Her name is Aqsa Parvez and she was murdered in December 2007.
The following was taken from today's CBC national website:
Father, son plead guilty to Aqsa Parvez murder
Mississauga, Ont., teen strangled in 2007 after argument over hijab
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 7:47 PM ET
The father and brother of Aqsa Parvez, 16, have pleaded guilty to killing the Mississauga, Ont., teenager in 2007.
Muhammad Parvez and Waqas Parvez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday and now face automatic life sentences.
Initially it was believed by police that Muhammad Parvez had killed his daughter, but in court it was revealed that the brother had strangled Aqsa.
"[Muhammad Parvez] decreed she should be murdered, but Waqas Parvez is no less guilty. He had so many opportunities in those days to stop his father," said Crown prosecutor Mara Brasso inside the court in nearby Brampton.
"The plan was in play at least two or three days before it happened. He never warned Aqsa. He never warned police. Even when they got to the home he obviously didn't falter on the threshold, on the doorstep and he carried on and murdered her," said Brasso.
"Home," said Brasso, "was the most dangerous place for her."
Aqsa Parvez wanted to get a part-time job and be allowed to dress and act like other teenage girls in her neighbourhood, but those desires led to a deadly conflict with her family that ended with her being strangled.
The Parvez family had moved from Pakistan to Ontario. Aqsa was 11 years old when she arrived — the youngest of eight children.
The statement of facts released in court about the December 2007 death revealed that when she entered her teen years Aqsa began rebelling against her father's strict rules.
"[S]he was experiencing conflict at home over cultural differences between living in Canada and back [in Pakistan]," the statement said.
Aqsa was in almost constant disagreement with her father and her siblings.
She told her father she did not wish to wear the hijab any longer. She wanted to dress in Western clothes and have the same freedoms as the other girls in her high school.
The statement revealed that Aqsa "did not have a door on her bedroom, her freedom to talk on the phone with friends was restricted, she was required to come straight home from school and expected to spend her evenings and weekends at home as well."
In September 2007, Aqsa told a counsellor at Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga "that she was afraid her father wanted to kill her ..."
The school made arrangements for Aqsa to stay at a shelter — but she stayed only three days.
Soon after, she was permitted to wear non-traditional clothes to school but the conflicts within the family did not end.
Aqsa spent time living with friends, but during that time her father and other members of her family asked her to return home.
Taken from bus stop.
On Dec. 10, 2007, Aqsa was taken from the school bus stop by her brother at approximately 7:20 a.m. It was just 36 minutes later that her father called 911 and told police he had "killed his daughter."
Police arrived and found Aqsa on her bed.
"She was fully clothed and had her jacket on. She had no vital signs. There was blood coming from her nose," according to the statement.
She was pronounced dead later that evening.
Peel Regional Police took Muhammad Parvez into custody and charged him with murder. But it was Waqas Parvez that actually killed Aqsa, according to the statement of facts.
Waqas Parvez, 26, was charged on June 26, 2008. His DNA was found beneath his sister's fingernails.
The agreed upon statement of facts contains an interview with Aqsa's mother, Anwar Jan, who attempts to explain why the murder happened.
In an interview with police, she says her husband told her he killed his youngest child because "this is my insult. My community will say, 'You have not been able to control your daughter.' This is my insult. She is making me naked."
Police asked if things would have been different if the family had stayed in Pakistan.
"He would have killed her there too," she says.
***************************
This event is an insult. To me... to you reading this... to every single person living in this country. It is an insult to everything this country stands for. It is an insult to every one of our values. It is an affront to our culture. It is an insult to those who have given their lives in the service of this country and to those who presently serve in our military. In truth, it is an insult to every person who lives on this North American continent.
This event demonstrates with incredible clarity, the backwardness, the total lack of civility and common decency as exhibited by those who would follow Islamic fundamentalism. This culture as practised in Pakistan (or in any other Muslim country), cannot mesh with our Canadian society. It is as simple as that. These beliefs are a most malignant form of social cancer. The same applies in Saudi Arabia, where they still put people to death for the crime of witchcraft.
Crimes committed under the name of any religion, should be considered as hate crimes. Hate crimes against the evolved, if you will. This kind of mental sickness cannot be 'cured'. These are the types of crimes that really make one consider the viability of the death penalty. These individuals must be excoriated from our civilization.
And for any idiot out there who is going to spout that old platitude of how the death penalty does nothing for reforming or deterring violent criminals, I have this to say to you: The death penalty was never intended to reform or deter criminals. It is there as a punishment, pure and simple. And I'll tell you something else... it may not deter anyone, as you say. But it sure as fuck cuts down on repeat offenders!! And that, in the end, is what we're ALL after.
Here is this young 16 year old girl who wants what? To be able to live in freedom, just like any other young Canadian teenage girl can. And for that she is murdered by her own fucking family? Hm-mmmm... let's employ a little Canadian realism here. Any group of people that would kill you for wanting to live free, is first of all NOT Canadian (and they certainly have no place in THIS country...), and secondly they CANNOT be considered a 'family', not by any twisted, cultural stretch of the imagination.
Immigration means that you are wanting and willing to become as those in your host country. There is no second option. You are either immigrating or you are invading. There are two choices, pick one. When you manage to slip by our dormant and inept immigration officials, you had better understand that we do have a Charter of Human Rights that you are compelled to live by. There is one law in this land and we are all held to live by it. (Yes, there is a separate one for the rich, but that is another story, for another time.) One thing I will tell you, you are not going to invade MY goddamn country. Not while there is a breath left in this body.
A message needs to be sent out to these reprehensible individuals that this type of caveman lunacy will not be tolerated in our society. We don't give a fuck how they do things in Lahore or Peshawar. You supposedly left your country of origin in order to provide a better life for your family. You are not there anymore and we will not tolerate that you bring your country HERE. Actually, I have a better idea. If you really want your children to have a better life, just send them here. We'll see that they find a family that will actually raise them as a family should, and not like a group of psychopathic jailers.
No comments:
Post a Comment