A Dubai drowning could have been prevented over the weekend but a father instead let his daughter die rather than sacrifice her "honor" by allowing her to be touched by a "strange" rescuer.
The unidentified woman, 20, was swimming at a beach in Dubai when she started to drown, according to Lt. Col Ahmed Burqibah, deputy director of
Dubai Police's Search and Rescue Department, Emirates 24/7 reported Sunday.
"This is one of the incidents which I cannot forget," Burqibah told the website. "It shocked me and many others who were involved in the case . . . Two rescue men were at the beach, and they rushed to help the girl. However, there was one obstacle which prevented them from reaching the girl and helping her."
"This obstacle was the belief of this Asian man who considered that if these men touched his daughter, then this would dishonor her. It cost him the life of his daughter," Burqibah continued.
He told the website that the father even tried to physically restrain the men from reaching his daughter, denying them a chance to save her.
"The father was a tall and strong man," Burqibah told Emirates 24/7. "He started pulling and preventing the rescue men and got violent with them. He told them that he prefers his daughter being dead than being touched by a strange man."
"She died unfortunately, at a time when she had a chance to live, especially that the rescue men were so close to her to pull her out of the water," he added.
The father was later arrested by Dubai police for interferin the rescue attempt, Burqibah told the website.
There have been similar incidents.
The Daily Mail reported that Mohammad Shafia, 58, was charged with murdering his three daughters in 2009 what the publication described as an "honor killing."
In that incident, Shafia allegedly called his daughters — Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13 — "treacherous" and accused them of bringing shame to the family because they were dating boys, reported the Daily Mail.
The Globe and Mail reported that Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed, were found guilty in 2012 and are serving life sentences for killing the girls.
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