AFTER watching his adored niece Fawziyah Javed tie the knot with her ‘arrogant’ fiancé, Shahid Farouk sent her a loving text advising her to “work on your marriage” and embrace “compromise.”
But the well-intended sentiment would come back to haunt the doting uncle when the bride was murdered by controlling husband Kashif Anwar, 29.
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Pregnant Fawziyah, 31, was pushed 50ft to her death from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh by Kashif Anwar, 29, on September 2, 2021.
Now grieving Shahid, 53, from Leeds, says he is tortured by the thought of his niece silently enduring a horrific campaign of abuse before her husband murdered her.
He tells The Sun: “If my niece had told me what was going on, she would have been alive today.
“I would have brought Fawziyah home. Over my dead body would I have let her go back.”
The dad-of-three features in a Channel 4 documentary series, The Push: Murder on the Cliff, which explores the shocking case.
Cameras follow the murder trial and reveal how the lawyer helped convict her husband from beyond the grave by collecting evidence of her abuse.
As she lay dying, she told a passerby: “Don’t let my husband near me, he pushed me.”
An only child, Fawziyah and her mum Yasmin were extremely close and were more like best friends.
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Her mum says in the film: “At the age of eight she wanted to become a lawyer. She stood for fairness and justice even at that age, you could just tell.”
Shahid was a doting uncle to Fawziyah throughout her life, often picking her up from school, attending her graduation from the University of Sheffield and even buying her first car.
The former cab driver says Fawziyah was the only one in the family to be educated privately.
He says: “My sister always used to work hard. She wanted Fawziyah to achieve something in life.
“She used to work for BT as an operator. She was only on £5 an hour and she used to get private tuition, which was £20 an hour. Being an only child, her mum did a lot.
“I helped bring Fawziyah up from early days in primary school. Some days Yasmin couldn’t make it and would ask me to go pick her up. I remember taking her to school and bringing her back and when she went to university as well. I took her to Freshers Week.
I never liked him. I said to my niece and Yasmin, ‘he’s arrogant, he’s cocky, he’s a very confident guy’.
Shahid on killer Anwar
“When she got her law degree, I went to her graduation.
“She was very close to me. She wanted a car and I bought her one. It was a VW Polo first. She had that for so many years and then she wanted a BMW. She loved it.”
He adds: “It was a pleasure to have Fawziyah in the family. She was much loved by all.
“She really was a top girl. Generous, kind, she did a lot for charity.”
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‘Cocky and arrogant’
Fawziyah met optical assistant Anwar in Vision Express in Leeds after she went to help her mum buy a new pair of glasses before bumping into each other again in the street.
But Shahid says he took an instant dislike to his niece’s new boyfriend when she introduced him to the family.
He says: “I never liked him. I said to my niece and Yasmin, ‘he’s arrogant, he’s cocky, he’s a very confident guy’.
“There was just something about him that was bugging me but what it was I don’t know.
Hidden Homicides
The campaign group Killed Women claim women being pushed to their deaths by partners is the UK’s ‘hidden homicide’ epidemic.
Criminologist Jane Monkton Smith estimates there are around 130 victims, mostly female, killed every year in England and Wales, whose deaths are not investigated as murder.
The charity, who are backed by Fawziyah’s family, submitted freedom of information requests to all 44 UK police forces asking for details of women falling from a height between 1973 and 2023.
Only two were able to provide data with Police Scotland revealing there had been 10 homicides involving women falling from height while Humberside Police said that between 2017 and 2023 there were seven incidents.
Yasmin Javed says her daughter’s killer was only convicted because she lived long enough to tell a passer by he had pushed her, and had previously reported him to the police.
She told The Guardian: “ The prosecutor actually said that, had Fawziyah not left that testimony that he pushed Fawziyah, they still would have looked into it but it would have been harder to get that conviction.
“I must admit, that did worry me. I started to think about how many more women must have been murdered this way and not been able to give that testimony?”
She added that Anwar had no idea of the catalogue of evidence his wife had collected. “He thought he was going to be home and dry,” she said.
“But it was Fawziyah’s choice and I had to accept that. I’m sure there are many parents, their son or daughter comes home with someone they want to marry and their parents don’t approve but they live happily ever after. It’s the choice they’ve made.”
Talking about their relationship in the two-part series, he compares his niece to a Bentley, and Anwar to a Nissan Micra.
He says now: “If you look at Fawziyah, she was highly educated, he was not. She had a good job and money, he didn’t.
