If you're a Muslim and your wife demands a divorce, what do you do? Give her one, obviously! Or you could kill her, to preserve the family honour.
How would you disguise yourself if you chose the second option? Perhaps by donning a burqa and slipping into a pair of wedgies (shoes, that is) so you might pass for a woman? That's what Abdul Malik Rustam did on 22 July 2011. That's him in the picture. He was sentenced yesterday to life in prison (with no chance of parole for 17 years) for the second-degree murder of his 21-year-old wife, Shaher Bano Shahdady, after she asked for a divorce.
Then he left their son, not yet 2 years of age, with his mother’s body for 15 hours before she was discovered in her Toronto apartment. "The accused demonstrated an exceptionally callous disregard for that young child’s well-being," said the sentencing judge. "It’s hard to fathom what that child went through. The only glimmer of hope is that he’s so young it will fade into that child’s memory."
The deadly attack occurred shortly, but not immediately, after Rustam entered his estranged wife’s home. "This was not a case of a heated argument that escalated into physical violence," the judge said. "This courageous young woman fought for her life," leaving scratch marks on her husband's face and neck.
After the murder, the very righteous Rustam returned to his victim's parents' home and accompanied his father-in-law -- yes, the father of the girl he had just killed -- to the mosque for 4:30 a.m. prayers. Later that day he confessed to his brother that he had "finished her by the throat."
The brother alerted the victim’s family to go to her home. While they were knocking, Rustam showed up and opened her door. When he saw her corpse, he rushed away in grief [Really? Ed.] and confessed the killing to police, saying he had "certain justifications for his actions". The judge, however, said women "have an absolute right to end their relationships” without fear of violence.
Shahdady had lived apart from her older, jealous husband from an arranged marriage for almost two years — using a cellphone and the Internet and expanding her social network while raising their son who had heart problems from birth. The court was told that when Rustam joined his wife and child in Canada in March 2011, he objected to her having a cellphone and "an online friendship with another man" in Dubai. Within days, it was so unbearable that Rustam was asked to leave the family home.
In May of 2011, Rustam reunited with his wife in her parents’ home. But his wife refused to surrender her cellphone and the tensions flared again. She left the home in early July while Rustam stayed. Their marriage was over, said Shahdady, who repeatedly rejected his bids for reconciliation. The killing occurred only two weeks after the woman went on welfare and moved into a community housing apartment.
The presiding judge said that Rustam displayed "elements of planning and forethought" by donning a burqa, women’s footwear and gloves. He manipulated the surveillance camera in front of the victim’s doorway so that he couldn’t be seen when he went inside.
Defence counsel had argued this homicide was not an honour killing. "[Rustam is] a simple and unsophisticated man who snapped under great psychological torment," his lawyer said. The judge disagreed.
Further reading on WWW: "Honour killings in Canada now average nearly 1 per year".
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