Murder #2 ,Fiza Asif, Walthamstow
Murder #2, Fiza Asif, Walthamstow
Fiza Asif, 27, was found dead after a fire at her home in Walthamstow. Police, firefighters and paramedics were called to the house and Mrs Asif was pronounced dead at the scene. The death was at first treated as unexplained but detectives arrested Asif’s brother in law on suspicion of murder.
I exited Walhamstow station and headed to Palmerston Road in search of a house that had been set on fire to hide the murder of a woman named Fiza Asif. It had been the second murder of 2011 but it had taken several weeks for detectives to classify it as such, believing at first that the death had been caused by an accidental fire. I doubted I would find anything to photograph. But upon reaching the site I saw the burnt out remains of the house. The house was covered in sheet metal covering the front bay windows and door. The violence of the fire still remained scattered in front of the house. It was obvious that firemen had fought their way into the house in an effort to rescue anyone who may have been inside. A few dried up scattered flowers lay by the front gate. Setting up my tripod I soon attracted a few men from the shops across the road who asked me what I was doing. On explaining my presence, they gave me their opinions on what had happened. Asif was a young Pakistani woman who had come into conflict with some the males of her family. Some of the men talking to me were not very sympathetic to Asif.
The first 2 murders of the year had been cases of domestic violence. I would come to learn that the murder of women by their partners or men in their families would be one of the common types of homicide i would explore with my project. Murder by young men in gangs, drug related homicides or random attacks get a lot of press in our crime obsessed UK tabloids. But my unscientific impressions leave me with no doubt that domestic violence continues to be a huge problem in the UK and an under reported problem.
Asif’s brother in law and husband were arrested for her murder but only her brother in law was convicted.
links to press on Asif’s Murder below
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/8845985.WALTHAMSTOW__Arrest_over_fire_death/
The Landscape of Murder 
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