Erin

A father accused of the “honour killings” of four family members – including his three teenage daughters – was recorded on police wiretaps saying he was “happy” they were dead and that he would “do the same again”, a Canadian court has heard.

Mohammad Shafia, 58, his second wife Tooba Mahommad Yahya, 41, and their son Hamed, 20, are on trial for the first-degree murder of Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, Geeti Shafia, 13, and his first wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, in 2009.

Prosecutors told the Ontario court their deaths were “honour killings” committed to remove the perceived shame the women brought on their family, such as by having boyfriends.

via Honour killings: Mohammad Shafia says he would do it again: court.

Ok so normally I should write an introductory thought and lead into a quote that makes or reinforces a point I have made. Instead I am going to ask you to read that quote one more time. This time think very hard about what their father says, their Daddy. Then read the daughters names again. Think back to that age. What were you doing at those ages??? Were you running away? Were you appealing to your school or other officials to be removed from your home because you feared for your life??? Were you trying to find balance between being or dressing as the person you felt you were and trying not to enrage a hyper conservative father who you no doubt loved???

There have been 13 such killings in Canada since 2002, said Amin Muhammed, a psychiatry professor at Memorial University in Saint John’s, Newfoundland.

That is thirteen too many. Officials need to wake up and realize that we need new mechanisms in place to better react to and investigate complaints like this from females that come from traditionally hyper conservative cultural backgrounds. For my part I will be writing my MP.