When bruising a husband's ego can get you killed

Shemina Hirji had been married only five days before she was murdered in her Vancouver area home. The 40-year-old elementary school principal and her husband, Paul Cheema, had seemed so blissful together, friends said, and they were stunned and outraged when Cheema was arrested two weeks ago in connection with her murder.

'They seemed to have been happy,' said Indira Prahst, a friend of the Cheema family. 'It's almost a slap in the face for many of us.'

Hirji is the latest victim in a string of murders of young, married women that has rocked Vancouver's South Asian community. Three other Indo-Canadian women have been killed, and one critically injured, in the past nine months. And in most of the cases, the victims' husbands are now either under investigation or waiting trial. The spate of killings has prompted South Asian community leaders to condemn domestic violence and has raised questions about how common spousal abuse is within the culture.

Police, acting on Cheema's account, initially reported that Hirji was killed during a home invasion on July 5 and had asked the public for help in tracking down the suspects. Masked intruders were said to have attacked the newlyweds about noon, leaving Cheema with minor injuries from the struggle, police said.

But theories of a very different version of events began to emerge after investigators arrested Cheema on July 14, naming him as their only prime suspect. Police said they had found no evidence of a home invasion. They have yet to lay charges.

'It's too soon for something like this to happen to our community,' said Ashiana Khan, business manager for the local radio station, Radio India, which has been inundated by calls about the recent tragedies. Many listeners have also told stories of their own experiences with spousal abuse.