Honour on Trial: The Shafia Murders and the Culture of Honour Killings

by Paul Schliesmann

A black car is pulled from the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario, containing the bodies of three girls -- sisters Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti Shafia -- along with their presumed aunt, Rona Amir Mohammad. Later in the day, after family members report the women missing, Kingston police become suspicious. The stories told by parents Tooba Mohammad Yahya and Mohammad Shafia, and their eldest son, Hamed, don't match up with the rapidly gathering evidence. An extensive investigation unfolds, revealing a troubling story of physical and emotional abuse in the Shafia home -- including threats of murder. Police begin to suspect that this is a quadruple "honour killing," planned and carried out to wipe away the family's shame caused by the eldest girls. Two years later, Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and Hamed Shafia are tried for the mass murders, while a shocked nation follows the case until its gripping conclusion.

Genres: Canada, True Crime, Nonfiction, Ebooks

212 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2013

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember hearing about this case when it first happened and then the US media would mention it but not really focus on it.

Schliesmann's writing is good and gripping. You can easily see why he won awards for his reporting of the case. What stops this from being more than three stars for me is two reasons -

1. It is interesting that in a book about how men see women and honor that Schliesmann does mention, more than once, how the daughters and wife who were murdered were beautiful. He's right - they are beautiful. But then when he mentions the mother (also the wife) who helped with the murders, he points out that she wasn't that good looking (why she isn't as beautiful as her daughters and co-wife, she isn't ugly. She also gave birth to like 10 children, so maybe that has something to do with it). Why does either one matter? He doesn't talk about the men in terms of their looks. It felt a little strange.

2. At the end of the book I wanted something more. There is a nod, a single chapter, where Schliesmann ties the story into community and societal failures as well as other honor killings in North America. This chapter could have been longer, more detailed, more something. Was any change made in how things are run in Montreal so that more children couldn't fall though the cracks? How about immigration reforms?

Still, I am glad I read the book and it is well worth reading.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

When something piques my interest, I tend to immerse myself in it -- even when the subject matter is not exactly mainstream. This includes true crime cases, and I read two books about the Shafia murders in Kingston, Ontario, back to back, both written by reporters who covered the trial.

The accused were Mohammed Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed, originally from Afghanistan. The victims were the couple's three (mildly) rebellious teenaged daughters and Shafia's first (polygamous) wife, Rona Amir -- who was infertile, prompting Shafia to take a second wife, Tooba (who treated her childless sister-wife like a servant). Rona nevertheless stuck around and helped to raise the seven Shafia children, whom she loved dearly. (Needless to say, Rona's story, in particular, resonated deeply with me.) Their bodies were found in a car that was submerged in a few feet of water at the bottom of the locks on the Rideau Canal near Kingston.

Honour on Trial, by local Kingston reporter Paul Schliesmann, Honour on Trial, is a quick read -- just 207 widely spaced pages, set in large type, with each "chapter" just a few pages long. Nevertheless, it lays out the basic elements of the case well, and also focuses on the practice of honour killings and some other recent examples of honour crimes in Canada. It would be a good choice for someone looking for a quick overview of the story.

[Mike Barat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good news about this book is that the writer Paul Schliesmann does an excellent job of telling the story of how this murder of four people was solved by police and the strategies of the crown and the defense attorneys, and how the father, mother and son were trying to get away with the murder of four people, three of which are the daughters of the father and the mother, and one is the second wife of the father, and the three young women are the sisters of the son. This was an honour killing. The father and the mother to a somewhat lesser extent got it in their heads that the daughters were embarrassing the family due the fact that the young girls wanted to have boyfriends and just like any other Canadian teenage girls. The father and the mother could not deal with the fact that children in Canada cannot be raised the same way as children in Afghanistan, where the family was form originally. The bad news about this book is that writer Paul Schliesmann simply didn't say enough about what the main charters were like as people, or their relatives in Europe and the middle east. This book needed a more pages to dig deeper into the personalities of the charters in this book. Don't get me wrong this book is still very worth reading without question, however, just don't expect a classic of a true crime book similar to In Cold Blood.

