There’s a lot of debate (from the left) over whether or not what took place in a Kingston canal was an honor killing or domestic violence.
Domestic violence, the way I understand it, is one family member torturing (as in my case), assaulting or killing another member or members. The usual scenario is the father killing the mother and/or the children, or the mother killing the children (way too common).
An honor killing, on the other hand, is a family conspiracy to take the life of one or more members because of a besmirching of the family name through behavior or beliefs antithetical to what the rest of the family believes. A father and brother plot to kill a daughter, with the blessing or assistance of the mother, for example.
Which is exactly – exactly – what happened here in Canada, and has the whole world talking.
Those who dispute the semantics of the term “honor killing” are being deliberately obtuse about the culture (notice I didn’t say religion) that promotes it.
The Shafia case was about Muslims from Afghanistan, a very tribal, anti-woman region of the world. We also see such behaviors in places like India/Pakistan. Usually Muslims, but not always.
And also in Afghanistan, this lovely case of a father murdering his wife because she gave birth to not one but three worthless daughters.
Not a lot of feminism in Afghanistan!
We need to accept, as an immigrant-welcoming western nation, that some cultures/traditions are incompatible with what we hold most dear. In Canada, we don’t kill our wives and daughters for how they dress. We don’t kill our wives because they’re barren or because they care for their step children (let’s totally pretend this was a normal step-parent relationship, and not an illegal polygamist marriage). We have things in place to handle these issues – foster care, divorce, family counselling. We’re civilized. We teach our children morals as best we can to prevent bad behavior – we don’t remove their clitorises.
We love our children, even if they are girls.
(Post Script reading: Phyllis Chesler at Fox on a Turning Point for Justice)
What the Shafia daughters, and first wife endured prior to their deaths was domestic violence, as Mohammad Shafia tried to control their lives with threats, both physical and mental. The honour killings occured because he realized he could not control them, so eliminating them was the only way to regain control and his personnal honour as head of the family. Rot in jail forever you POS; your son; and the mother of those children.
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