Canada has reported the country's first honour killing. A memorial for Aqsa Parvez is set up at Applewood Heights S.S. in Mississauga, in this undated handout photo. Sixteen-year old Muslim Mississauga teenager Aqsa Parvez died on Tuesday of wounds suffered in an attack on her Monday — allegedly by her father who strangled her. Friends of Aqsa painted a picture of a young girl eager to integrate into Canadian society, in ongoing conflict with her conservative Pakistani father who insisted she wear the hijab.
Aqsa Parvez was largely estranged from her family and sleeping away from home in recent days. Her friends said she returned to her home in Mississauga on Monday only to collect her belongings. Friends described her as a hardworking and cheerful girl who loved dancing, fashion and photography - interests that often clashed with her strict her home environment.
Police arrested the victim’s 57-year-old father, Muhammad Parvez on Monday morning after receiving a 911 call from a Mississauga home from a man saying he had killed his daughter. He is being charged for his daughter's death.
Friends of the dead girl told journalists that Ms. Parvez’s relationship with her father was antagonistic. She used leave home in track pants and hijab, then change into close-fitting jeans and remove her hijab when she got to school. She wanted to live her life the way she wanted to, not the way her parents wanted her to.
The full details of the killing are not yet available and other aggravating factors (e.g. Mohammad Parvez’s mental health) have not been discussed publicly. What is clear from news reports is that Aqsa’s refusal to wear a hijab was the catalyst to her murder and that her friends sensed that her home conflicts could quickly spin out of control.
Canada’s Muslim community has always remained moderate, although the tragic death of Aqsa Parvez has brought fears of militant Islam that has caused terror and death in Paris, London and Stockholm. The sight of a woman in a full burqa is an extraordinary rarity outside of a few small urban pockets. And such horrors as that allegedly visited upon Ms. Parvez remain almost unheard of.
Canada is not Europe and we should not read too much into this family tragedy. At this stage, it may be premature to suggest that this was a case of the clash of two cultures but what we know is that the murdered girl wanted to be "free" and independent of her family's devout Muslim beliefs. There lies the whole problem.
It is amazing how some Muslims feel wearing a headscarf is more important than a life. Such intolerance and insanity should have no place in any society.
While this incident could turn out to be domestic abuse and murder, it brings the spotlight back on the radical fanatical thinking of some Muslims who would insist adherence on their uncompromising values. This is where the danger lies and it is such unaccepting intolerance that needs to be wiped out from all societies.
Aqsa’s father who is no longer living in Pakistan and has migrated to Canada for a better life has to accept the fact that his family has come to a country where women are not forced by any man to wear uniforms that define them as property or symbols of their family’s “honour.” And if Aqsa's father accepted it, she might be alive today.
How many thousands of other Aqsas hate the hijab but wear it without complaint because they fear their fathers’ or their society's wrath? It is time in all these countries such matters be rationally and openly discussed without resorting to violence such as that which led to Aqsa's death.
All Muslim societies will have to deal with bigoted thinking that leads to violent consequences. If Canada gives a fair trial to Mr. Parvez, and is convicted and sentenced without the case being hijacked into a referendum on Islam, Canada will have sent a clear message to all religious radicals: there is ONE law in Canada and everyone is subject to it regardless of their different customs. Canada has one chance to solidify the distinction between religious and legal authority before activists on both sides of the multiculturalism debate including those against domestic abuse and feminism turn this tragic domestic abuse case into a political circus.
11 comments:
To me, it just comes down to universal human rights. Poor Aqsa was denied hers.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
Islam did NOT kill this girl, no more than Christianity killed Megan Meier!
Keep in mind this is a single instance of a crime. Compare it with the video that pops up now and again of a stalker abducting a young woman who is later found dead. Aqsa Parvez’s death is NOT a normal “islamic event.” I remember a kid in 1st grade whose Christian mother forced him to kneel in rock salt when he was bad until his knees bled. When he was 12 she beat him so badly he lost hearing in one ear. Parents are sometimes overprotective, sometimes STUPID, like the woman who created the phony MySpace page that led to the suicide of Megan Meier. But that’s another story…
http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/12/double-life-of-aqsa-parvez.html
Hello ers
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, universal rights must be respected. If Aqsa's rights were respected and accepted by her father she might have been alive today.
Hi dave lucas
Thank you for your comment.
No body should hold Islam in contempt for this crime. But let us not lose focus of why Aqsa was killed. It is alleged that her father who was insisting that she wear the hijab strangled her because she is not accepting his demands. There are many bigoted Muslims who insist that their grown up children and others follow their uncompromising interpreation of how to practise Islam. It is this particular holier-than-thou attitude that we should all condem instead of throwing the ball back to Christianity who will have their own horror stories to deal with.
in western countries people are bieng killed for not giving a sweet. even for become famouse. so why you peaople not writing those. only islam, you hate islam.. dont be so racist..there are good and bad peaople in islam. balme the bad people not the whole thing. america is the number one to kill civillians, in statistics. why dont you people recognize them as terrorist while you people say muslims who kill civillians are terrorists.
"the murdered girl wanted to be "free" and independent of her family's devout Muslim beliefs. There lies the whole problem"
Indeed that is the whole gamut of all these problemos.
hi anonymous
Your comment has no bearing to the issue that I raised in this post, i.e, of some Muslims who feel that their uncompromising interpretation of Islam must be followed by their children and others, otherwise face grave consequences.
I am not talking about killing in general whether it is Western countries or elswhere.
I cannot understand your gripe against the West. You seem to be a real loose cannon who probably is delusional. You must be loony enough not to be able to figure out a racist.
I am a Muslim and I don't hate Islam.
If a religion can make a person act in such cruel manner, then there is obviously something very wrong with that religion. The problem is many people want to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. It is not. Read the Koran and the Hadith ( sayings of Muhammad) and see if I am wrong.
Hi anonymous
It is clear from my post that Islam is not on trial. You have chosen to ignore it out of misguided ignorance or out of intentional provocation. The death here arose out of unaccepting and intolerant behaviour of a Muslim father. Such behaviour is the issue that needs to be resolved.
You can believe what you want to believe, but Islam is a religion of peace and your belief will not change that fact. This is a different debate and is outside the issues I raised in my post here.
Honor killing is a horror tradition that is primarily found in the middle east...the Arab states. Its association with Islam is therefore, I think, based on the fact that Islam emerged from Arabia. Whether the tradition emerged before or as a result of the arrival of Islam is up for debate.
The truth of the matter is that it is now associated with Muslims and Islam because non-Arab Muslims (such as Pakistanis) have also taken to the tradition.
Many Muslims are of the mentality that to be a Muslim is to act, dress, and embrace (sometimes) barbaric Arab tribal traditions.
Hi Simon
Killing in the name of honour widespread in tribal Pakistan and various Arab countries has direct relevance to the illiteracy rate, as these killings are more common in the areas where the literacy rate is lower.
Killing for honour is a cultural horror tradition. It is barbaric. Its origins is another debate as you said.
There is no such concept in Islam that is called “honor killing. Islam holds every soul in high esteem and does not allow any transgression upon it. Islam does not allow people to take the law in their own hands and administer justice.
When Muslims insist on adherence to uncompromising practices such as wearing the hijab, they run into problems as we saw here. It is that kind of behaviour in the name of Islam that must be stopped in all Muslin societies.
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