On December 10, a man in Toronto's suburb of Mississauga called 911 to report that he had just killed his daughter. Muhammad Purvez, the father, has been arrested, along with his son Waqas, who has been charged with obstructing police.
Sixteen-year-old Aqsa Purvez had been in constant conflict with her family over matters such as dress. She resisted wearing a hijab, at times wearing one till she got to school and then changing. Friends at school say that she was afraid of her father and brother, who wanted to impose their wishes in the matter. Because of such conflicts, she had moved out of the house and gone to stay with a friend. The killing occurred when she returned home for some clothes.
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| Aqsa Purvez |
Naturally, this tragic event is causing considerable consternation among Canadian Muslims. "Official" Islam is making its unconditional rejection of the killing clear. Faisal Kutty, a lawyer for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), is calling for "the strongest possible prosecution" of the father. Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan, of the liberal, more secular Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), agree with Kutty's statement but also make the larger point that those demanding that women be allowed the right to wear the hijab do not always respect their right not to.
Fatah and Hassan cite a Montreal mosque's website that warned girls that if they did not wear a hijab they were in danger of being raped. The MCC two also tie the refusal of girls to remove a hijab in sporting events to fear of family anger.
On that last point, they are dead wrong. When Azzy Mansour refused to remove her hijab for a soccer match, resulting in the forfeiture of the game, that was her decision. Her mother, who supports Azzy's right to wear a hijab, is herself bare-headed. "I don't have the call," she said. The principle is clear to CAIR-CAN, if not to the MCC: girls should have the right to choose.
This sad incident highlights a common problem for immigrant families in any country: culture conflict. The children find themselves between two cultures and are pulled in two directions. The families sometimes need help in coming to terms with that fact. In Canada, they need to know that their children are Canadians regardless of the parents' country of origin. When school authorities learn of the kinds of stress faced by Aqsa, it is time to intervene, with social workers, religious leaders, and so on to defuse the situation and to help families adjust to the reality of living in a country with different ways. Support for school social work and for settlement work is a crying need in a country with heavy immigration such as Canada.
Also needed is vigorous denunciation by Muslims of the kind of nonsense Fatah and Hassan describe as coming out of a Montreal mosque.
Unfortunately, not all imams are on board with the Muslim organizations.
In an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Fatah quoted two imams who had weighed in on the tragic event. Alaa El-Sayyed, imam of Mississauga's ISNA mosque, told the media that "If we stay away from the teachings of Islam, we will pay for it. . . . Women who wear hijabs occupy higher positions in Islam, according to religious teachings."
Iqbal Nadvi, imam of the Al-Falah Islamic Center in Oakville, is quoted to the effect that "Parents fail and bring shame upon themselves if a child chooses to abandon holy writings and not wear the hijab." He went on to put the blame on Aqsa: "She refused to stay at home. There were feelings that she is going in the wrong direction."
The challenge for Canadian Muslims is clear: Are they prepared to tolerate attitudes such as these? Are they prepared to tolerate equivocation around the vicious crime of "honor killing"?
When an Australian imam charged that scantily clad women were in danger, like fresh meat left out in the sun near cats, Muslims in that country rose up and told him that if he made any further remarks like that he could pack his bags and leave. Fatah and Hassan should tell us who put that kind of stuff on the net. Let's have a repeat by Canadian Muslims of the Australian example.
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