With all the commotion about Sandy and the presidential election, it's not easy to remember that there are other events unfolding. Like the trials of third world immigrants accused of murdering their wives or sisters or daughters or all of the above to "preserve their honour".
One such is Peer Khairi, an Afghan Muslim who immigrated to Canada by way of India, and allegedly cut off his wife's head -- or nearly so, as he couldn't sever the spinal column -- a few years back. He's on trial, at last, in Toronto this week, and yesterday took the stand in his own defence.
Why would a man attempt to decapitate his wife? (The decapitation didn't quite work, by the way, but he did succeed in killing her.) Khairi's first problem with Randjida was that she called him names -- "honourless" and a "cuckold" -- and he couldn't tolerate such insults any longer.
But on the occasion in question, Khairi told the court, it was worse than that. On that fateful day, she lunged at him with a knife -- for no reason, of course -- leaving him no choice but to slit her throat, stab her repeatedly, and let her bleed to death on their Toronto apartment floor while he called 911.
"I totally lost my control. I was not able to control myself," Khairi said, through a Dari interpreter (in spite of having been in Canada for close to a decade). He testified that "I was thinking about killing myself, not killing her." Why he didn't then start hacking away at himself went unexplained.
The trial continues today. Agent 3 is following the story and will let us know if Khairi comes up with a further or better excuse. Stay tuned.
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