There has been an interesting update to our previous story on Yasmin Seweid, the 18-year-old college student who lied about being attacked by Donald Trump supporters on a New York subway train.
Seweid was arrested and charged on Wednesday for filing a false police report and obstructing governmental administration, both of which could carry a sentence of up to a year in jail. Initially, it was reported that she fabricated the story due to “family problems.” The girl even went missing for a day, which ended up raising suspicions among investigators who couldn’t find a single piece of evidence to corroborate her story.
But the picture is becoming a lot clearer, now, due to further explanations of what those “family problems” were. From The New York Daily News:
Police sources say Seweid made up the story because she didn’t want to get in trouble for breaking her curfew after being out late drinking with friends.
Her strict, Muslim parents allegedly forced Seweid to shave her head over the incident and were upset that she was dating a Christian, sources said.
According to Yahoo! Finance, Seweid’s father, and Egyptian immigrant Sayeed, said, “You try to raise your children as best you can. Maybe she was afraid that night. She was running late."
It appears she was afraid that night; afraid what her parents might do. And it’s quite telling that her best idea to avoid those consequences was to fabricate a religiously motivated attack, lie to police, and potentially face two years in jail. What was the alternative?
This habit of lying runs in the family, as the Daily News pointed out. In 2012, Seweid’s brother, Abdoul, was charged with filing a false police report when he was 17. He told police that a friend was “assaulted by three unknown males.” But he wound up with charges for grand larceny and conspiracy for allegedly breaking into cars and stealing the contents, the report states.
An attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hopes these developments don’t detract from legitimate cases of Islamophobia.
“We’re very disturbed by these distressing developments, but we hope that they do not detract from the numerous reports coming from the Muslim community,” Albert Cahn said. “Clearly this has been a trying time for her and her family. We hope that they receive all possible support in this moving forward. We still believe that anti-Muslim attacks are underreported.”
We wonder how many “honor” punishments go unreported. Does CAIR care about those?
Photo credits: Facebook, NYDN Sam Costanza
