The slaying of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, allegedly by her father, has sparked a furor in the Canadian press and beyond.
Aqsa Parvez died in a hospital last week, hours after a man called 911, saying he had killed his daughter.
Parvez’s father was arrested and charged in her death.
One of her brothers was charged with obstructing the investigation.
Parvez and her Mississauga, Ontario, family were immigrants from Pakistan, and early reports said that she had fought with her father over her refusal to wear the traditional Muslim head scarf.
Friends later discounted these reports.
The slaying has spurred sharp debates among Canadian and international commentators over the roles of Islam and immigration in the West, but Canadian imams have denounced the slaying.
Many have said it was not a matter of religion, but of domestic violence.
In an op-ed in the National Post, one writer called Parvez’s death “Canada’s first honor killing,” while the Muslim American Society denounced the slaying and declared “‘honor’ killings are not only a Muslim problem, and there is no ‘honor’ involved.”
–Will Crain/Newsdesk.org
Sources:
“The double life of Aqsa Parvez”
National Post, December 12, 2007
“Was the killing of Aqsa a Muslim act?”
Edmonton Journal, December 16, 2007
“The Death of Aqsa Parvez Should Be an Interfaith Call to Action”
Muslim American Society, December 15, 2007
“Aqsa slaying and the clash between religion and culture”
Globe and Mail, December 13, 2007
“Aqsa’s last days”
National Post, December 15, 2007
“How Canada let Aqsa down”
National Post, December 12, 2007
what this is not islam you have the right to wear it or not her father was not a really muslim. i hate people who don’t know about islam and just ruin the name. what a discrase