On Sunday, three Afghans were found guilty of the "honor killing" murders of four women in Canada. Husband and wife Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed Shafia, were each convicted of four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the family's three teenaged daughters and another woman, a verdict that carries an automatic life sentence.
"This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances," prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis told reporters outside the courthouse.
“Shafia, Tooba and Hamed had decided that there was a diseased limb on their family tree,” prosecutor Laurie Lacelle said. “Their decision was to trim the diseased limb and prune the tree back to the good wood.”
The bodies of the three daughters -- Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13 -- and Mohammad's first wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, who lived with the Shafia family were found inside a car submerged in a canal in June 2009. It was later determined that the four women were killed earlier, and then placed in the car, which was then pushed into the water, by the family. It is still unknown where exactly the murders happened.
And the worst part? Warning signs about the possibility of an honor killing occuring were ignored, most likely on behalf of political correctness.
Over a three-month trial, the court heard repeated evidence that the three teenaged sisters had clashed with their conservative father on many issues.
One had a boyfriend, and had briefly sought shelter in a woman's refuge, while another was sent home from school for wearing clothes that were too revealing.
The three sisters were found drowned in a canal lock, along with the fourth family member.
Think it can't happen in America? It already has.
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