The emotional wounds from a sexual assault at the hands of a Lower Mainland imam four years ago continue to affect the daily life of his victim, who says if immigration officials and the B.C. Muslim Association had intervened sooner, the attack may never have happened.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a B.C. Supreme Court order, says she has received no community support for her turmoil and is being shamed as a victim.
“When people see me, they think I am not good woman,” she said. “I got with priest and put him in the jail.”
Pakistani national Abdur Rehman Khan, 46, is serving a three-year sentence on one count of sexual assault and will remain a registered sex offender for 20 years.
In 2017 he was charged with assaulting the woman, whom he came to know through his work in the Muslim community in Surrey, B.C.
His story shows the lengths he went to in misleading immigration officials to stay in Canada and the lack of intervention provided by the B.C. Muslim Association, which described his criminal case as a “personal matter.”
The assault happened in July 2016, three months after he had been ordered to leave the country.
‘Nobody support me’
His victim is outraged that Khan continued as an imam at Masjid-Ur-Rahmah after he was charged and granted bail, as well as after he was convicted and awaiting sentence.
She also doesn’t understand how he was able to avoid discovery by immigration officials for years.
She, in the meantime, has had to give up her job and many activities to avoid being ostracized by some people in the Lower Mainland’s Muslim community.
“Nobody support me,” said the woman who has no family in the country.
Surrey imam who misrepresented himself to immigration officials jailed for sexual assault | CBC News
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