“He was not in her league. She knew all this. She was my niece and I wanted the very best for her.
“It was a mismatch. Fawziyah was always going to be feeding him.”
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‘Controlling’ husband
After the couple tied the knot in an Islamic ceremony in December 2020, Fawziyah went to live with her husband and his family, as per tradition.
Shortly after, she texted her uncle to thank him for the money he had given the newlyweds at the wedding.
Shahid says: “I replied the next day and the message I wrote to her was ‘Remember life never goes according to plan, it’s like a roller coaster. Don’t be coming home and moaning about nothing to your mum and dad, instead work on your marriage and give and take and compromise. But I want you to remember one thing, until my last day of breath your Maamu, (meaning uncle) is and will be always here for you.’”
Reflecting on his advice to the new bride, he says: “That was said for minor things, this wasn’t minor.
“But I blame myself, maybe because I’ve told her that it stopped her coming from me.”
Fawziyah secretly collected evidence of her husband’s controlling and coercive behaviour. She recorded phone calls of him threatening her.
In one, he rages at her: “’Who the f*** do you think you are? You’re a disease in everyone’s life.”
In another call later that evening, he tells her: “You’re being a b***h. Why the f*** are you not listening to me? You’re not a man, so start behaving like a woman.
I blame myself, maybe because I’ve told her that it stopped her coming from me
Shahid Farouk
“Why the f*** did you decide to ruin my f***ing life? I tell you one thing – you end this and I’ll ruin yours. You know what, Fawziyah? I mean it.”
She went to the police on two occasions so his abusive behaviour was on record, although she had told police she didn’t want them to intervene.
In footage captured on a police body camera, she details how he put a pillow over her face and punched her.
He also withdrew £12,000 from her bank account while she was asleep, forced her off Facebook and made her dress in a more traditional way, with him telling her to “stop behaving like a British woman”.
Tragic last trip
Yasmin says in the film she encouraged her daughter to leave Anwar but she said Fawziyah was biding her time and said she knew what she was doing.
She had contacted divorce lawyers to get the process started.
The couple had travelled to Edinburgh for a weekend away in September 2021. Afterwards, Fawziyah, who was 17 weeks pregnant, planned to bring her baby up alone.
But tragically she never returned. The couple could be seen on CCTV heading towards the landmark Arthur’s Seat. He claimed she slipped and fell after the pair took a selfie.
He flagged down passers-by who called 999. After her haunting words to one, she gave a statement to police moments before she died, telling an officer: “He pushed me.”
In footage from the officer giving evidence, PC Rhiannon Clutton tells the court: “I asked who had pushed her and she said ‘My husband, because I tried to end it. She asked me why he treated her like that. She asked me if she was going to die and if her baby was going to die.”
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Recalling when he found out his niece was dead, Shahid says: “I woke up to loud screams in the early morning. It was my mother crying. She told me she was dead.
“I said, ‘I bet it’s him. I bet he has killed her.’ Then it all came out about what had been going on.”
He says: “No woman should be experiencing any form of domestic abuse, of violence. All Fawziyah had to do was pick up the phone or text me and say, ‘Maamu, I need to see you’ or something. Because she knew I wasn’t happy with the marriage, perhaps she thought ‘how can I approach my uncle now? It’s my fault.’
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of because you don’t know that person until you live with them.”
He adds: “She took that calculated risk and unfortunately she paid the ultimate price.”
On what would have been her birthday, September 4, 2021, the family went to identify her body.
After a six-day trial at the high court in Edinburgh, Anwar was found guilty of murder of Fawziyah and her unborn child. He was jailed for at least 20 years.
How you can get help
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
Almost three years on, the family are still struggling to come to terms with their loss. Yasmin is too upset to be interviewed. She says in the documentary: “Fawziyah was an angel on earth. Perfect in every way.
“She did volunteer work for orphans, she mentored vulnerable children, she gave so much to society. She had so many plans for the future. We have been robbed.”
And in a statement she read out ahead of the film airing, she said: “Kashif Anwar is a vile, evil psychopath.”
She also said many people had asked her why her daughter hadn’t come home sooner and why she went to Edinburgh. But she said: “Victim blaming needs to stop.
“Fawziyah and her baby were innocent victims.”
Shahid says: “They say time is a great healer but it’s not.
“He has been given a prison sentence but we have been given a life sentence.”
The Push: Murder on a Cliff concludes on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm and is also available on demand.