The aunt of murdered aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena said she is ‘always hopeful’ for change in a system ‘broken across the board’ and which does not protect women, as she joined hundreds of protestors against male violence on Saturday.
Farah Naz spoke out as she joined the protest organised to remember female victims of male violence and a call for action to tackle it.
Supporters of the Million Women Rise (MWR) collective who walked through central London‘s West End shopping district to Trafalgar Square claimed that the lack of action against male violence amounted to state inflicted or sanctioned abuse.
They drummed, chanted and carried signs saying ‘together we can end male violence’ and ‘women are not the problem’ during the protest ahead of International Women’s Day on Wednesday.
Ms Naz told the PA news agency: ‘Zara’s loss is society’s loss.’
Farah Naz, the aunt of murdered aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, joined the Million Women Rise protest march through London on Saturday
Supporters of the Million Women Rise (MWR) collective claim that the lack of action against male violence amounted to state inflicted or sanctioned abuse
Protestors carried signs saying ‘together we can end male violence’ and ‘women are not the problem’ during the protest ahead of International Women’s Day on Wednesday
Those who took part in the march listened as Farah Naz, aunt of murdered aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, told the crowd: ‘Zara has brought me, my sister and my friends here but we are here for all women, all girls, to make a change and to make some meaning out of the tragedy.’
Aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted and murdered by Jordan McSweeney, 29, in Ilford, east London, last June
She added: ‘Zara has brought me, my sister and my friends here but we are here for all women, all girls, to make a change and to make some meaning out of the tragedy that has happened to us.
‘We are in trauma but at the same time we are really heartened by the support in society of all sectors and leaders.
‘We are hopeful that things can change for other women and girls.’
Failings in the probation service were among the issues which meant a known perpetrator was free to murder Ms Aleena.
Jordan McSweeney, 29, was handed a life sentence and jailed for at least 38 years after admitting sexually assaulting and murdering the 35-year-old law graduate in Ilford, east London, in June last year.
With her voice breaking, Ms Naz said: ‘We lost Zara, but we don’t want her death to be the end.
‘Zara’s loss is society’s loss and we have, as victims, to become more than that. There has to be work with communities and leaders.
‘The protest today is shining a light on the mistakes and on a system that is broken across the board.
‘We know from Zara’s case that probation made a series of mistakes, huge errors, that are so deeply painful for us as a family, and for us as a society to be aware of, because it means that women are not safe.’
The number of women who are murdered is a sign that something is wrong, she added.
Jordan McSweeney, 29, was handed a life sentence for Zara Aleena’s murder
Ms Naz said: ‘We already know that domestic violence leads to so many deaths and, that as it is not treated as any other form of violence, we have seen a lack of convictions which then releases men to murder women.
‘We know that probation has collapsed because of the privatisation that has happened and has then led to a system that is broken and has not been attended to.
‘We know that reviews have been written from when other people have been murdered and the recommendations have not been followed up.
‘We know that government leaders have failed us.
‘We know that the systems have failed us, but there are also people working to change that.’
Danyal Hussein was jailed for a minimum of 35 years after murdering sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, in 2020.
Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, a pair of Met Police constables who took photos of the murdered sisters and shared the images on WhatsApp groups, were later jailed.
In a video message of support, Mina Smallman, the mother of the sisters, told the marchers: ‘We have so much important work to do.
‘The slogan I would like us all to adopt is that ‘it’s time’. We have had enough talk. We have had enough rhetoric. Now we are demanding that those in power put girls and women’s safety at the forefront.’
MWR also noted that serial rapist David Carrick kept his job as a Metropolitan Police officer despite multiple reports against him, allowing him to commit a string of offences over almost 20 years.
The disgraced 48-year-old PC, who was described as a ‘monster’ and ‘evil’ by some of his dozen victims, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years after carrying out a ‘catalogue of violent and brutal’ sex attacks between 2003 and 2020.
The cost-of-living crisis is also trapping women with perpetrators and decimating vital support services, MWR warned.
