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The United Nations estimates that about 5,000 young Muslim women every year are killed by male relatives who believe the woman has shamed the family. More and more of these so-called “honour killings” are occurring in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada.
While fathers are commonly responsible for honor killings, they often act in concert with their daughters' brothers, uncles, and even female relatives. For infringements upon a Muslim daughter's "honor" constitute the greatest humiliation possible to the religious and tribal tradition from which many such immigrant families emerged. Acts that demand "punishment" include refusing to wear a hijab (or headscarf), having non-Muslim boyfriends or male friends of any origin, being sexually active, rejecting arranged marriages, aggressively seeking employment and education, and, more than anything else, attempting to assimilate into Western culture.
Two recent cases have shocked North America. On New Years’ Day, teenage sisters Sarah and Amina Said were shot dead in Lewiston, Texas. Their father, Egyptian-born Abdel Said, who had abused them for years, complained that they were being corrupted by Western culture. He has been not been seen since the shooting; police continue their search for him.
A few weeks before, Mississauga teenager Aqsa Pervez was strangled by her father after she refused to wear the hijab. Like the Said sisters, she had been brutalised by her father.
Unfortunately, CAIR-CAN, like its American counterpart, is part of the problem, not the solution. Working to further acceptance of Sharia (or Islamic) law in the United States and Canada and trying to silence — either through accusations of "Islamophobia," libel lawsuits or boycotts — voices of criticism and reform, CAIR's agenda would seem to be working against the advancement of Muslim women's rights.
Also, feminist lobby groups, which are supposed to be about protecting women’s rights, generally ignore the plight of oppressed Muslim women in our midst.
h/t: Religion News Blog
Previous related posts:
There was a third dishonor killing case between those of Aqsa Parvez and the Said sisters. This one occurred in suburban Chicago. A father killed his daughter, her husband, her child, and the couple’s fetus by setting fire to their apartment building. He was unhappy because he believed his daughter had married beneath her caste.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
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