Last summer (2011) we had a series of reports, courtesy of Agent 3, on the topic of so-called "honour killings" in the Sikh and Muslim immigrant communities in central Canada. The worst of these were the Shafia family murders. As reported here in "What's wrong with Afghans?", an Afghan immigrant and his second wife and one of his sons were convicted of killing his first wife and three of his daughters (with wife no. 2) to preserve the family honour which had been sullied by the girls' behaving like typical Western teens.
I thought back then that I wouldn't likely be devoting any more space to the subject, which seemed to have become commonplace, therefore uninteresting. There would be more honour killings, more hand-wringing about women's rights, respecting diversity, and the difficulty of expecting immigrants to abide by the values of the country they choose to live in. And that's just what happened. (Lifetime pct .991)
However, this week there are not one but two (2) criminal cases on the go -- one murder, one attempted murder. Muslim immigrants seem unable or unwilling to learn that their barbaric customs and beliefs won't be tolerated on this side of the world, so perhaps a little more publicity is warranted. Call these cautionary tales.
From Montréal we hear the testimony of Ebrahim Ebrahimi, speaking up for his wife, Johra Kaleki, who is charged with the attempted murder of their 19-year-old daughter, Bahar. "She’s a very lovely woman,” he said of his wife. “She’s a good wife. She’s a good mother. She loves her children."
Montreal police have described the attack as an honour crime, based in large part on a four-hour statement Ms Kaleki gave the night she was arrested. Shen her statement, Ms. Kaleki described the strict rules she and her husband, immigrants from Afghanistan, enforced in their household. Ms. Ebrahimi and her sisters were forbidden from drinking, smoking, staying out late and having boyfriends, she said.
Bahar had been rebelling against her parents and their Muslim faith, and on the weekend she was attacked, she stayed out past dawn two nights in a row. "I felt like she would never be fixed," her mother said. So badly did Ms Kaleki want to give her daughter "the peace that she needed" that she stabbed her repeatedly, yet somehow failed to send her to heaven.
Bahar's father told Mr. Justice Yves Paradis that he and his wife were "relaxed parents... [Our four daughters] make some mistakes. They are kids. There was no punishment. There was no violence. We never raised a hand against them."
Bahar herself gave testimony at the preliminary enquiry in January, supporting the defence's contention that Ms Kaleki became temporarily deranged during confrontation, and somehow got hold of a meat cleaver which had somehow been left in the basement... under a mattress. The accused has testified that she blacked out and has no memory of the attack or of speaking to police for four hours afterwards.
The trial resumes in January, at which time Mr Ebrahimi will have a further chance to get his story straight.
Meanwhile... a Toronto jury heard yesterday how a Muslim wife and mother of six wound up at the pointy end of the knife. The Crown Attorney said Randjida Khairi "paid the ultimate price" for standing up to her Afghan Muslim husband and letting their children live as Westerners. Her husband, Peer Khairi, slashed her throat right to the spine, the Crown alleges, causing the poor woman to suffocate in her own blood.
"She was in the process of separating her finances and moving out of the family home," the prosecutor said. "There had been fights between the couple about how permissive she was in raising their children, how she allowed them to dress and socialize as they liked, rather than asserting more control over their behaviour so that they kept the culture and rules of their [Afghan] birthplace."
Since Khairi has admitted he did the deed, the jury may well ask, what was he thinking?! That's the issue. Expect to hear the word "honour" hundreds of times before this is over. But don't expect to hear any suggestion that there must be something wrong with a "religion of peace" which encourages or at least tolerates the "honour killings" of wives and daughters. Lifetime pct (still) .991.
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