newsnight last night (June 21) revealing she believes Anwar was "jealous and insecure" towards his wife.

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The incident at Arthur's Seat wasn't the first case of violence between the pair. The court case into her death was told that three months after their wedding - which was an Islamic ceremony on December 25, 2020 - Anwar, an optical assistant, knocked Fawziyah unconscious in a cemetery, and at around the same time, he put a pillow over her face and punched her in the head.

It was also revealed to the court that Anwar withdrew £12,000 from her bank account while she was sleeping. Yasmin claimed in the interview that she had encouraged her daughter to leave Anwar but Fawziyah said she was "biding her time" and said she "knew what she was doing."

Yasmin said: "She had contacted divorce lawyers because he always said, 'I'm never going to divorce you'.

"She'd also made voice recordings of him where he's being threatening and abusive towards her. That was all evidence of how he was treating her."

One of the voice recordings Fawziyah is heard saying: "You've ruined my life." Anwar replies: "I'll tell you one thing. You end this and I will ruin yours."

Another heard Anwar say: "Who do you think you are? You're not a man … so come back tomorrow like you've been told. Do not be that British woman."

Fawziyah had gone to the police twice about her husband's behaviour before her death. The second police report was made just days before Anwar killed her.

The couple had gone for a weekend away to Edinburgh when the horror incident happened. They were seen on CCTV heading to Arthur's seat - a Scottish landmark - after falling 50ft from the cliff edge, Fawziyah managed to tell passers-by what had happened, before she died.

Anwar was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for murdering his wife in April this year. His wife was 17 weeks pregnant when she was killed, causing the death of her unborn child.

Yasmin revealed her daughter's heart-breaking last words were: "'Am I going to die? Is my baby going to die?'"

She said: "The words go round around my head every single day. I can't get them words out of my mind."

Ms Javed revealed to BBC Newsnight that she did not feel like the family got justice and Anwar is still exerting his control, despite being in prison.

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She revealed she hasn't received all of her daughter's possessions back and the ones she has had back she had to fight for, she added: "And his parents are honouring that control, by not giving all her possessions back to us."

The court previously heard a recording of Anwar telling his wife: "Anything that's here that you're probably going to say it belongs to you. You're not taking anything from here. It's all going to stay here, that's my possessions because it's my house."

However, Kashif Anwar parent's told BBC Newsnight that they had returned all of Fawziyah's possessions.

Ms Javed believes Anwar's motives for murdering her daughter stemmed from honour-based control, jealousy, and insecurity - honour-based abuse is a crime or incident committed to protect or defend the 'honour' of a family or community.

She said: "He used to say to Fawziyah, we don't have divorces in our family, we don't divorce, we stay in marriages no matter what."

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