Shafia Verdict

Monday, January 30, 2012 | Categories: Episodes

The Current begins with the legacy of Zainab, Sahar, Geeti and Rona. Three sisters and their father's first wife murdered early in the summer of 2009. In what Judge Robert Maranger called a "twisted concept of honour". The details that came to light in the Shafia trial told us more than the details of a multiple murder, they shed light on tensions and challenges that some young Afghan women face as they and their families try to navigate a new life in Canada.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Monday, January 30.

Prime minister Stephen Harper says he plans major reforms to the old-age pension system to improve Ottawa's finances.

Currently, that explains the new government ad campaign touting 90 as the new 65.

This is The Current.

Shafia Verdict - Panel

We started this part with a clip of Gerard Laarhuis, chief prosecutor in the Shafia murder trial. After more than three months of proceedings, and 15 hours of deliberation, the jury in the case came back yesterday with its verdict: Guilty. Guilty. And Guilty.

Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yahya (his second wife in a polygamous marriage) and their son Hamed, were each convicted on four counts of first-degree murder. Each has been sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of Mohammed Shafia's first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, and three daughters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia.

But some people argue this was not just a simple murder trial ... that while the Shafia case was an extreme one, it highlights the challenges and tensions faced by some Afghan-Canadian families caught between what some call tradition and the ways of a new, more liberal homeland.

We heard from Nigah Awj. She is a student at Marianopolis College in Montreal and the youth director of La Maison Afghane (Afghan House), a grassroots organization that tries to help young Afghan immigrants and their families adjust to life in Quebec. She grew up in Afghanistan, but has lived in Canada since age 10. She was in Montreal this morning.

And Raheel Raza is a women's rights activist in Toronto and the author of a book called, Their Jihad...Not my Jihad. She joined us in our Toronto studio.

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