Justice Done

The trial of Hasibullah Sadiqi, an Afghan-Canadian, is now concluded. He has been found guilty by a jury, after two days of deliberation, of first-degree murder. It would have been extremely difficult, one would hazard, for the jury to find otherwise. The young man, now convicted of planning and executing the murder of his younger sister and her fiance, another Afghan-Canadian, was obviously guilty as charged. The prosecution had no problems in presenting evidence to support the charge.

The defence, on the other hand, while not attempting to deny the undeniable, held fast to claiming that the murders were unplanned, and that the man was provoked into that final act of taking two innocent lives, in what was clearly an 'honour killing' to cleanse the family honour of the blot brought upon it by a daughter's unruly, indecent behaviour in choosing her own life-trajectory.

In the end, her choice, selecting for herself the man with whom she wished to share her life, and shutting her abusive father out of her life, claimed her life.

Khatera Sadiqi had no respect for her father, loathed him, wanted him to have no further part in her life. She fell in love with a young man with the same heritage and tradition as that which she came from. Her error was in not seeking her father's permission to choose. Her error lay in deciding for herself, as a mature woman, how she would comport herself, moving into the family home of the man she loved, before marriage. An unauthorized decision.

Khatera's mother made her own decision when her children were young, to remove herself from the direct influence of an abusive husband. She moved to Vancouver, eventually having her two daughters with her, escaping their abusive father. Her son elected to stay behind in Ottawa, to live with his father; this was his choice, as an obedient son. As an obedient son, incensed at the disrespectful behaviour of his sister toward their father, he telephoned his father directly after he had murdered his sister and her fiance.

In explanation of the fixed tradition of 'honour killing' it was explained by University of Toronto professor Shahrzad Mojab that losing honour could occur through a woman's behaviour and appearance betraying traditional notions of modesty, through refusal of arranged marriage, or through insisting on selecting a partner without the family's permission. The woman's 'misbehaviour' merited a cleansing of dishonour to restore a family's respect.

Although claiming love for the miscreant female, a father, a brother, an uncle lays claim to having meted out socially-mandated tribal justice through "the act of purifying through blood". In yet another instance of 'honour killing' brought to another country where all people are equally protected under the law, and women are entitled to justice and the assurance of equality entitlements, justice has been served.