Women are being urged to show solidarity for Bradford mother of three Zoora Shah - serving life for murder - at a public meeting tonight.

The meeting, organised by campaigners, takes place at the Old Buildings Hall, Bradford and Ilkley Community College, Great Horton Road, from 6.30pm and is open to women only.

The aim is to let people know about the campaign and explore the issue of domestic violence, which women's groups say is still seen as taboo among Bradford's Asian community.

Mrs Shah, currently in Holloway Jail, is serving a life sentence after being convicted of murdering Mohammed Azam, after spiking his food with arsenic. She now says she was driven to kill him after he subjected her to years of cruel sexual and mental abuse.

Her revelations about the background to the killing - which did not come out at her trial - have won her leave to appeal in a four day hearing starting in London on March 31.

A major campaign has begun among women's groups to support her and lobby for her release from prison.

Shamshad Hussain of the Keighley Domestic Violence Forum, said she hoped women from Bradford's Asian community would be represented at tonight's meeting.

"There has been a lot of misconstrued stories going around in Bradford about Zoora's life and past, and we hope women will come along and hear her real story," Miss Hussain said. "Her daughter Naseem will be speaking from the heart.

"This is the first time in Bradford such an event has been held, raising issues like the abuse of women. We hope local Asian women will be interested enough to come along, even if it's because they want to hear a juicy story. The issues we will be raising have never been raised before in this way in Bradford.

"We are not condemning tradition, we are condemning the way men control and oppress women."

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