Lawyer stalked after learning of husband’s secret family
A LAWYER has told how her ‘ bully boy’ husband stalked her after she found out he already had a wife and children.
Shazia Riaz, 47, was bombarded by malicious emails and texts from Zafar Rahmen who made her life ‘a living hell’ after she left him.
The taxi driver, 55, even created a Facebook blog to smear her good name and went to her law practice to insist to colleagues that they were still married.
He also confronted Miss Riaz at her home, scaring her two children. On one occasion, he demanded to know why she was wearing makeup and warned that her home was being ‘watched 12 hours a day’.
Another time, Rahmen, from Sheffield, suddenly appeared while she was in a cafe with a friend and smashed her iPhone when she refused to talk to him.
The couple met in May 2018 and he proposed soon after under Islamic law even though he already had a wife from an arranged marriage and five children living at a house 40 miles away. Joanne Moore, prosecuting, told Manchester Magistrates’ Court: ‘She found out through one of the defendant’s friends he was still married to another woman and felt betrayed.
‘They still got married but in June 2019, his first wife became aware of their marriage and Miss Riaz felt she had to get away.
‘She then started to receive unwanted calls, emails and voicemails and reported the matter to police. The concerning thing is the sheer volume of emails, the victim found it distressing there isn’t anywhere she feels safe.’
In a statement, Miss Riaz, an immigration specialist in Manchester, said: ‘I have had to move home as I no longer feel safe there. He had made my life a living hell.
‘He thought he was above the law and came back more bold each time. I was tense all the time as he focused on me, came to my home and scared my children. I felt threatened and scared by his bully boy behaviour. I have not been able to sleep properly and had to lock my drive gate.
‘He has a view that women should bow down to him and because I didn’t agree, he felt he had a duty to break me.’
Rahmen admitted stalking and criminal damage, and was banned from contacting Miss Riaz for two years under a restraining order.
In mitigation, his lawyer Naila Akhter had said: ‘ He has struggled with that relationship coming to an end.’
Rahmen was also ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work, attend a course on relationships and pay £170 court costs.
Magistrates told him a probation officer had described his behaviour as ‘ pre- emptive, planned and persistent – a pattern which led to the victim having to change her way of life’.
‘He made my life a living hell’