(Image Source: Montreal Gazette ) 

 

BY KYLIE MCGIVERN 

 

Three people were found guilty in Canada on Sunday of first-degree murder - killing four women -- women who were members of their own family. And it was all in the name of “honour.” CTV has more ...

“Prosecutors have long argued that the young Shafia sisters had shamed the conservative Afghan family - and especially its patriarch - by wearing revealing clothing, refusing to don hijabs and having boyfriends … Teachers, child protection workers and police officers testified about reports from the girls that they were afraid of their father and brother and wanted to run away from home.”

The bodies of Mohammad Shafia’s three teenage daughters and his 53-year-old first wife were found in a submerged car near Kingston back in 2009. Shafia, his other wife and their 21-year-old son were convicted in the killings. The family had moved from Afghanistan to Canada in 2007. The Globe and Mail explains these types of cases.

“There have been other murder charges involving so-called 'honour killings' … but not on this scale, and not involving parents who were willing to wipe out half their family for the sake of their honour, and then lie about it.‬”

As part of the case, police planted bugs in the Shafia family’s car and home phone.

Referencing photos of his two daughters , the Toronto Star reports Shafia said...

“Whenever I see those pictures, I am consoled. I say to myself, ‘you did well. Would they come back to life a hundred times, for you do to the same again.’... “They betrayed kindness, they betrayed Islam, they betrayed our religion and creed, they betrayed everything...They brought about their rightful deaths.’’

In trial, the judge asked the father, mother, and 21-year-old son if they had anything to say. Here’s CBC with details on the responses.

“Mohammad Shafia said, “I did not commit any murder.’ His wife Tooba Yahya, same thing, saying, ‘We are not murderers,’ and their son Hamed got up and in English said, ‘I did not drown my sisters.’”

But The Canadian Press reports , Judge Robert Maranger had no sympathy, and quotes him.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous … more honourless crime … The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour … that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

And in an interview with CNN , the UK Crown Prosecution Service spoke about the religious undertones of the case.

“At the end of the day, murder is murder. There is no faith on Earth, no community on Earth that justifies this. Abrahamic faiths say, ‘Thou shall not kill.’ So you don’t kill to support your faith.”

Shafia and Yahya have four other children, who have all been placed in foster care. Their convictions of first-degree murder carry automatic life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.