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Yasmin Javed is sharing childhood pictures of her daughter Fawziyah with the camera. The photos show Fawziyah’s journey from a beautiful baby to an active toddler to a smiling child with big, sparkling eyes. Apologizing, Yasmin collects the photos, saying she cannot continue. Fawziyah, an only child, grew up and achieved her dream of becoming a lawyer – there are also photos from her graduation. Unfortunately, she passed away at 31 years old, while 17 weeks pregnant with her first child. “The life I had is gone, it’s over,” Yasmin says, her face and body consumed by grief. More than the pictures and videos of family holidays and happy selfies with loved ones, it is Yasmin’s frozen stillness that shows the depth of her loss.

The Push tells Fawziyah’s story as it follows the trial of the man accused of pushing her to her death from the rocky summit of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh – her husband Kashif Anwar. “As the trial starts,” the film’s interviewer asks Yasmin, “what’s going through your mind?” “Hate,” says Yasmin, without heat. “Hatred for him.”

The trials took place in Scotland and we observed as Alex Prentice, the prosecuting counsel, presented evidence of the relationship between Kashif and Fawziyah. This was further supplemented for the viewers with input from her mother, uncles, and friends. Her uncle Shahid never approved of Kashif’s arrogance and did not consider him good enough for his beloved niece (“But she had chosen him and I had to accept that”). Ingrid, a fellow solicitor, became uncomfortable when she noticed Fawziyah taking and sending numerous pictures to her husband while they were out, almost like she was trying to prove her whereabouts and the company she was with. Yasmin became aware that something was amiss when Fawziyah reminded Kashif to wear his seatbelt and he became enraged.

During the court proceedings, they played recordings of phone conversations between the couple while Fawziyah was temporarily staying with her parents during Ramadan. Kashif urged her to return home, saying, “Who do you think you are?” He continued, “You are a burden to everyone. The sooner you’re gone or out of my life, the better.” Had he been willing to let her leave, the situation could have ended there – a troubled time for the woman and her family, but one they could have overcome.

At the time of the phone calls, Kashif had convinced Fawziyah to leave social media, blocked male relatives from contacting her, and transferred £12,000 from her bank account to his own. Shortly after this, Yasmin sat with her daughter while Fawziyah reported her husband to the police for hitting her in the face and threatening to harm her if she left him. The defence argues that Fawziyah only asked the police to document the incident and then returned to her husband.

Describing it as a typical instance of coercive control does not fully depict its gradual and all-consuming nature. It is the normalization of extreme atrocities and the distorting impact of increasing fear that define it and give it an almost indescribable quality. Fawziyah was hospitalized during the early stages of her pregnancy, and a witness becomes emotional on the stand as she recounts a visit from Kashif where he refers to his “bitch” wife and expresses his wish for her to die during childbirth while blaming her for bringing out this negative side of him.

Fawziyah fell from the cliff top, according to the defendant, and Kashif contacted his father instead of calling 999. He told a hiker further down the hill that his phone was not working and requested them to call for an ambulance. Fawziyah, who was only partially conscious, allegedly told the first two people who found her that her husband had pushed her. The defence lawyer argues that this is a misunderstanding and that the husband was just trying to rescue her as she slipped.

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The outcome of the trial relies on whether the actions of Kashif can serve as sufficient proof to persuade the jury, in the absence of witnesses, that Fawziyah’s statement is correct. The tension while waiting for the verdict raises the same question that runs throughout the entire film – how do families cope with such immense suffering? How do the relatives of the two women who are killed by their partners every week in the UK alone endure such pain? And what about the countless numbers of women silently suffering from domestic violence at present?

This ruling serves as some form of justice as Kashif has been declared guilty and given a minimum sentence of 20 years in jail. Despite this, Kashif’s father claims to still be without the £6,000 engagement ring he paid to retrieve from the police.

The program makes sure to feature a scene at the mosque belonging to the family, where their imam (I assume) emphasizes that domestic violence is not tolerated in Islam, and that divorce is allowed. However, any woman who watches, as well as any sensible man, is aware that the events depicted here, and those that occur all over the country, the world, and throughout history, are not connected to religion. Rather, it is a much deeper and older instinct at play.

• The show “The Push: Murder on the Cliff” is currently airing on Channel 4.

Source: theguardian.com