Letter to the Editor—Honor Killings

To the Editor:

"Two Star-Crossed Afghans Cling to Love, Even at Risk of Death" (front page, March 10) is a poignant story of just one Romeo and Juliet couple.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Arab world and the Muslim diaspora in the West have thousands of such cases, both known and unknown. Educated and wealthy families are as likely to engage in this crime as are poor or illiterate farmers.

Wealthy Afghan immigrants to North America have perpetrated honor killings, like the Shafia case in Canada, in which a wealthy biological father and mother and their biological son killed three biological daughters and a first wife because they were becoming too "Westernized."

While we may not be able to help the women in Afghanistan, we are honor-bound to do so in the West.

PHYLLIS CHESLER New York, March 10, 2014