Three members of an Afghan family in Canada have been convicted of murdering four female family members in what the court said was “shameful behavior” and honor killing. A jury on Sunday found Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, from Montreal, guilty of four counts each of first-degree murder for killing Shafia's daughters and his first wife. “It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous, more honorless crime,” Judge Robert Maranger said. He added that their “completely twisted concept of honor” had “absolutely no place in any civilized society.” Geeti, 13, Sahar, 17, Zainab, 19, and Shafia's other wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, were found drowned in a car in a canal in Kingston in June 2009. Prosecutors argued that the sisters had shamed the conservative family with their revealing clothing, refusal to wear hijabs and boyfriends. Rona Amir Mohammad had tried to protect them. A conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence and at least 25 years must be served before becoming eligible for parole. The four defendants had maintained their innocence during the 10-week trial despite incriminating wiretap recordings in which Mohammad Shafia said he hoped the devil would defecate on their graves. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings “barbaric and unacceptable in Canada” in a statement issued after the court handed down its verdict. Honor killings are predominantly thought of occurring in the Middle East, especially in Jordan, where reports continue of the murder of girls who “defame” their families come forward. Across the region, in Jordan and Egypt, honor killings are seemingly on the rise. In Upper Egypt, local rights groups have pointed to a number of cases where women have been violently beaten as a result of “going outside the norm” of the family. In Jordan, continued murdering of daughters and sisters over the honor of the family has left many observers concerned that the situation is simply not improving. The debate is ongoing and with the recent cases, it appears Jordan is a long way off from establishing a unified view concerning honor killings. “The majority of people I have talked to really want to see an end to this phenomena in Jordan,” Rana Husseini, an activist and journalist for the English daily, The Jordan Times, told Bikya Masr in an interview last year. In the United States, conservative Christian leaders have argued that honor killings are “part of Islamic teaching,” as one preacher in Florida said recently. However, Husseini says that across the region this sentiment couldn't be as far from reality. She believes that honor killings are not a modern construction and has nothing to do with religion. “This is not specific to Jordan or to one religion. It happens all over the world and has nothing to do with Arab culture,” she continues, adding that some of the victims in Jordan have been Christian. The Jordanian government, for its part, has called on judges to deal with alleged “honor crimes” in the same manner as they do for normal murders. However, with a predominantly Bedouin Parliament, this is proving difficult. Parliament has been urged to establish harsher penalties for such crimes, but they have been reluctant to do so, saying that if they did so it would lead to an increase in promiscuity across the country. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/K2y6o Tags: Canada, featured, Honor Killings Section: Human Rights, Latest News, Women
