This year seems to have flown by so fast that many of the items on my summer ‘to do list’ did not get done. One of the reasons for this deferment was that David and I decided to downsize and find a place to live closer to the airport. Last week we were to catch a 7:30 flight to Washington DC. This required that we leave home at 4 am. Now the drive to the airport will be less than thirty minutes because we are moving to Oakville Ontario.

Buying and selling has left us homeless for a month and, rather than rent a place in Toronto, we are taking off to Spain and visiting Morocco. We take possession of our new place in January and start the process of unpacking and settling.   I don’t even want to think about that right now.

While all this madness has been going around us, a lot has also happened related to my work. We attended the first conference on films which have been censored and banned in many countries because they are related to violence against women.   One of the most heart wrenching films, which is a must see, is ‘India’s daughter’. ‘Honour Dairies’ has also been banned on several university campuses. The film ‘The Price of Honor’ just took my breath away. Two beautiful American girls murdered by their parents. After working in the area of violence against women, I should not be shocked, but yet each time I hear about another case of honour killings, it continues to shock and anger me.

We now know that in many communities, honour based violence is common and yet, there are those who continue to deny that parents are abusing and even killing their daughters in the name of family honour.

Attending the censored film event was also an opportunity to meet some wonderful women and men who are working towards eliminating violence against women. What was thrilling to me was that the leadership of this conference and the producers of the films were all young people from many different parts of the world. Their courage and enthusiasm was contagious.

At the conference I had the opportunity to speak about the work I am doing in Canada related to honour based violence. I also mentioned that going forward I will be more focused on working with men. The day after we returned from DC, I taped my first television show with men from the South Asian community. The hope is to find as many South Asian men as possible from different walks of life to speak about family violence and, in particular, about honour based violence.

I believe that this will not only help men to take responsibility for their actions, but also educate them that the law related to family violence is very clear. They can end up in jail for hitting their children. In particular, threatening or forcing their daughters into marriage is viewed as a criminal offence. The second taping is on Friday. These segments will be available on YouTube as well.

On January 28, 2016, I will be assisting with a conference presented by ‘Settlement Assistance & Family Support Services’, located in Scarborough, Ontario, an agency I started nearly 30 years ago. We hope to present a research paper at this conference related to honour based violence.

We are in the process of interviewing mothers with daughters to learn from them what their views on honour based violence are. I want to learn what are the reasons mothers participated in violence directed against their daughters in the name of protecting and defending family honour?