More prevalent in the Muslim world, it's a phenomenon many parents here can't even begin to comprehend.

The killing of one's own child — usually a daughter — because her behaviour is believed to have brought shame to the family.

It is the fate of some rape victims, as well as women accused of infidelity or premarital sex in countries such as Pakistan. But in the West, it's increasingly popping up in courtrooms as first-generation Muslims struggle to balance the strict old-world ways of their parents with a desire to fit into a more liberal society.

On June 16, the father and brother of a slain Mississauga, Ont., teen were sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the December 2007 murder of Aqsa Parvez, a 16-year-old girl of Pakistani descent who wanted to wear western clothes and get a part-time job like her Canadian peers.

Days ago, an Afghan mother was arrested in Montreal, accused of stabbing her 19-year-old daughter after she stayed out all night in a case that's now being probed as a possible honour crime.

And then there's the case last year of Muhammad Shafia, his second wife, Tooba Muhammad Yahya, and their son, Hamed Shafia, accused of killing Shafia's first wife and three daughters, who were found in a vehicle submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ont.

Dr. Amin Muhammad is a psychiatrist at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L., who is currently working on a report for the federal government about honour killings in Canada. He said there've been 13 such cases in the country since 2002.

"We are seeing an upward trend," he said. "More cases are coming to the forefront in the legal system."

Noting honour killings are not in any way condoned in the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, he suggested the idea is coming up more as a defence for murder by people hoping to take advantage of Canada's cultural sensitivity in order to receive a more lenient sentence.

He also said he suspects mental-health issues are behind most cases.

"We cannot rule out personality disorder among the perpetrators or some sort of psychopathology," he said.

"I think all such cases should be evaluated from a mental-health perspective."

Muhammad said that since the UN began cracking down on the issue of honour killings, no country is any longer officially supporting the practice.

That said, a report Muhammad published two years ago found a number of countries actually allow for a partial or full defence against criminal charges on the basis of honour killing, including: Argentina, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Guatemala, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Venezuela, Peru and Egypt.

While many recent cases in western society involve Muslims, Muhammad said honour killings have also been committed in the name of Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity.

But just as most Canadians shudder in disbelief at these stories, so too do the majority of Muslims.

Imam Zijad Delic of the Canadian Islamic Congress said there is "nothing Islamic" in taking a human life.