Family to hold funeral for murder victim Aiia Maasarwe

Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral in Israel of Aiia Maasarwe, the 21-year-old student killed as she walked home after a night out in Melbourne.

Thousands of people including school students and youth organisations are expected to attend the funeral in Israel on Wednesday for Aiia Maasarwe, the 21-year-old student killed in Melbourne last week.

Aiia’s family is planning a large funeral for her, including a slow procession through the streets of her home town of Baqa al-Gharibyye, an Arabic town in northern Israel, to give residents the chance to mourn.

A Palestinian family with Israeli citizenship, the Maasarwes will bury their beloved daughter and sister in a Muslim funeral, and will carry her coffin through the streets to the cemetery in a procession likely to take up to an hour

University student Aiia Maasarwe was killed in Melbourne last week.

Her father Saeed, mother Khitam, and sisters Noor, Roba and Lena will all attend.

Roba, who was on the phone to Aiia from Israel when she was allegedly attacked last week, has told how she heard her sister scream, but thought she had simply dropped her phone on the street.

She also hit out at on-going violence against women, saying young men were not entitled to women’s bodies. A man has been charged with Aiia’s rape and murder.

“We didn’t get to talk much,’’ Roba told Israeli TV Channel 13 of her last call with her sister.

“I picked up and she only got to tell me that she didn’t expect me to answer, then I just heard her scream and curse someone.

“And then I heard some noises like banging, I’m not sure.’’

MORE: Aiia’s family releases heartbreaking picture

Aiia Maasarwe's father, Saeed Maasarwe, departs Tullamarine Airport to bring his beloved daughter’s body home.

She then called her sister Noor, in China, and asked if she knew where Aiia was. Noor did not know, and it was hours later that she saw news reports of a woman’s body found in Bundoora.

Roba said she did not initially think anything serious had happened to her sister.

“I assumed she dropped her phone like in a hole or something. Like in the street and she couldn’t reach it. I just thought she dropped her phone,’’ she said.

She presumed her sister had called as she walked home because she felt unsafe.

“She took all the precautions she would have taken,’’ she said.

“Maybe instead of teaching females to talk on the phone and not to wear certain clothes…or teach them to carry pepper spray around with them, maybe we should teach young men more often to be more respectful towards women and just understand they’re not in entitled in any way shape or form to women’s bodies.’’

Aiia Maasarwe had just got off a tram when she was allegedly attacked.

One of her Aiia’s and Roba’s uncles, Abed Ali Kattani, said Mr Maarsawe was accompanying his daughter’s body home from Australia, and they were expected to arrive into Israel early on Wednesday morning.

He said the family had been inundated with messages of support, and organisations including the local council would now be involved.

“It won’t be a normal funeral, it will be unusual,’’ he told News Corp.

“Because of the rate of messages and requests from people to participate, the municipality got involved.

“We will have police, ambulances — there is so much planning. We have to be well prepared.’’

Aiia Maasarwe's body was brought to the Albanian Islamic centre in Dandenong. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Kattani said the family would walk from their house to the cemetery with Aiia’s casket.

“It’s a walk that I estimate will take about 50-60 minutes,’’ he said.

“On the side of the road will stand school students, they all want to participate, the scouts, local youth organisations. It’s not an easy ceremony.

“We will arrange water stations with tens of thousands water bottles. We are very organised. We are making special T-shirts, black flags, the students are preparing things.

“It will be a ceremony like Aiia deserves.’’