THE father and brother of a Mississauga, Ontario, teenager who was strangled in December, 2007, were sentenced this week to life imprisonment for second-degree murder.
Aqsa Parvez was 16 years old when she was the victim of an “honour” killing carried out by her father, Muhammad Parvez, and brother Waqas Parvez, 26.
Aqsa Parvez, right, pictured with a friend in a Facebook website tribute
Aqsa, the youngest of eight siblings, died early in the morning on December 10, 2007.
According to this report, the girl’s friends said she had feared for her safety in the days leading up to her death because she had clashed with her family over her reluctance to wear a hijab, and her preference for slim-fitting “Western-style” clothing.
Aqsa’s father nodded slightly as the Crown prosecutor read out a description of the days leading up to her death, after she ran away from home.
Two days before she died, Aqsa went to the movies for the first time in her life.
That week, she had asked a guidance counsellor to look over a resume and said she wanted to find a part-time job, something her father had never permitted.
Aqsa “appeared happy and determined to start a new life for herself,” a statement of facts reads.
Muhammed Parvez had called 911 to say he had killed his own daughter, using his hands.
When police entered the home at 8 am, they found her mother, Anwar Jan, hysterical in the basement where emergency responders could not resuscitate Aqsa.
In interview with police, her brother Atishan said he did not feel his sister deserved to die:
But if it was his daughter, he might have broken her legs.
In the days after her death, as the police investigation proceeded, a man who worked with Waqas Parvez – Steve Warda – came forward to say Waqas had asked him how to get a gun because his sister was “causing the family embarrassment” and he intended to kill her and said their father planned to take the blame. Waqas asked him:
What happens to someone in Canada if they kill someone?
In handing down sentence, Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno said he found it:
Profoundly disturbing that a 16-year-old could be murdered by a father and brother for the purpose of saving family pride, for saving them from what they perceived as family embarrassment.
Durno ruled the pair will not be eligible for parole for 18 years, saying that there was evidence of premeditation in the killing and described the plot as coming from:
A twisted and a repugnant mindset.
The sentence, he said, will send an important message to others that would think of committing a crime like this.
In an interview with police, Aqsa’s mother, Anwar Jan Parvez, said 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.
Hat tip: Jim M, Thiago Santos, Canada Dave, BarrieJohn and the many others who sent me links to this report
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
June 17th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Yes – he could have broken her legs. Surely that would have been sufficient punishment for causing the family this embarrassment?
June 17th, 2010 at 10:38 am
I wonder why it was only second degree murder, still I hope he rots in prison.
June 17th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Here’s yet another indefensible story of ‘honour killing’ madness for you. A couple have been tortured slowly to death in Delhi by the family of the girl because the young lovers were from different castes (shock, horror!). What’s worse, the murderers seem rather pleased with themselves for ‘doing the right thing’. Makes for miserable reading I’m afraid.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor.....334529.stm
June 17th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Yet another beautiful young woman destroyed by the religion of peace for its own stone age reasons. Not sure Steve Warda didn’t go to the authorities after being told what he was told. Personally, I’d have been straight on the blower to the police. Not that they could do anything before a crime was committed, I suppose.
Everyone really needs to stop referring to these disgusting acts as “honour killings”. A new term needs to be found.
Let’s have a few suggestions, see what we can come up with.
Here’s mine:
I-put-my-religion-over-my-family murder
My-religion-hates-and-fears-women murder
Inferiority complex murder
Islam says so murder
We’re-still-living-in-the-stone-age murder
I can’t seem to think of anything short enough to be catchy, buzz-wordy and media-friendly like “honour killing”, but I’m sure you good folk can.
Maybe we can start a new trend right here with the right term.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Pete – how about ‘Dishonourable Killing’?
June 17th, 2010 at 11:05 am
(correction to my previous post)
The word “why” is missing from the first paragraph, before “Steve Warda”.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:06 am
@ Marcus
That’s a good one. Not sure it gets across the stupidity of killing your own family because your imaginary friend tells you to though!
