First Article (please click to see link)
Second Article (please click to see link)
I have two daughters. It is my duty as a father to secure the personal security and human rights of my daughters.
The recent “honour killings” of innocent young women in Iran under the regime of the mullahs have horrified and terrified me.
An “honour killing” is a murder. Plain and simple. It is the opposite of honour.
In the past few months, there have been several heartbreaking and gruesome “honour killings” in Iran publicized in the media.
While there is no official data on “honour killings” in Iran, internal news agency ISNA estimates that an average of 375 to 450 honor killings occur in the Islamic Republic of Iran every year. It has been reported that twenty percent of murders in Iran are “honour killings”
This statistic is shocking. One “honour killing” is one too many. Several hundred “honour killings” are a plague on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian authorities have the blood of these victims on their hands. The Islamic Republic of Iran has created and enforced laws that discriminate against females and make them second class citizens in both society and the law. These discriminatory laws give the green light to those who seek to commit violence against women and girls in Iran.
At the same time, the conservative Islamic legal system has shamefully failed to protect innocent and vulnerable women and girls from societal and family violence.
It would be irresponsible for me as a father to return with my wife and two daughters to a country which treats women and girls as second-class citizens and fails to protect them from gender violence.
Canada is a country where the lives of women and girls are valued the same as the lives of men and boys. Canada is a country where women and girls enjoy equality and protection in the law. This helps me sleep at night as a father.
