The War on Women

One of the biggest stories in the news lately has been the trial and conviction of the Shafia family for "Honour killings." Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their son Hamed Mohammad Shafia killed Mohammed's other wife, (Mohammed was a polygamist) Rona and three daughters, Zainab, Sahar and Geeti, just 19, 17 and 13 years old, ostensibly because they "shamed" the family. They are pictured below.

This case has rightly enraged people worldwide and drawn attention to the plight of women living in repressive cultures all over the world. In places like Afghanistan, former home of the Shafias, fundamentalist Muslims have used the Koran as an excuse to treat women as property. Because of this view, women who disobey are viewed to be disrespectful and, therefore, bring shame to the family. In the minds of Mohammed Shafia, the only way to restore the honour to the family name is to kill the offending women.

Thankfully, the Canadian court made a clear and emphatic statement that this hate, masquerading in religious garb, will not be tolerated here. All three accused were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty five years. The very clear and direct message from the judge and jury was that the lives of women are valued in Canada. This judgement should make us all proud.

That being said, I can't help but find the irony here. Just two weeks ago I wrote an article about the emerging trend for women to come to Canada in order to find out the sex of their baby so that they can abort their female children. The National Post did a feature on this on January 16th. Just last week I linked to the just produced film called "It's A Girl!" detailing the gendercide that's taking place around the world as baby girls, born and unborn, are killed automatically -simply for being girls.

Doesn't anyone else find it at least a little bit hypocritical that we, as a society, are turning a blind eye to the killing of baby girls in the womb on our own soil while vilifying the Shafias? They're obviously guilty of a heinous crime - it seems that popular opinion is unanimous on that. But I'm also outraged that the Government of China, with its one child policy, is complicit in the deaths of millions of live born baby girls. I'm outraged that, in India, it's a cultural norm to murder a baby girl so the parents won't have to come up with money for a dowry later. I'm also outraged that we're doing the same thing in Canada - just a few weeks earlier, because the child will make our lives more difficult.

Here's my question, where are the feminist groups? Why are their voices silent on this? These are baby girls who need protection, but it seems that women's rights groups are so afraid of losing ground on the abortion issue that they remain silent in the face of injustice. I know this is not a popular issue, but it is not going away. The fact that Canada has no abortion law will continue to be a stain on our country's reputation. I hear no cogent defense of this pro-abortion position, only the shrill cry to stop talking about it, and the claim that no-one wants to re-open the debate. Cowardice on our part can only lead to disaster for those who can't defend themselves.

The Shafias deserve the punishment they will receive; their crime was horrific. These four women reached out for help to school officials, police and even a women's shelter. For some reason (some claim because they were Muslim) these cries for help went unheeded. The inaction eventually led to their deaths. The voices of millions of girls worldwide are crying out for justice. Get past your bias and speak up.

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