Last
week Mohammad Shafia and his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, along with their
21-year-old son, Hamed, were found guilty of murdering their daughters Zainab
(19), Sahar (17), and Geeti (13). There was overwhelming evidence to convict the
three family members of the premeditated murder of the three girls, along with
their stepmother, Mohammad's first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad (50).
The
four women were found dead in their new Nissan Sentra at the bottom of the
Kingston Mills lock in Kingston, Ontario upon returning from a family vacation
in 2009. The girls were seen as “too promiscuous” and “rebellious” in their
behaviour by their patriarchal father. The Shafia family was originally from
Afghanistan, but Mohammad made his fortune in United Arab Emirates.
The
media coverage around the trial provided ample opportunity for news outlets to
perpetuate the stereotype of the extremist Muslim, one who can't be reasoned
with and doesn't understand Western values. While the details of a crime's history
are important in authentic reporting, the fixation of the media on the notion
of the Muslim as an irrational extremist comes from a desire to sell papers.
When
a crime like the Shafia case happens, the Canadian Muslim community are forced
into a position of having to defend their faith. Some might argue that this is
a good thing: where are the moderate Muslims, one might ask? Why aren't they
speaking out? They do, but those people's stories don't sell papers.
Domestic
violence, while present in the Muslim community, is not exclusive to it. It is
almost painful to see the Muslim community here in Canada scramble in the wake
of the Shafia verdict to speak publicly condemning violence against women. On
Feb. 4, 2012, imams in Mississauga met to publicly denounce honour killings, domestic
violence, and misogyny as un-Islamic. Additionally, there is an ongoing “White Ribbon
Campaign” to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against
women and girls being run by the Islamic Institute of Toronto.
The
problem is that violence against women in not specific to the Muslim community,
nor does an act on the scale of the Shafia murder reflect the majority of
Muslims interpretation of their religion. Muslim leaders are clear: killing is forbidden.
Mohammad
Shafia displayed abhorrent sociopathic behaviour a la any serial killer. He is
a sick man. The murder of his three daughters is not a religious issue, it is
an issue of overt hatred. It is an issue of a man's pride, an issue of control.
Here is a man who wanted to control the lives of everyone around him, and felt
it was his right to do so. To attempt to paint his behaviour as an extension of
his Islamic background reveals a sad tendency toward red-neck bias we can have here
in Canada, the evidence of which is clear in the online reader comments on
articles from Sun News to the Globe and Mail. I have to argue, remember Robert Picton? Not a
Muslim. Paul Bernardo? Again, not a Muslim.
The
fact is that in many patriarchal societies women are seen as property of their
father or husband; again, it is not a cultural norm exclusive to the Muslim
community. In the wake of this trial I know that Canadians are looking to improve
the police force and child service's approach to similar situations where
respect for cultural differences and the potential offending of adults involved
cannot take precedence over protecting a child's safety. But a growing desire
to lay total blame with social services for their failure to connect two
separate incidences where the Shafia daughters contacted them for help, is the
desire of the Canadian public to lay blame with an individual body and ignore
the larger systemic problems at play – a system that left no checks and
balances for Mohammad Shafia's behaviour until it was too late.
An
exceptionally successful business man, Mohammad Shafia and his wealth were
embraced by our government, the same government which now holds him, his wife,
and his son in jail. In a system that champions economic growth as our national
raison d'etre,
is it any wonder that a man like Shafia could become a Canadian?
Painting
premeditated murder on this scale as a Muslim issue is a tactic by the media,
and the most overtly racist thing of all. Of course Muslim leaders have to
speak out condoning violence in the aftermath, but what a horrible position to
be in. The Western world, including Canada, gives Muslims little choice in this
post 9/11 world where the political zeitgeist says to the Muslim citizen not,
“you have done a bad thing,” but “you are bad.”
//Lindsay Flynn, writer
//Lindsay Flynn, writer
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