Hometown Beheading

More details are emerging in a story that occured on my old paper route — Possibility of 'honor killing' mulled in Orchard Park slaying. I remember the shock our little town had when we had our first murder in living memory. I wonder how residents are reacting to this story.

As "speculation roils about the role that the couple’s religion may have played," I'd caution on reading to much into this story. A feminist is quoted as calling it a "terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women’s subordination to men" as she "decried the scant national media attention paid to the story." Another feminist suggested "the community should address the attitudes that make divorce particularly difficult for many Muslim families."

While murder can never be condoned, this seems to be a crime of passion. The estranged husband was described as "aggressive in a business sense" and his wife as "vivacious and intelligent." Who knows what issues were at play?