Arab Immigrants : A Clash of Cultures--Girl Is Slain

An Arab immigrant girl, she hungered for an American life. Many people around here believe that this, more than anything else, is why Hadiya Nagi is dead and her oldest brother is a fugitive, wanted in her slaying.

The attack came at midday Sept. 10, a Tuesday, in the parking lot of the Visalia Oaks minor league ballpark. More than a dozen witnesses watched from across the street at Johnny’s Git & Go Market, where Hadiya and four girlfriends from Redwood High School had gone for lunch.

A faded blue 1978 Thunderbird with two men inside rolled up to the girls. Two shots were fired through the passenger window. Hadiya dropped face down on the asphalt. The passenger got out of the car. He wore no mask or any other disguise; no words were spoken. He crouched over her prone body, took aim with both hands and dispatched two more bullets into the back of her pink sweater. One went through to pierce her heart, and the blossoming 16-year-old died on the spot.

Brother Sought

It took police two weeks to identify the oldest of Hadiya’s four brothers as the gunman and obtain a warrant for his arrest. The warrant has not been served. Mohamed Taher Ali, a 33-year-old father of two who ran the family market in nearby Woodville, is believed to have fled to his native Yemen.

That a brother could slay a sister, and in such a seemingly cold and deliberate fashion, was disturbing enough to residents of Visalia, (pop. 52,000), a pleasant San Joaquin Valley farming center that records about five homicides a year. Yet the case would become even more incomprehensible as the police theory about motive began its inevitable circuit through the town’s taverns and coffee shops and high school hangouts.

Hadiya’s slaying, authorities suspect, was rooted in her native culture. Specifically, police investigators and other officials familiar with the case believe that Hadiya was killed in a harsh attempt to rectify a perceived affront to the family reputation.

Loss of Virginity

The particulars of her offense are not clear, and authorities are prohibited from publicly discussing the suspected motive. However, documents on file with the Visalia Municipal Court refer to Hadiya’s loss of virginity--several years ago, by rape--and those who knew the girl tell of her stubborn rejection of the customary role of a daughter in a traditional Arab family.

At the time of her death, Hadiya was living with a foster family, refusing all entreaties by her parents to return home. Court officials had taken custody of her after Hadiya complained that her mother abused her. She had adopted an Anglo-sounding alias and was attending Christian churches. She claimed to have turned down arranged marriages. She wore makeup and jewelry, dated boys and, as her attorney would later describe it, enjoyed “all the things that the average American parents would deem suitable for their teen-age daughter.”

Still, whatever Hadiya had done, it would not seem to justify murder, at least in the view of the non-Arab officials handling the case. Said Police Sgt. John Gomes, the principal investigator: “I’ve been a policeman for 17 years, and this is one of the most vicious, bizarre and unique killings I have ever run across. Nothing we turned up in this whole investigation has indicated that the victim agitated or in any way caused her death.

“Nothing she did would have caused him to do what he did.”

In that last summer of her short life, Hadiya had seemed to revel in her new-found freedom, her total immersion into what she considered a typical American teen-ager’s world. She also was clearly afraid of the potential consequences. According to police reports on file with the court, Hadiya on at least three occasions warned authorities her family might kidnap her, or worse.

“She was,” one reporting officer noted, “especially fearful of her brother Mohamed.”

The first farm laborers from Yemen started showing up around here two decades ago. Before long, growers were flying Yemenis over by the planeload. In the San Joaquin Valley, the quest for field hands willing to work hard and work cheap is constant and can be global, and it has made the vast grid of croplands that cover the valley floor something of an agricultural Ellis Island.

The Yemenis came from a tiny and isolated country, strictly traditional in its Muslim customs, and poor. Yemen exports rock salt rather than oil, an unfortunate circumstance of geology that has left it largely untouched by petro-dollars and their attendant Western influences.

A clannish people, they settled together in small Tulare County farming communities like Pixley and Earlimart and Woodville. To this day they mainly keep to themselves, especially when it comes to family matters.

Hadiya was 4 years old when her family brought her from Yemen. Her father, said to be a man of influence in the Yemeni community here, told neighbors he had worked in the fields before. Like many Yemeni immigrants, he saved enough to go into the grocery business.

