Thursday, November 24, 2011

Ignoring the Warning Signs

The trial of Mohammad Shafia has been big news in Kingston, Ontario for the last several weeks. Mr. Shafia is accused, along with his current wife and his son, of the “honor killing” of his three daughters and their mother, his ex-wife.

The video below is from a SUN TV news story about the case. In it you will hear a description of the testimony given by two school principals who failed to heed the warning signs displayed at school by two of the murdered girls, who were obviously in great distress not long before they were killed.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, nobody at the school felt any responsibility for their inaction...this is one of the most powerful reasons for people to stick their heads in the sand. If they can claim "they didn't know", then they don't have to feel responsible for having done nothing.

And doing something can be costly. Even if all you must do is speak out, it can cost you opportunities for advancement, your current job, 'friends', the freedom to live where you want, and even life itself. And you even wonder if anyone will know that you died for something. Had I died when they sought to silence me through "accidental" use of lethal force, would anybody have heard about it?

Only those who believe in a higher good than their own lives can ever have the will to act when it matters. It is so much easier to just avert one's eyes and claim not to 'know' what is going on. So much easier....

Until one day it is happening to you, and you realize all the days you lived in denial of the truth were worthless compared to the chance to say something, anything at all, when it might possibly have made a difference.

Chiu Chun-Ling.

Anonymous said...

We here in Lewisville, TX have had an honor killing. Amina and Sarah Said were killed by their father, with the complicity of their mother and brother. They were becoming too westernized in their dress and had boyfriends in high school. Their father borrowed a cab from a buddy and drove the girls to Irving, shot them and fled the scene. One of the girls called the police on her mobile phone as she was dying. The police probably do not recognize this as an honor killing. Said is still at large probably being protected by his fellow Muslims who see this as not wrongdoing but a regular part of their life.
KJHull

Anonymous said...

I believe that Shafia, his second wife (the mother of the girls),and their son are all on trial for killing the three girls and a woman who was the first wife in this polygamous marriage. Apparently the first wife could not have children and so Shafia took a second wife. The first wife was usually identified as an "aunt" and according to reports was often taunted by the second wife. I don't think the first wife was ever divorced, but lived with the family in what must have been a hellish household.

This is the way I understand the situation - which, if I've got it right, makes the killing of the girls even more heinous since their own mother took part.
...Jen

Anonymous said...

That was the creative one where they ran the car with all the "dishonored" family members off a bridge, right?

I had been under the impression that the older daughters were the first wife's, and that it was because she didn't have a son rather than because she was completely infertile. But that might have just been an assumption on my part.

Chiu Chun-Ling.

Anonymous said...

Jen here - I've read through a few older news reports and they seem to confirm that Rona Mohammad Amir, the woman who was found dead along with the three girls, was the "the barren first wife."

Her story seems to have been lost so far in this tragic tale - perhaps later in the trial more details will emerge.