PD: 'Honor beating' now connected to entire family, parents and sibling arrested

PHOENIX - An Iraqi mother accused of beating her 19-year-old daughter for talking to a boy is back behind bars, along with her husband and another daughter.

Phoenix police told ABC15 that the victim claims her parents and her younger sister beat her, and then tied her to a bed in their home.

The mother, Yursa Farhan, who sat down with ABC15 on Saturday, admitted to hitting her daughter, Aiya, who lied to her and used foul language, but denies ever beating her as police allege.

"She was talking to a boy and our culture says no boyfriends," Farhan said. "We have to respect our culture."

Farhan was released from jail last week, but was re-arrested on Wednesday.

Investigators said Fahan also burned Aiya with a hot spoon as punishment back in November because the teenager refused to marry a 38-year-old man.

Farhan’s husband, Mohammed Altameemi, and their 18-year-old daughter, Tabarak Altameemi, were arrested in connection with the most recent incident.

Aiya defended her mother on Saturday to ABC15 saying that she understood why her mother hit her, and said that she agreed with her discipline.

She also said that it didn't happen the way the police said it did. She said she was only hit once and that she was never restrained.

Farhan told ABC15 that Aiya suffers seizures and she was having one the day she went to school and didn’t explain the incident to authorities correctly. 

"I don't speak good English," said Aiya. "When I'm having a seizure I don't know what I say."

Aiya and her mother said that she was hospitalized for the seizure, not for injuries due to the beating as police alleged.

"I love my mother," Aiya said. "I can't live with out my mother."

The family lives near 35th Avenue and Glendale, but investigators believe they are trying to leave the country and return to Iraq after these allegations.

All of the family’s vehicles currently have "For Sale" signs.