A Crown prosecutor says that a man accused of killing his wife did so because "she stopped obeying you."

Peer Khairi is on trial in Toronto, accused of stabbing his wife then slitting her throat in March 2008.

Testifying in his own defence on Wednesday, Khairi said he killed Randjida Khairi in self-defence.

A day later Crown attorney Amanda Camara probed Khairi's testimony.

Khairi had difficulty recalling that he complained openly about his wife's new found liberation in Canada.

Camara reminded him that he told his doctor that Randjida started "acting out" when she found out women had rights and freedoms in Canada that they didn't enjoy in her native Afghanistan.

Khairi, who is charged with second-degree murder, told the court, "I didn't know what was in Randjida's heart. She did not tell me that she went and learned about her rights.”

The prosecutor pressed Khairi suggesting that "once Randjida learned about her rights she stopped serving you. She stopped obeying you."

Khairi denied that suggestion.

He also denied having a problem with the way his daughters dressed and how his wife condoned it - a crucial part of the Crown's honour-killing theory.

Khairi, testifying with the aid of an interpreter, told the court earlier this week that on the day of the killing his wife came at him with a small kitchen knife. He stabbed her twice and slit her throat in self-defence, he said.

His lawyer had previously argued Khairi was mentally unstable at the time of the murder.

The trial continues.