Honour on Trial (22 page)

Devantro saw the family leave on their trip to Niagara Falls in June of 2009. She thought it was odd that they didn't ask her to bring in the mail while they were away, as they usually did. A week later, she saw that Mohammad Shafia had returned with the van. Then detectives were all over the neighbourhood, and she knew something was terribly wrong.

She would like to move away from the memories. "If I could afford to leave, I'd leave here because the kids don't want to come around," said Devantro.

And she often thinks of the four beautiful women whose lives were taken so needlessly. "It's like they never existed," she said. "But at night I tell them, 'Be at peace.'"

Copyright © 2012 Paul Schliesmann

Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside,

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Published in the United States by Fitzhenry & Whiteside,

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Schliesmann, Paul

Honour on trial : the Shafia murders and the culture of honour killings

/ Paul Schliesmann.

ISBN 978-1-55455-278-8

eISBN 978-1-55455-937-4

1. Shafia, Mohammad--Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Shafia, Hamed--Trials,

litigation, etc. 3. Yahya, Tooba--Trials, litigation, etc. 4. Honor killings--

Ontario--Kingston--Case studies. 5. Trials (Murder)--Ontario--Kingston--

Case studies. 6. Murder--Ontario--Kingston--Case studies. 7. Afghan

Canadians--Case studies. I. Title.

HV6250.4.W65S35 2012 364.152'30971372 C2012-905568-9

Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data (U.S.)

Schliesmann, Paul.

Honour on trial : the Shafia murders and the culture of honour killings / Paul Schliesmann.

[ ] p. : ill. photos. ; cm.

Summary: A study of the culture of honor killing based on the murders of three girls and a woman who was passed off as their aunt, in what came to be known as the Shafia case.

ISBN: 9781554552788

eISBN: 9781554559374

1. Women — Crimes against. 2. Honor killings — Canada. I. Honor on trial. II . Title.

362.88082 dc23 HV6250.4.W65S3554 2012

Fitzhenry & Whiteside acknowledges with thanks the Canada Council for the Arts

and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the

Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.

Design by Kerry Designs

All photographs used in this book were supplied as exhibits at trial, with the exception of the photograph on Page 209

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