If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
As Muslims with progressive values slowly but surely take ascendancy over Deobandi and Wahabi puritan fundamentalism, honor-shame sub-cultures will disappear and with it, the sanctioned abuse of women.
That a man in an eminently civilized country like Canada could invoke an ancient practice like honor killing in the 21st century is frightening. The mores that seem to be at work cut to deeply felt attitudes about families and women.
The verdict in the Shafia case exemplifies the ability of Western legal systems to provide justice to victims of honour killings. If anything positive can come from the Shafia verdict, let it be that law enforcement throughout North America takes the time to educate themselves about honour violence.
Canadians are often uncomfortable labeling premeditated murders "honour killings" under the guise of political correctness. Let us take off our multicultural goggles and see honour killings for what they are: culturally motivated, violent crimes committed against women that have no place in a civilized society.
The Shafia trial exposed a cultural pathology that needs a closer and unbiased examination. The men in Muslim families are rarely subjected to the kinds of constraints their female relatives endure. It is mostly when the conduct of the women is perceived as dishonourable that matters worsen.
What must we do -- we Muslims -- to ensure none of our daughters and sisters are murdered by their fathers, husbands, and brothers? Among many things we must embrace foremost the 1400-year-old Islamic tradition that emphasizes not the responsibility to guard our modesty, but the duty to show compassion.
Thus pronounced the jury in the 1968 film "The Producers" -- as the jury in the Shafia "honour killing" trial pretty much did this afternoon. It's justice but it doesn't feel like justice -- if only because those lives can never be brought back, the smiles of those murdered beautiful young women now forever frozen in photographs.
The most retrogressive segments of Muslim society often angrily conclude that reformist Muslims only speak from a position of ignorance when questioning orthodox religious practice. Progressive Muslims are ignorant, self-serving, heretical, and hypocritical according to these conservatives, who consistently accuse revisionists of being fifth columnists with nefarious ulterior motives.
Another group should stand accused alongside the Shafia family, during the ongoing trial of their daughter's murders: the social service and youth protection professionals who catastrophically let the Shafia girls down.
Muslims emigrating to Canada and the United States need to acknowledge that their children, especially daughters, are human beings. No one has the right to injure and kill daughters due to medieval notions of family honour or disdain for Western society. Mr. Shafia, it is not sinful to be Canadian or American.
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau chided the Conservative government for calling honour killings "barbaric." But why such reluctance to call these heinous crimes using terminology that best describes them? Is it fear of stigmatizing a particular culture or religious community? Is it simply naivete of the worst kind?
Child or adult femalicide (yes, it's a real word) of this nature is among the pre-Islamic practices that are expressly prohibited, lacking honour completely and subject to findings of guilt by God. As for judgement in a court of law, well -- the case continues...
Horrific details of an alleged mass honour killing emerged in a crowded Ontario courtroom last week: Three young sisters and their polygamous father's first wife were murdered in the name of religious purity.
We live in an idea-driven economy in which, when asked if he has anything to declare at customs, a Bill Gates (with Microsoft in his brain) can reply with a straight face "I have absolutely nothing to declare!"
Are we so complacent that we feel we do not need to demand gender equality? Many women are convinced there is equality between men and women. But this simply is not true. Here are the facts on the matter.
