Every night, little Yasin Wafa scurries over to his grandparents’ front door, hoping his mom will be picking him up as she used to.
For the past week, she hasn’t come. Nasira Fazli, 31, was brutally stabbed dead last Friday in her Ajax home.
Her husband, Feraidon Mohammad Imbrahem, 31, is charged with second-degree murder. He was arrested without incident Friday at their home and was remanded into custody Saturday. He will return to court Aug. 6.
Yasin, 17 months old, had just started calling Nasira Fazli “ma-ma” days before she was murdered, his grandmother says, adding he now cries for “ma-ma” when being put to bed.
“Everybody is crying, crying,” says Shahla Fazli, surrounded by pictures of her dead daughter at her Pickering home. Yasin is nearby, in his aunt Sharipa Fazli’s arms, snuggling his face into her shoulder.
Shahla Fazli spreads some pictures out on the floor. In some, Nasira Fazli is smiling next to her husband, but his eyes in the images have been scratched and poked out by her brothers.
The Fazli family says they had some concerns about Nasira Fazli’s safety, but troubling issues were always dealt with internally, without involving police and potentially destroying the relationship.
Nasira Fazli was the rock of her family. She bought a house for her parents and siblings, with whom she lived. A Canadian citizen who emigrated from Afghanistan 24 years ago, she wed Imbrahem nearly three years ago in her home country.
It was an arranged match, but she knew him well, as did her mother. She returned to Canada pregnant, gave birth to Yasin, their only child, and sponsored Imbrahem to join her about four months ago.
Nasira Fazli worked in customer service at American Express and dreamed of starting a happy family, but cracks emerged in the marriage when she and Imbrahem got their own place, the Fazli family says.
“He was so demanding,” says Sharipa Fazli, lowering her voice to a whisper as she expresses the fears her family had. “He was stubborn. It was his way or the highway.”
About a month ago, Sharipa Fazli alleges, Imbrahem threatened her sister after an argument over caring for Yasin.
“He wasn’t adjusting well to life here,” she says. “Back home, he was a doctor, and here he was nothing.”
Sharipa Fazli says her mother met with Nasira Fazli and Imbrahem after the alleged threat and they chose not to contact police. Imbrahem had apologized, showing his arm tattoo of Nasira’s name and promising he’d never hurt her.
Nasira Fazli did not want to risk ruining her husband’s chances of permanent residency, the Fazli family says. He was given another chance.
Sharipa Fazli, shaking her head, says her sister suffered so many stab wounds that from her waist up, “there was no body.”
Det.-Sgt. J.J. Allan, of the Durham Region police homicide unit, says Nasira Fazli suffered “several” stab wounds and police are “investigating the relationship between the victim and the accused, and other allegations.”
The Fazli family says there were also concerns for little Yasin; Nasira Fazli had begun going out of her way to not leave her son alone with Imbrahem. But again, the family only dealt with it internally.
“She didn’t want to ruin his reputation,” says Sharipa Fazli, letting Yasin climb out of her arms and onto the floor. “He was well respected back home.”
Yasin wanders around and settles by a set of stairs, putting his hand against a wall and turning his toward it.
“He has no parents,” says Sharipa Fazli, looking at him lovingly. “He’s been having a hard time adjusting.”
