Slain Iraqi woman wanted a normal American life

By AMANDA LEE MYERS

The Associated Press

PEORIA, Ariz. — Noor Faleh Almaleki just wanted to be a normal American woman.

The striking 20-year-old from Iraq, who’d lived in Phoenix since she was a young girl, wanted her hair and makeup to be perfect and her clothes to be fashionable. She wanted a job, a degree and a husband of her choosing.

On her Facebook page, Noor posted photos of herself and wrote, "I am spectacular," punctuated with a smiley face emoticon.

But Noor’s father had a much different ideal for his daughter: a life in strict line with traditional Iraqi culture.

He made her quit her restaurant job and arranged for her to marry a man in Iraq she didn’t know, according to friends and family.

Finally, police say, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, ended what he perceived to be his daughter’s rebellious life. Using his Jeep as a weapon, he allegedly ran her down in a parking lot Oct. 20 in what prosecutors are calling an "honor killing" to cleanse what he considered were stains on the family’s honor.

Noor underwent spinal surgery and was in a coma until her death Monday. Noor’s boyfriend’s mother, also struck by the Jeep, is expected to survive.

Marcella Andregg, a friend for seven years, described Noor as independent but far from rebellious and always respectful of her parents. She said that Noor just wanted to live her own life but that her father wouldn’t let her.

"His whole persona was very controlling, very strong-minded in the ways he wanted it for her," Andregg said. "He talked down to her very much, made sure she knew she wasn’t good enough and brought a lot of dishonor to the family."

Meanwhile, she said, Noor "just wanted to be a normal teenager" and then finish college, marry the man she loved and have children.

Almaleki, who fled after the attack, was stopped at an airport in London and sent back to the U.S. on Oct. 29. He was on suicide watch in a Phoenix jail and has declined requests for comment. It’s unclear whether he has a lawyer.

Noor and her family moved to the U.S. in the mid-1990s and lived in the west Phoenix suburb of Glendale.

In 2008, friends say, Almaleki took Noor to Iraq under the guise of visiting family. Actually, he had picked out a husband for her and told her she couldn’t return to Arizona unless she married him. Noor married the man and returned, and friends say he was trying to move here, too.

But Noor fell in love with another man, friends say, and was living in his home with his mother when she was killed.

About 50 friends and relatives attended a candlelight vigil Thursday night for Noor in the parking lot where she was run down. Her mother and several others wept as they stood in a circle holding candles, hugging one another and remembering the young woman.

"This was the last place that Noor was herself," said Andregg, who helped organize the vigil. "It’s a hard place to be, especially for her mom, I know. I just think it was appropriate to be here instead of at a park or a cemetery."

Noor rarely if ever spoke about her family troubles, Andregg and several other friends say.

"She always had a smile on her face," said Niki Nia, 18, of Scottsdale. "When people weren’t getting along, she would always try to bring peace between them, and I think a lot of that had to do with what was happening at home. She wanted her social life to be peaceful."

Nia said Noor might be in a better place now. "She never would have been able to escape," she said.

Noor now has a second Facebook page, started by the people who are mourning her death. More than 1,600 had joined as of Friday.

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