WEEKLY GROSS-OUT: "Honour" killings

A husband and wife originally from Afghanistan have been found guilty in Canada of murdering their three teenage daughters and the father's first wife in a case that the judge described as stemming from a twisted concept of honour. Afghan immigrants Mohammad Shafia and wife Tooba Yahya were convicted along with their eldest son, Hamed, and were sentenced to 25 years in jail without parole for the drownings. The court also heard testimony suggesting that the father had repeatedly clashed with his daughters on many issues, including dating, clothes, and use of the Internet. The daughters ranged in age from 13 to 19, and their bodies were found along with that of Shafia's childless first wife in the family car in a canal after a trip to Niagara Falls. The prosecution alleged that the victims were drowned elsewhere before their bodies were placed in the car and it was pushed into the canal. The concept of an honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. However, in carrying out an honour killing, the perpetrators are actually killing their own honour. There is no honour in an honour killing, and nothing in the Koran permits or sanctions this rubbish. The first and most basic right that every Muslim is expected to follow is, in fact, the right to life. As written in the Koran (5:32), That if anyone slays a human being – unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth – it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind. In other news, officials in Kyrgyzstan say almost all prisoners have ended a hunger strike against jail conditions that saw 1,200 inmates across the former Soviet republic's penitentiary service sew their lips together in protest.