Zara feared worse bullying if mother confronted, court hears

The late Zara Qairina Mahathir had once stopped her mother from confronting senior students at her school hostel, fearing that doing so would expose her to even worse bullying.

Her mother, Noraidah Lamat, 46, the 81st witness in the inquest into her daughter’s death, said she had proposed a meeting involving the hostel warden, security guard, the senior students concerned and Zara to clarify the issues her daughter had raised.

However, she said Zara disagreed with the proposal, fearing reprisals from the senior students.

“My daughter stopped me. She said something like, ‘Please don’t do it, mum. They might treat me even worse. They have a gang, a big gang, in the hostel,’” she told coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan in Kota Kinabalu today.

Noraidah was responding to questions from lawyer Joan Goh, who represents one of the teenagers accused in the bullying case involving Zara, about the steps she had taken after receiving her daughter’s complaints concerning senior students at the hostel.

Asked why she had not met the school principal or warden to address the complaints, Noraidah said she continued to trust the school administration despite her daughter’s earlier reluctance to let her intervene.

“I still trusted the school administration because it is a renowned school in Sabah... a religious school,” she said.

Goh then pointed out that Zara’s complaints about problems with senior students were not isolated incidents, a point Noraidah agreed with.

However, when asked why she had not approached the school authorities despite receiving repeated complaints, Noraidah said she had never imagined that a serious bullying incident resulting in her daughter’s death could happen at the school.

Zara died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on July 17, 2025, a day after she was found unconscious near a drain at her school dormitory in the early hours of the morning.

The inquest proceedings resume this afternoon.

- Bernama

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