Taher Nagi had apparently done well. Hadiya told acquaintances her family owned three “mansions” in Yemen, where they occasionally returned for a year at a time. The Nagis also acquired a residence in New York City and at least two markets in Tulare County.

From the outside, the Nagis appeared to be a close, loving family. Hadiya was the only girl, the middle of five children. After Mohamed was identified as a suspect, a disbelieving neighbor remembered how he had often bragged of his sister.

A Taste for Things American

“They seemed to love that girl so much,” said the neighbor, who spoke on the condition she not be identified by name. “I just can’t believe Mohamed did it, and the reason I can’t believe he did it is that they were so close. He was in love with that girl. It was always ‘Hadiya this’ and ‘Hadiya that.’ ”

Hadiya was raised according to old-country values, but as she grew up in the United States she developed a taste for things American. She told an acquaintance that her parents initially were pleased with her assimilation, and only “freaked out” when she became interested in boys.

Pulled From School

The first indication of trouble came three years ago. Hadiya was pulled out of eighth grade. Her father was upset because girls and boys at the school were allowed to mix. In the Middle East, many schools, even universities, are still segregated along sexual lines.

A longtime attorney for the family, James Heusdens of Porterville, said in an interview that Nagi had intended to return his family to Yemen, but his wife became ill. So they remained in the valley and Hadiya was kept out of school for two years. She would tell friends that during this period her mother, named Asya, locked her in a room each night and slept at her side.

Hadiya later alleged that her mother also would brandish a knife and strike her with the broad side of the blade. In May, she said her mother was infuriated to find a Michael Jackson poster in her room. Hadiya fled to a local police station. Officers there were struck with how upset the mother seemed, tugging at her own hair and flaying herself.

Hadiya was placed in the Susan Mainard Receiving Home, a county shelter. Officials are not permitted to discuss the court proceedings that followed, but there are references to the case in police documents subsequently filed in court.

In one report, Sgt. Gomes said he had been told by Hadiya’s foster mother and a social worker that the girl was taken from her parents “because information had been substantiated indicating she was abused by her mother. . . .”

The report, filed in support of a search warrant request, stated that Social Services employees said Hadiya had indicated that the abuse began after she “had been raped several years ago, which caused her to become ‘disgraced’ in the eyes of her family because she was no longer a virgin. Non-virginity at the time of marriage is apparently an unforgiving offense in the Arab culture.”

Contact With Boys

It also stated that “the victim had apparently been having routine normal contact with males” against the wishes of her parents when she lived in their home, “which apparently prompted the physical abuse by the mother.”

The court file contains no other information about the alleged rape. Police said there was no indication that her family had ever reported a rape to authorities.

Sources present at the custody hearing confirmed that a crucial moment came when the mother, visibly distraught and apparently disoriented by what must to her have seemed a bizarre examination of her familial role, was asked if she could forgive her daughter for being raped.

Her response was to the effect that “we don’t forgive her, but we will accept her back.”

The exchange was relayed through an interpreter, and family supporters now wonder if the mother, an illiterate, really understood what she was asked. Nonetheless, the judge became visibly angered, sources said, and ordered Hadiya placed under foster care.

Hadiya had a busy summer. She enrolled in summer school as Susan Mainard, taking the name from the county home. She was an eager student, complaining when frequent court sessions took her away from class. She spoke of wanting to be a nurse.

A foster parent described her in an interview as well-behaved. She spent a lot of weeknights in her bedroom, writing letters and talking on the telephone. She rarely watched television, but confessed to a crush on actor Erik Estrada. She had an enormous collection of tapes of modern music, with Michael Jackson her favorite. She would go out on weekends, but never alone. She was moved more than once to different foster homes, and Hadiya told her attorney she preferred to be placed with Christian families. She began attending a Christian church. Acquaintances said this was a “big issue” with Hadiya’s parents.

In June, Hadiya celebrated her 16th birthday. In a snapshot taken at her birthday party, Hadiya’s hair appears long and combed straight, her eyes dark and pretty. Hadiya’s new friends at Redwood High, who understood she had transferred from New York City, thought her beautiful, with an exotic look. She liked to dress in black.

