Sabina Nessa
Sabina Nessa
The family of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa have said they are “shocked” by her brutal murder and are still struggling to understand how she did not make it home safely.
Ms Nessa, 28, was taking a five-minute walk to meet a friend at The Depot bar in Pegler Square near her home in Kidbrooke, south-east London, on September 17 at around 8.30pm when she was attacked.
A member of the public found her body close to the OneSpace community centre in Cator Park on Saturday at around 5.30pm.
In a statement released to the PA news agency ahead of a rally at the East London Mosque, her sister Jebina Yasmin Islam said: “We as a family are shocked of the murder of our sister, daughter and aunty to my girls.
Community leaders and Asian women, some of whom said they were too wary to attend a vigil for Ms Nessa on Friday night in south-east London but still wanted to show their solidarity in a location they feel safe, are among those who are gathering at the mosque.
Friday’s events in memory of Ms Nessa come a week after she died and as the public spotlight is thrown on women’s safety and gender-based violence.
Sufia Alam, of the East London Mosque and the Maryam Centre, said: “This brutal murder of one of our shining stars is genuinely saddening and deeply shocking. I have three daughters, and I can’t even begin to express what I am feeling right now. Sarah Everard was one of our daughters, and so was Sabina Nessa – their lives were tragically cut short – at the hands of violence and brutality.
“We have much work to do against the violence faced by women in our society. We will not stop campaigning until our mothers, sisters and daughters are safe anywhere and everywhere.”
She said this state of affairs is not just about women and girls being vulnerable, “this is about men and boys and educating them early on about respecting and honouring women and girls, and treating them with the dignity they deserve”.
Ms Alam, who is set to be at the east London rally where many women are due to attend, added: “When a Muslim woman is murdered, this dampens the aspirations of other Muslim women and girls in education and employment – and this will be particularly hard for us to deal with and manage.”
Sabina Nessa