June 17th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I’m glad the concept of these people’s ‘hounour’ is not part of Western life, and these people should have been convicted for murder in the first degree, with a real life sentence. As for the right word: god-inspired murder maybe?
June 17th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Appalling on every level. The one thing religion does best is strip you of your humanity, your moral intelligence, your responsibility as a member of the human race to be accountable for your actions.
Honour? Dignity? There is no honour in religion. Only perverted mind control.
These sick fucks should die in prison. Give them time to appreciate the appalling crime they’ve committed against a child who wanted to live like a human being.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Ooo, what about Religicide?
June 17th, 2010 at 11:24 am
And if you speak out against this in Denmark you will be prosecuted for telling the truth
Danish lawmaker to face charges over anti-Muslim comments
COPENHAGEN: The Danish parliament voted on Wednesday to remove a far-right politician’s immunity from prosecution so he can face charges over anti-Muslim comments, parliamentary sources said. Jesper Langballe, a veteran member of the Danish People’s Party (PPD), a crucial ally of the centre-right government, wrote in a newspaper column published in January “Muslims kill their daughters over crimes of honour and turn a blind eye while they are raped by their unclesâ€. The column, which discussed the status of women in Islam and the “Islamisation of Europeâ€, triggered a political storm and his comments were condemned by Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. The crown prosecutor decided to pursue Langballe, on the grounds that his comments broke anti-racism laws and sought the lifting of his parliamentary immunity. afp
June 17th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Crack-pot killing.
Kudos killing.
Junk justice killing.
Can’t cope killing.
Mad evil (medieval) murder.
Religious righteousness murder.
or just good old fashioned Cold blooded murder.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Religious murder.
Ritual killing.
Cult killing.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:53 am
God-made-me-do-it killing.
Blind-faith killing.
Religion-excuses-just-about-anything killing.
June 17th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Alan: Have you read this? They want ANY criticism of Muslim states and people branded Islamophobia now!
http://www.vision.org/visionme.....x?id=31578
June 17th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
To the world at large from a Canadian.
In Canada we take in about 250,000 immigrants from all countries around the world every year.
What most Canadians find distasteful about the immigration process is that many of these people, not all, bring these disgusting cultural systems with them turning my country into something that “it is not”…it is not the Canadian community as a whole that bears the burden of shame for having a crime such as this committed on our soil….it is the “Muslim” community and its tribal belief system that is at fault here.
Anyone that comes to Canada usually does so to begin a new life…..not to have that life taken away by dieing on your bed being choked to depth by your father and brother….these are members of your family that are supposed to love you….but they love religion more…”their honour is more important than your life.”
Even after this horrific crime that took the life a young vibrant girl there are still those in the Muslim community that say she had it coming….Religion is disgusting along with all its trappings…it is simply disgusting….a pox on all of them….how long will it take and how many young girls will have their lives twisted and tortured by old men in funny hats before these culturally backward people are dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world.
June 17th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
barriejohn – I notice in that article you linked to they conveniently don’t mention the fact that it was their lunatics who flew planes into the World Trade Centre, thereby starting the whole ‘us v them’ situation in the first place. Selective memories, I’m afraid.
June 17th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
“What happens to someone in Canada if they kill someone?”
This pathetic and horrifying creature Parvez had been in Canada for six years at the time he committed this murder, yet hadn’t integrated enough to know anything at all about how murder is viewed in Canada. What a complete failure of immigration policy. Perhaps it is time for the western nations to reconsider who gets to enter and who gets to stay…
June 17th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Poor girl. Even reading about her suffering is hard to take. You have to wonder how many thousands of other young muslim girls, in Western countries, are suffering agonies even as I write this and you read it. They see what freedom offers, want some, and are immediately assailed and brutalised by these monsters. This, by the way, is the religion whose “values” Charles Windsor was extolling in a lecture a couple of weeks ago.
