As many as 5,000 women and girls lose their lives - most at the hands of family members - in "honour killings" around the world each year, according to the United Nations.
Up to a dozen have died for the same reason in Canada in the last decade, and it's happening more often, says Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist who studies honour killings at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
``There are a number of organizations which don't accept the idea of honour killing; they say it's a Western-propagated myth by the media, but it's not true,'' he says. ``Honour killing is there, and we should acknowledge it, and Canada should take it seriously.''
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