Muslim couple doused daughter with acid because "it was her fate"

Agent 3 seems to have been mesmerized by this weekend's electoral antics, so has failed to report to us on the Toronto trial of Peer Khairi, accused of severing his wife's head from her torso (or just about) to preserve his honour. The alleged murderer is an immigrant from Afghanistan, and apparently was not told by Canadian authorities to check his barbaric customs at the door of the welfare office.

While we wait to find out if the Khairi trial has gone to the jury, and what they decide, we can consider another honour crime horror story, this one coming from Pakistan courtesy of the BBC.

Behold -- in their his 'n' hers jail cells -- Zaheen and Mohammad Zafar, a Muslim couple accused of killing their 15-year-old daughter by giving her a bath -- an acid bath. Why? Because she sullied the Zafar family's honour by looking at a boy. Find it hard to believe? Click here to see a clip from the BBC's interview with the couple.

Hear the girl's parents give their version of the events of 29 October. The father said the girl had turned to look at a boy who drove by on a motorcycle, and he told her it was wrong.

In case you didn't hear the voice-over properly, the interviewer interprets the mother as explaining, "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."

The father said the family had already come under public censure because of their older daughter's behaviour, but he did not detail what exactly he meant.

According to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, at least 943 women were killed in 2011 in the name of "honour" last year. Only 20 of them were given medical care before they died, the report said. The real toll is believed to be higher because many of the crimes go unreported.

"Throughout the year," the same report continues, "women were callously killed in the name of honour when they went against family wishes in any way, or even on the basis of suspicion that they did so. Women were sometimes killed in the name of honour over property disputes and inheritance rights."

Some people from Pakistan and other countries where Islam and Muslim culture prevail are allowed to immigrate to the so-called Christian (or should we say "secular") societies of the West, where such enormities are not tolerated.

At least, that's the way it used to be. Today, in the name of tolerance and "celebrating diversity", Muslim men -- sometimes aided by their wives, brothers or sons -- kill their (other) wives, sisters and daughters with little or no regard to the laws of civilized society. All for the sake of "honour", of course. Isn't multiculturalism great?

Footnote: Honour killings are not unknown in the Sikh and Hindu communities of North America and Europe. But we mustn't judge other religions and cultures. We all pray to the same God, don't we? Hm?