THE GLOBE AND MAIL: British Crown lawyers are trained in bringing perpetrators of “honour crimes” to justice. Immigrant boys in Sweden perform in plays against domestic violence. Muslim interest groups who challenge such violence have formed in the United States.
This is all taking place because young, immigrant women were so gruesomely sent to their graves by male relatives that people in these countries banded together to say “never again.”
And now, observers are asking which long-term lessons Canada will learn from the Shafia trial. How will police, teachers, social workers, and immigrants join forces to prevent any more women from meeting horrific fates?
“The lesson for me in this very sad story is, if we want to keep the legacy of Sahar, Zainab, Rona, and Geeti alive, we have to look at the issue as a national issue – a national project,” said Shahrzad Mojab, a University of Toronto expert who served as a prosecution witness.
Sunday’s first-degree murder convictions in the quadruple-homicide case have been eye-opening for Canadians – not least because the three perpetrators and four victims all came from the same nuclear family. The trial not only aired the facts of the crime, but also glaring deficits in Canada’s ability to safeguard vulnerable women and children.
Missed signals and squandered opportunities are, tragically, recurring themes in “honour” killings. When family patriarch Mohammad Shafia began threatening the lives of his daughters and first wife, the victims did not know where to turn. Some eventually sought help, only to encounter skeptical officials who failed to grasp the gravity of their peril. » | Colin Freeze | Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012; updated: Wednesday, February 01, 2012
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: No culture experts required for ‘honour’ crimes: Male authoritarianism and control are deeply embedded in many cultures. A close study of Canada’s South Asian communities will reveal that male authoritarian inclinations are hidden deep beneath the displays of higher education and affluence. The greatest facilitators of this control are women themselves, who are coerced into silent acceptance. The convictions in the Shafia trial present an opportunity to lead the examination to the correct place. ¶ As Sunday’s conviction spread around the country, it released a gamut of emotional responses. Vilification, affirmation of human rights, grief for three beautiful teenagers and a spurned first wife. Justice had to be meted out and so it was. Meanwhile, the ready acceptance that this murder came from the mind of an Afghan patriarch gave air to a fabricated concept that the act was linked to a light-filled term called “honour.” » | Nazneen Sheikh * | Wednesday, February 01, 2012
* Nazneen Sheikh’s latest book is Moon Over Marrakech, a memoir.
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