[Renee Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very sad but very informative about a cultural practice we in the U.S. do not hear about often enough. It is abhorrent that some male egos are so fragile that their only way to deal with girls who do not behave in the way expected of them is to murder them to feel better about themselves.

[Melissa Boufounos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative about Honour Killings. It was a really eye-opening book. Very well written and an easy read. Finished this in a few hours.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this very quickly. Interesting as it takes place in a familiar place (Kingston), but a dark topic.

[Dionne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Everyone agrees, however, that honour killings are rooted in patriarchal and tribal family systems in which the father, husband, or eldest son exerts heavy-handed control over the women.

The rise of religious fundamentalism across the Arab world has contributed to limiting gender equality for women. Fundamentalists, who do not accept gender equality, imprison women within limited social and political roles.

She views honour crimes as a "sub-category" of domestic violence. "People in general are scared to label it but I think we're going in that direction. Our caseworkers are noticing situations related to honour. There are efforts to control the way a young woman dresses and the way she acts. The height of the cycle is murder," said Kamateros. "Forced marriages come into this as well."

A tragic story that was well told. Unfortunately, honor killings happen more often than I think most of us think.

I'm not sure how we address the crime because it seems to be a cultural problem. Hopefully, we can at least educate women that they have rights too. And educate others who can hopefully influence these societies.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the summer of 2009, a black car was pulled out of the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario, the same day as the Shafia family reported four of their female family members missing. The car contained the bodies of three beautiful teenage sisters, Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, as well as their "aunt" Rona Amir Mohammad. The evidence, and family interviews didn't add up and in 2011 Afghan-Canadian millionaire Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their oldest son Hamed Shafia were all found guilty of four counts of first degree murder of their daughters/sisters and "aunt".

I remember following the trial in the newspaper. I remember being shocked that four women could be the victims of honour killings here in Canada (the family were from Afghanistan, but lived in Montreal). We don't do that sort of thing here. Journalist Paul Schliesmann wrote about the case and trial in a local Kingston paper as it unfolded, and it's all put together in his new(ish) book.

Though it sometimes jumps around the timeline, this book does a great job of describing the family history leading up to the crime, the actual event (as much as is known), as well as the investigation and trial that followed. Even though I followed the trial in the courts and knew a bit about the case, I didn't know that the vast back story included allegations by the sisters of abuse in the home. I didn't know much about the reasons why the girls were killed since to me, their actions (including hanging out with boys) were normalish teenage girl shenanigans. I didn't know the twisted justifications given for honor killings by the men of that culture. I didn't know Rona was actually Mohammad's first wife, nor did I know her sad story. I didn't know there are three other teenaged children (who can't be named under a lifelong publication ban). And unfortunately, in a completely unsatisfying way, no one (except the accused) knows exactly why the girls didn't fight back or try to escape as the car sunk into the canal.

I found this book thoroughly interesting and finished it in one night. I couldn't stop reading it. The story is a bit like the Titanic - I knew the ending, but following the griping story from the beginning was chillingly fascinating. And sad. Very very sad. The book does provide some hope when it describes the legacy left by the crime and the new initiatives that have come out of how the case was handled. But still, what a waste. I guess it was a good book because two weeks after I finished it I'm still thinking about it.

There is not a lot of information in this book about honour killings in general, despite what the subtitle might lead you to believe. There is a short section on other such crimes in Canada - I suppose that could be read in the previously mentioned book. And it lacked photos and maps (which were more prominent in the other book on the case) but I made do with Google on occasion.

[John Highmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a professional and journalistic, yet sensitive treatment of the subject, the author paints a tragic picture of the death of four women, victims of a conspiracy contrived by their own father and abetted by their mother and brother. We are guided through the convoluted mass of evidence and conflicting alibis of the accused and a glimpse inside a family in turmoil as their culture of patriarchal control collides with the liberal values of the new world. Although the relentless and sometimes masterful work of the police inexorably leads to the ultimate trial and conviction of the three killers, Schliesmann leaves us with the questions which have disturbed his own mind during and after the three years he spent covering this story. They are the unanswerable questions of how Mohammad Shafia or any parent could have arrived at murder as a solution and how his control over his wife and son could lead to their unquestioning complicity. There are the questions of what the authorities could have done to prevent the tragedy. Then there is the question of ‘honour killings’. The author points out that honour, as a cultural imperative demanding a violent response, is the product of an older, more tribal culture. We are brought into a world where violence against women is still tolerated and where patriarchal control can approach the level of psychosis and where honour never quite enters into it.

