Family convicted in Canada ‘honor murders’
Kingston, Ontario (CNN) — A Canadian jury Sunday convicted three members of a family of Afghan immigrants of the “honor” murders of four female relatives whose bodies were found in an Ontario canal.
I found this CNN piece ‘trying’ to - weave up something. Not so typical coverage. So.
But it’s an painful case. Thus it’s behind read more.
In the three-month-long trial, Shafia testified, “My children did a lot of cruelty toward me,” as he wept openly on the stand. He went on to say he believed his children “betrayed” him by dating and he did not hide his anger, saying a father would never expect that kind of behavior from this daughters.
In taking the stand, Shafia swore to tell the truth on the Quran and he again invoked the holy book to say Islam does not condone killing people to preserve a family’s honor.
In a direct response to a question from prosecutor Laurie Lacelle, Shafia said, “To kill someone, you can’t regain your respect and honor. Respected lady, you should know that. In our religion, a person who kills his wife or daughter, there is nothing more dishonorable. How is it possible that someone would do that to their children, respected lady?”
“You might do it,” Lacelle calmly replied, “if you thought they were whores.” Shafia had used that term in a conversation captured by wiretaps.
Investigators played hours of the wiretap recordings in court, alleging many conversations involving the three suspects prove they were plotting murder. In some of the most shocking conversations, Shafia launched into a rant about his daughters’ behavior.
“I say to myself, ‘You did well. Would they come back to life a hundred times, you should so the same again,’” he says. And in another played in court and translated from the Afghan language Dari, he says, “May the devil defecate on their graves! This is what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?”
Shafia and his lawyers tried to explain that his shocking words are traditional expressions in Dari that should not be translated literally. But the jury also heard from an expert witness on honor murders — a term CNN is using in the interest of clarity rather than the more common “honor killings” because the latter phrase does not properly describe the alleged crime.
That witness, University of Toronto professor Shahrzad Mojab, said that in some families, honor is worth more than life.
In an interview with CNN, Mojab said that many times, honor crimes are calculated acts that involve more than one family member.
“There is a very important difference between honor killing and violence against women in the form of domestic violence. It is plotted, it is premeditated.” Mojab said.
“What we need to understand is that the male power and the male desire for the control of the woman’s body and the woman’s sexuality — the honor resides in that sort of understanding and the ownership of women’s body and sexuality,” he said. “So when that is being presented in a way that is not acceptable to the social norm, then the only way the honor can be restored is by purifying that. And the purification is through blood.”
(Source: CNN)
January 30, 2012, 12:28am ➼ 1 note
