Husband denied bail
HOENIX father-of two Mohammed Nadeem Shaik Moideen, who is accused of murdering his wife, has been denied bail.
He appeared briefly in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Moideen, 35, a carpenter, is accused of stabbing his wife, Nadia Mia, 34, to death in their home in Lenham on July 29.
He was remanded into custody and is expected to appear in court again today.
Believing Moideen was to have appeared last Friday, the DA Women’s Network (Dawn) staged a picket outside court in solidarity with women who had suffered abuse at the hands of their partners.
Dawn’s interim president for KwaZulu-Natal, Shehana Kajee, said the femicide rate in South Africa was five times the global rate.
“Every eight hours a woman is killed in South Africa and at least half of these women die at the hands of their intimate partners. When I heard about Nadia’s murder, it really hit home because it is so close to the community. With permission from her family, we have decided to highlight (the issue) by protesting during the accused’s court appearances.”
Kajee urged victims of abuse to speak out.
“Only by speaking out and having a dialogue about these incidents will we be able to make a difference in our communities. Dawn in KZN is currently embarking on an anti-women-abuse pledge campaign that seeks to appeal to members of society to make a personal commitment to fight the abuse of women by signing our pledge.”
Joining the protest, mother-of-two Kesari Naidoo said women needed to realise that it was never too late to walk out of relationships.
“We can take the necessary action to help ourselves.”
Protester Bongiwe Dladla said she got angry when she heard of women abuse.
“We are scared to talk when things happen. We need to be more vocal and take a stand. I am standing here in the hope that the same thing that happened to Nadia does not happen to another woman.”
Said local councillor Samier Singh: “We cannot allow this type off behaviour to continue. We are standing outside court to protest to ensure that crimes of this nature are taken seriously.
“We also want to show that the community condemns this type of behaviour.”