[Jules Goud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a sad, sad case.

Schliesman does a good job of covering the investigation, the interviews and the trial for the Shafia case. You do gain some insight on what life was like for Rona, Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti, but it isn't as in depth as some people would like. The main focus of this novel was the investigation and the inconsistencies in what the parents and brother had to say about the girls going missing. It detailed the police's movements from the discovery of the car to the conviction in the murder trial. The only thing that I would have liked would have been a more in-depth look at what the girls had to go through each day. I would have liked a little bit more background information.

I feel terrible for the Shifia women as well as all of the other people in the world that are murdered based on honour. What is honour? I think that everyone has their own definition of honour. I would hope that it doesn't include murder.

This novel was one to read if you need the background facts of the case. However, it lacked the in-depth look into the victims life and the horror it was for them.

[Firefly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very bare bones account for someone who just wants to know what this case was about. It by no means gives you a better understanding of the perpetrators, nor does it flesh out who these women were. I found this book to be an easy to digest precursor to the book I'm readting atm, Rob Tripps book Without Honour, which does a much better job on expanding our knowledge beyond the basic news coverage stories we all read. I didnt dislike this book, but it was presented as a book for a gr.7 reading level.. Something I would have read in junior high. Yes, I read true crime in junior high!
I would like to give this author kudos for dedicating a section of his book to educate Canadians about honourless killings, and provide case studies that had preceded the Shafia case. I felt this was a worthwhile attempt to bring awareness and force readers to realize this isn't just entertainment and selling books. . . People are really losing their lives.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A horrible crime, perhaps more shocking to the liberal country of Canada, where diversity is usually embraced, but not like this. Coming from other cultures means families bring more than their language, religion, customs and culture. At what point though, must new immigrants respect and follow the customs and culture of their adopted country? The author, a newspaper journalist reporter, writes a rather "newspaper" like book. Quick read, rather boring. A lot of detail about the trial. I'm sure there are other books that speak more directly about "honour" killings, in our society that are more something along the lines of a book I would respect more.

[Dianne Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any Canadian who doesn't know this story needs to seriously reconsider tkaing their heads out of the sand. when 4 women are found in a submerged car in the Kingston Locks it quickly becomes clear that they have been the vicitims of a so-called honour killing.

Paul Schlesmann is a reporter who covered the trial. This is a very interesting insight into the family dynamic that lead to this horrific act. I will never understand how a mother can go along with the murder of her three daughters yet this mother did.

Coming out of this book my one regret about being Canadian is that we can't mete out consecutive life sentences for murderers.

[H Wesselius · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "ripped from the headlines" true crime book. The Shafia murder trial occupied the Canadian media's attention for an extended period of time and this book can be seen as an attempt to capitalize on this attention. Its obvious the publisher and author feared our short attention span by putting a book which reads like a cut and paste from newspaper articles occasionally demonstrating a lack of editing detail. The second part of the title, "the Culture of Honour", deserves a better treatment than an add-on to the end of the book.

[Lee Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was interesting. I remember when this happened. A well written book with a story line that flowed easily. I thought it was told thoroughly with detailed facts. This was so sad and these deaths were very much preventable. I think that the agencies involved dropped the ball on the victims. They were very vocal about their situations yet no one helped them. I think that people immigrating from other countries need to be educated on their right here and what Canadian Laws will tolerate. This was a good book and I recommend it.

[Kim Switzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of information in this book without it being too dragged out with the courtroom things - although it is obvious all three were guilty they still don't know how it was done or which one if not all three did it.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book better than others I have read on these murders - there was more plot than court proceedings -