One of three sisters allegedly killed by family tried to kill herself, jury told

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Sahar Shafia is shown in this photo released by the courts on Tuesday Nov. 22, 2011. An assistant school principal testified in court that Sahar Shafia, 17, told her she was being pressured to wear a hijab, that her brother had assaulted her, and that there was an order within the family not to talk to her. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

KINGSTON, Ont. - A teenage girl allegedly killed by her family along with her two sisters confided in school and child protection authorities that she was being pressured to wear a hijab and was being shunned at home, so she tried to kill herself, court heard Wednesday.

Sahar Shafia, then 16, told a school assistant principal a year before she died that her family had been pressuring her to wear a traditional head scarf, that she had been "emotionally rejected" by her parents, who had barely spoken with her in the previous eight months, court heard.

She also said that she was subject to verbal and physical abuse by her older brother and that her parents wanted her to leave school, the assistant principal told court.

It was all too much, so she took some pills in a suicide attempt, assistant principal Josee Fortin told the mass murder trial.

"I had enough," she said Sahar told her. "I wanted to die."

The bodies of 17-year-old Sahar, her sisters Zainab, 19, and Geeti, 13, along with the body of Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, one of their father's two wives in a polygamous marriage, were found on June 30, 2009, in a car submerged at the bottom of a canal in Kingston, Ont. The Montreal family had been on their way back from a trip to Niagara Falls.

The girls' parents Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, and Mohammad Shafia, 58, and their brother Hamed, 20, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.

When Sahar tried to kill herself in May 2008, she got no assistance from her family, and her mother said something to the effect of, if she wants to die, let her, Fortin testified. Fortin called youth protection services and they called the parents in to the school for a meeting.

When youth protection worker Jeanne Rowe arrived, Sahar pleaded with her not to call her parents, but Rowe explained it is mandatory when a report is made.

"She was very, very scared of her parents knowing about the report," Rowe testified. "She just denied everything. She just said, 'It's not true. It's not true. I want to go home."

Sahar was "obviously extremely scared," Rowe said, and didn't stop crying through the whole meeting. The Shafias, including a "very angry" father, denied everything Sahar had said, Rowe testified.

Because the teen was adamant about returning home, Rowe let her and followed up with a meeting two days later. That day, Rowe said, Sahar was wearing a hijab. She reported that the situation at home had improved, Rowe said.

"The mother told her that any time she feels sad she must come and talk to her," she testified. "She said her mother told her brother that the hitting has to stop, and so that made her feel very much more comfortable."

The case was closed.

The following year, just two months before the children's death, another school official held a meeting with the family to express concerns that Sahar and Geeti were frequently late or absent from class. Geeti had accumulated 40 absences so far that school year and was failing all of her classes.

During that meeting Shafia and Yahya said they didn't know what to do, Nathalie Laramee testified in French through a translator. The girls opened up once their parents left the room, she said.

"Sahar was telling me, 'You know, Mrs. Laramee, I did not translate everything my father said because there were a lot of lies in this,'" Laramee said. "'Let me repeat to you, my sister and I are afraid in the house. We are afraid when our father is there."

At a meeting just with Geeti and a teacher two weeks later, the young girl begged to be removed from the home, Laramee said.