Raheel Raza

The Ottawa Citizen

Two men appear in court in London charged with throwing acid in the face of the suspected lover of a British Muslim woman, blinding him; on the same date, in Canada, a brother, father and mother are accused of murdering three teenagers and their stepmother in Kingston; in Texas two teenage sisters are shot and killed, and their father is wanted, accused of murdering them because he was upset by their "western ways"; In New York the founder of Bridges TV, Muzzammil Hassan, is arrested for allegedly having beheaded his wife, Aasiya Z. Hassan, who had recently filed for divorce.

Domestic violence? Drug- related murders? Not by a long shot. These cases have two things in common. They were allegedly perpetrated by Muslims against Muslims, and the motive in each case seems to be "honour."

Following the recent case in Kingston, where three sisters and their stepmother were killed, there is the usual denial by individuals and organizations about use of the term "honour killings."

Usual because these are the same voices that spoke out when Aqsa Parvez was brutally murdered in Mississauga. Her father allegedly strangled her for not conforming to his set of rules and regulations.

Muslim groups called this "a teenage problem" and "domestic violence." In their rush to deny that this was an honour killing, I believe they dishonour the memory of Aqsa Parvez and miss the opportunity to speak out against the rise of violence against other Muslim women which is immoral, unethical and unjust.

These murders are also totally un-Islamic, as the Koran says taking one life is like killing all of humanity.

Yet it is misguided to ignore the rise in such cases out of the fear that doing otherwise would tranish the community image. So people sweep this problem under the carpet and if there is insistence from outside the Muslim community, they raise the red flag of Islamophobia. This has stifled all debate and discussion about honour killings.

That honour killings are on the rise in the West is well documented in a report in The Middle Eastern Quarterly, Spring 2009 issue, titled "Are honour killings simply domestic violence?"

The author of the report, Phyllis Chesler has studied more than 50 instances of honour killings in North America and suggests that honour killings are distinct from wife battering, child abuse and other forms of domestic violence. Her research has shown that honour killings in North America stem from the same background and for similar reasons as they do in other parts of the world.

Honour killings are mostly perpetuated by males of a family against young women for not conforming to their rules and regulations.

For example, when girls who resist arranged marriages are considered "too westernized," show independence of thought and action and mingle with the opposite sex, they are ostracized and become targets of a so-called honour cleansing.

In some instances these men from strong patriarchal backgrounds believe they are the guardians of the women's virtue and it's their obligation to control their sisters, wives, daughter and sometimes their mothers and force them to "obey the rules."

When the women disagree or resist, they may be given a warning, followed by a physical attack of some sort (such as acid thrown on their faces) and then they are killed -- sometimes in collusion with female family members because morality is considered a collective right, not an individual choice.

In some parts of the world, the perpetrators of these murders are seen as heroes and honour killing is not stigmatized. This raises serious questions about the value of a woman's life.

In Canada, where immigrants are welcomed from many parts of the world, they sometimes bring with them their fundamentalist ideologies in the form of excess baggage -- cultural and tribal practices that are alien to Canadian democracy.

This is a serious problem and there are ways in which it can be handled. There should be a two-pronged approach. One, by the ethnic and religious communities involved. They must educate their youth and community leaders about the true meaning of respect for women, giving them the equal rights accorded to them under the Canadian Charter.

Secondly, it's imperative that Canadian immigration authorities and policy makers be aware of problems that may strike at the heart of Canadian values of gender equality and freedom of expression.

Potential immigrants must be informed of practices that are outside the realm of human rights and the law, and murderers and their accomplices must be given heavy punishments, to set an example that Canada will not tolerate violations of human rights in any way or form.

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Raheel Raza is the author of Their Jihad ... Not My Jihad.

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