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Episode details

World Service,30 Jan 2012,25 mins

WHYS 30: Canada's 'honour crime'

World Have Your Say

Available for over a year

After a horrific 'honour crime' in Canada, what causes people to kill their own children in such a way? Is it religion, culture, or the law? And how can such attitudes be countered? Three members of an Afghan immigrant family in Canada have been convicted of murdering four female relatives because, prosecutors argued, the father was angered that his two eldest daughters wanted boyfriends, in defiance of his values. "Your completely twisted concept of honour ... has absolutely no place in any civilized society," the judge told Mohammad Shafia, who will serve 25 years in prison along with his brother and the girls' mother. But what causes people to view their own children in such a way? Is it religion, culture, or the law? And how can such attitudes be countered?

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