(CNN) Zakia and Ali knew theirs was a forbidden love. She was Sunni and ethnically Tajik; he was Shiite and ethnically Hazara -- the Montagues and Capulets. "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life" So begins, with gloomy prophecy, one of the most famous stories in English literature. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet would take their own lives out of despair. Rod Nordland, a journalist who found Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet, says that in that country, the despair all too often comes to an end in a so-called honor killing.Zakia and Ali, a young Afghan couple, stays together despite the chance of Zakia's "honor killing"In the new book "The Lovers," Zakia talks of being courted by Ali's poetry and song
_ was cagey at first about accepting Ali's proposal -- she knew the taboo, and danger, in such a marriage. "One hundred percent, they would kill me," _ told Nordland. "If someone loves someone, she should have that bravery to do whatever has to be done," _ told Nordland.