She had an off-and-on boyfriend, but also dated others. Hadiya had told foster parents her family had arranged three marriages for her, two with men in this country and one in Yemen. She turned them all down.

“She was very independent,” said her last foster mother. “I think this was a new-found commodity with her, and she wasn’t about to share her freedom with anybody. She said she wanted to pick her own husband.”

Hadiya returned home for three days in June. There are conflicting versions as to why. One side says she was lured out on a ruse by a cousin; family supporters contend Hadiya had grown lonely and asked to come home.

The social workers requested attorney Heusdens to check on the girl. He said he telephoned and Hadiya indicated she was fine and ready to live with her family again. She would later tell others it was “the acting job of my life.”

Conversation With Niece

During her stay, according to sources, a potentially significant conversation took place between Hadiya and her 11-year-old niece, her oldest brother’s daughter. The girl, who was said to greatly admire her teen-age aunt, asked Hadiya to take her away so that she, too, could live an “American” life.

The three-day visit ended after a court hearing in which Hadiya told the judge she wished to stay in a foster home.

On July 16, Hadiya appeared at the Visalia police station. She told officers that she had been outside the high school campus and spotted her brother in a car. She hailed a passing vehicle, hopped inside and told the driver to head for police headquarters.

At the station, Hadiya was asked why she was so upset.

“Hadiya stated,” the reporting officer noted, “that she believed that they were going to kidnap her and force her back to Arabia because they did that to a cousin of hers.”

She told others that her main fear was being returned to Yemen, passed off as a virgin and married. If her husband discovered she was not a virgin, she said, it could mean death.

Outside experts on Arab culture say her fear was not unfounded. “In traditional societies,” Judith Kipper, a Middle East specialist for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said in an interview, “protecting the virginity of the female child until marriage is a source of family pride.”

Speaking generally, Kipper said a girl who moved away as Hadiya did could be perceived as “shaming not just herself but the family.”

Other experts said that the duty of enforcing family discipline and maintaining family honor traditionally falls on the oldest son.

Fear for Safety

Hadiya expressed concern more than once. For example, a police report after her death recorded a social worker’s recollection of a “recent incident in which the victim personally expressed concern for her own safety because her brother . . . would kill her if she persisted in not returning home.”

And court documents indicate she had told Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Champion, who represented her in the custody case, that “ ‘They’ (meaning her family) would kill her.” Champion told police officers that Hadiya was “visibly shaken” at the time.

Given these fears, there were inconsistencies in the way Hadiya acted toward her family. Perhaps it was the product of simple loneliness. Nonetheless, Heusdens said telephone records show that throughout the summer the girl often called home--collect--for long talks.

The case had shaken the parents greatly; they did not seem to understand why they were not believed, or why they could not raise their child according to what they considered appropriate standards. At one point, a judge lectured them sternly about the need for immigrants to learn to live with American laws.

But Heusdens and others describe a traditional Arab family grown confused and alarmed as a court system deprived them of their daughter.

“They felt like they never had their day in court,” he said.

A longtime family acquaintance, Heusdens said it was inconceivable the parents would have a role in their daughter’s death. He said that if Mohamed was the killer--and the attorney and others in the Yemen community are not convinced the brother did it--he must have acted for his own reasons, motivated perhaps along more pragmatic lines.

Her Only Daughter

“The mother loved and cherished Hadiya,” Heusdens said. “There was no question she was hard on her, but she wasn’t the kind of person to hurt her. Right now, I don’t know if the mother is going to survive the death. It was her only daughter.

“The father,” he said, “is totally wrecked. He is destroyed by the whole thing.”

All summer long, he and others said, the family would send Hadiya presents. They gave her money, took her a large wardrobe of clothes and asked frequently if she needed anything else, anything at all.

There were regular meetings between Hadiya and her relatives, called by the social workers in an attempt to resolve differences so that the family could be put back together. The meetings were amicable enough.

The last session, between Hadiya and Mohamed, occurred just days before her death. At its conclusion, the brother again asked Hadiya if he could bring her anything. She said she could use a typewriter, and he promised he would get her one. He never did.

The family crisis had begun to intensify.

