The wedding might have been a solution, an escape valve for the suffocating pressure of a stern cultural view imposed on Zainab Shafia by her father, with his unbending views of Afghan tradition. But it ended in disaster.
When the young woman’s husband arrived at the wedding reception without any members of his family, the Shafias considered it unforgivable. It sparked a startling threat from Zainab’s brother, Hamed.
