Honored Martyr's Story
Shukri was a responsible, kind and helpful pre-teen. She was an older sister to four siblings and her mother’s closest confidant. Her family were refugees from Somalia and lived for 10 years in a camp in Kenya, where Shukri was born. They were finally given asylum in England, settling in a suburb of Manchester. Shukri was a good student, always went to madrasa after school, friendly to everyone, a bit shy, and never came home late. On Thursday June 27, she was bullied into going to a river where a girl from her school wanted to “teach her to swim” in the rapid River Irwell. Shukri was pushed into the deep end of the river and, as she struggled to hold on to the legs of the girl pushing her, she was bitten and pulled by her hijab until she drowned. A small group of students were there watching and no one helped. Her mother had previously contacted administrators many times complaining of kids bullying Shukri but was dismissed. When police and the school did an inquest, they found the death of Shukri Abdi to be an accident, sparking international protests and outrage.