Yet another court hearing had been scheduled for Aug. 29.

The parents did not attend. Champion reported that they had gone back to Yemen. He told a police investigator that the parents had indicated they “would not be kidnaped by the system, like the system kidnaped their daughter.” They apparently took Mohamed’s children with them.

The father later told Heusdens that he had gone to Yemen to petition the government to “get my daughter back, to save her life.”

Mohamed was present at the Aug. 29 meeting and, according to court documents, he pleaded with Heusdens to find a way to bring Hadiya home.

“This is a terrible embarrassment to the family that this child is not living at home,” he is quoted as saying. “She must go back to the family. Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“Your sister has chosen a new life,” the attorney is quoted as telling Mohamed, “and there is nothing I can do at this point.”

Hadiya’s body lay for two hours on the asphalt--her blood running down to a gutter, leaving a stain that would be visible three weeks later--while the detectives and coroner did their work. A large crowd converged and police erected barricades a block away to hold them back.

Witnesses had varying descriptions of the killer. Some said he appeared to be a Latino. Others thought he was black. One witness described him as “a half-breed.” The car had peeled away, allowing them only a glimpse.

Nonetheless, investigators focused quickly on Hadiya’s brother. First, she clearly had been the intended target, suggesting the victim had known her killer. Also, Mohamed did not return messages when attempts were made to notify him about the death. And foster parents, social workers and attorneys came forward to pass along Hadiya’s dark premonitions.

A passport picture was obtained and witnesses allegedly identified Mohamed in a photographic lineup. The Thunderbird was found at a paint shop in nearby Traver. The three Yemenis who had taken it there a few days after the killing were questioned. The owner of the car told police that Mohamed had purchased it for him and kept a set of keys, driving it often. They claimed no knowledge of the killing.

An informant surfaced and said there had been “street rumors” that Mohamed had been willing to pay $4,000 to have Hadiya kidnaped and returned home.

Arson at Market

A few days after the killing, there was a $10,000 arson at the Nagis’ Woodville market, the one run by Mohamed. State investigators have not determined if it was connected to the slaying.

Heusdens developed a tantalizing lead.

He learned from other Yemenis that, shortly before the slaying, Mohamed had intercepted a letter written by Hadiya. It was, Heusdens said, addressed to Mohamed’s 11-year-old daughter, the one who adored Hadiya so much. The attorney said he was told the letter told the girl how to “run away from home.”

Gomes has been been unable to confirm his suspicion that Mohamed fled to Yemen and rejoined his family. The murder weapon has not been found, nor has the driver been identified. He does not hold out great hope that Mohamed will ever stand trial.

“I’m not optimistic,” Gomes said. “A lot of it has to do with how this crime would be viewed in their country, because it involves the honor of the family.”

Students are hanging out at Johnny’s Git & Go again. At first, a few said the other day, their parents ordered them to stick close to campus. Fears eased, however, when word spread that the killing was not a random attack, but rather involved what one called “some crazy cultural thing.”

Social workers and others involved in the custody case have done some soul-searching. They don’t believe, in retrospect, that the slaying could have been anticipated and prevented; abused children frequently claim their parents are out to kill them.

Hadiya’s father returned to claim her body.

Not Seen as Suspects

Police asked him a few polite questions about the death. He said he could think of no reason why she would be killed, and Gomes said the parents are not viewed as suspects. A neighbor who saw the father said he seemed overcome with grief, and he kept repeating, “I don’t understand. I don’t understand.”

Hadiya was buried in the Vandalia Cemetery in Porterville. It was a traditional Islamic service. Three dozen men attended, and one woman, an Anglo neighbor. Many of the men wore Arab garb. The television cameras captured one mourner as he squatted and fingered his worry beads.

Cemetery workers were not allowed to help fill in the grave. Three of the mourners started the job with shovels. Then a few more men got down on hands and knees and began to shovel with their hands. Soon, all joined in. They pushed silently away at the large mound of dirt with hasty strokes, and the work was done in minutes.

Three weeks later, the grave had not been not marked with a headstone. It had sunk a bit, and the rectangular patch of grass that covered the spot where Hadiya was buried had turned yellow.