This past December, Mississauga cab driver Muhammad Parvez was charged with second-degree murder for the strangulation of his 16-year old daughter. Aqsa Parvez died on Dec. 10 after police responded to a call from a man claiming to have killed his daughter.
Initial reports indicated that Muhammad Parvez, a 57-year-old immigrant from Pakistan, allegedly killed his daughter over arguments surrounding her refusal to wear a headscarf, or hijab. However, friends of Aqsa, along with various community leaders have since stressed the complexity of the dispute in the Parvez household, emphasizing that it was more than simply the hijab argument that led to the killing.
The grade 11 student wanted to fit in at school by wearing western clothes, a desire which clashed with her family's conservative views, leading to conflicts with her father and 26-year-old brother Waqas, who has subsequently been charged with obstruction of investigation.
Friends have told the media how tension over Aqsa's western appearance and behaviour lead to abuse at home.
Muslim U3 psychology student Sana Yusuf, explained that wearing the hijab is generally a personal religious choice to show modesty and that it is rare for children to be forced into wearing the hijab.
"Not a single person that I know has parents who force them to wear the hijab," Yusuf said. "Not even in Pakistan; my friends and cousins [who live there] wear it by their choice."
"You're supposed to cover yourself up as a sign of modesty in front of other people," Yusuf added. "This is how beauty is perceived in Islam; you don't show off your beauty, you keep beauty on the inside. [Wearing the hijab] is my choice."
Parvez's attempt to lead a double life is in no way ubiquitous among Muslim Canadian youths.
"Being a Muslim leader in the community, I know that in fact, many Muslim girls and boys do live double lives," said Syed B. Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada in Islam and Head Imam at the Al Madinah Calgary Isalmic Centre, adding that they often act and dress one way at home and another way outside.
Aqsa's death has raised questions about the integration of immigrants and a potential link to honour killings. Many community leaders and observers have stressed that that this was a singular incident and is not illustrative of any broader trend.
Muslim community leaders across Canada were quick to condemn the killing.
"Honour killing is un-Islamic and a crime," Soharwardy said. "In Islam, the only institution that has the authority to punish a person for his or her crime is a court of law. Honour killing is a cultural or tribal practice."
Soharwardy went on a hunger strike to protest the killing of Aqsa Parvez, hoping to "create awareness about the dangers of using violence in dispute resolution."
"Relating honour killings with Islam is a baseless and unjustified claim because, simply, Islam abolished this condemned cultural practice at [the] legal level a long time ago," said Bilal Ruzzeh, a mechanical engineering PhD student at McGill and the president of the Muslim Student Association.
"The main role the community leadership should play in preventing similar incidents in the future is to proactively approach its people with efficient educational programs about the ethics, spirit and jurisprudence of Islam and practical ways to integrate, without losing identity, in the larger Canadian community," Ruzzeh said.
"We believe that Muslims with such cultural heritage lack the profound understanding of Islam in terms of the sanctity of life of human beings, whether a Muslim or non-Muslim, and thus need to be educated before such a tragic incident happens again."
-Additional reporting by
Thomas Quail and Ken Sun
2008 Woodie Awards
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 5
R Dahlman
posted 1/08/08 @ 1:32 PM EST
Watch out, Canada, you're next! The muslims have already ruined my country, the UK, and honour killings are a regular occurence now (12 per year, by police estimates). (Continued…)
ERS
posted 1/08/08 @ 5:55 PM EST
There have already been two dishonor killing incidents in the States in 2008. The first was of a family of three and their fetus in suburban Chicago; the second was of two beautiful sisters in suburban Dallas. (Continued…)
Taimoor
posted 1/09/08 @ 3:19 PM EST
unfortunately, in muslim people, they impose a lot of restrictions on girls, and they give freedom to their sons......and when they comes in canada, they still want to do the same thing. (Continued…)
yeezevee
posted 1/11/08 @ 4:58 PM EST
The case of Aqsa Parvez and 100s of cases silmilar to her are discussed extensively in the links given below..
http://www.faithfreedom.org/forum/viewtopic. (Continued…)
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