June 17th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
They’ve had to put plastic bags over security cameras in parts of Birmingham, because they’ve been accused of “spying on the Muslim community”! No mention of the reasons why crime is so much higher in those areas then!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/eng.....337961.stm
June 17th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
To bolster the idea that it’s more religion than culture here’s a parallel case, also from Ontario. It’ll be interesting to see what the sentences are, assuming a guilty verdict of course:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Cr.....00046.html
June 17th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
poor kid, i take it this is a case of ‘dying for freedom’. When will femanists take up the struggle for muslima emancipation?
*crickets chripping*
June 17th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
@BarrieJohn I notice that the OIC does not deal with how Christians are treated in any of the countries in which the Religion of Peace is practiced. No mention of the plight of the Copts in Egypt or mass jailing rape and murder of Christians for “blasphemy†in Pakistan.
When the OIC says “Islamophobia†what they mean is freedom of speech. They want to impose their own medieval superstition and barbarism on the West
June 17th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Movies and TV programs often depict areas in prisons where the inmates are incredibly violent and vicious toward some of their fellow prisoners, especially toward those convicted of killing children. I sincerely hope and pray that this dramatic presentations are not fictional, that there is such a reality, and that these two disgusting examples of the proud and peaceful religion of Islam are placed into the very worst of these institution on their journey to hell.
June 17th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Sabina calls it what it is.
http://www.hollow-hill.com/sab.....eeeke.html
June 17th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
We already have the perfect terminology for this type of crime, it’s called murder. The media should refer to it as that and only that. That way, maybe these morons would come to realise that that is how we consider it, murder.
I also object to the term “islamophobia” being continually bandied about. A phobia is an irrational fear. I do not fear islam, I dislike it and my dislike is quite rational.
As for the OIC wanting respect for religion, they can poke that one where the sun don’t shine. I do not respect religion and see no reason to do so.
June 17th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Deity Inspired Murder or DIM for short.
June 17th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
” When will femanists take up the struggle for muslima emancipation?
*crickets chripping*”
Yeah, those feminist bitches, what’s their problem.
Here’s a news flash: many feminists already have taken up the struggle for muslima emancipation. Some feminists are captive to the stupid idea that it is colonialist to advocate feminism universally, but only some. Many many feminists are adamantly universalist.
There’s a nasty boys’ club tone to this place that is beginning to put me off it.
June 17th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
From Sweden.
muslims tray to kill Sweden artists so we do this.
Help to cure muslim children from islam and send this info to there internet HOME page.
When mohammed was 50 year old he marry a 9 year old child (Aisha) so he was a fucking pedophile and a slave owner so fuck him.
Girls read quran sura bina 60.
Watch and read mohammed T-shirt art from Sweden at,
http://www.mohammedt-shirt.com
Not mine ip nrâ€
June 17th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Dprosenthal: British prisons seem to be virtually run by gangs of Muslims nowadays, so if theses scum were imprisoned here I guess that they would be treated as heroes!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/soci.....on.ukcrime
June 17th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Dogon
Sounds just like the UK…
Coward Killings
June 17th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
@ Ophelia. You’re absolutely right. I’d wager no one here read that link I posted above.
the money quote from Marcus’ non-muslims:
“If they wanted to kill their daughter, that’s okay. But they shouldn’t have killed our boy”
June 17th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
@Non Euclidean. I agree with the “coward killings.” The victims are usually young girls, or indeed infants when they are being mutilated (FGM), the perpetrator has total power and is able to enforce this up to and including death. The victim has no way of responding. She has to take it and that includes both emotional and physical abuse. Add to that their penchant for forcing young women to marry middle aged, bearded, fat and probably smelly men. The horror scarcely bears thinking about. How many hours of bitter tears are shed by these poor girls? How they must long for the relaxed freedom they see around them.
June 17th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
I have a teenage daughter and cannot even imagine doing what this utter barbarian has done. My love for her is completely unconditional but in any case, the values that my wife and myself have taught her are based on a sound foundation of reality, rather than a book of seventh century barbaric drivel.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just ship these animals to another planet where they could butt the rug and slaughter each other without civilised people having to give them another thought?
June 17th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Uzza, well I read your link, and I posted it in the News section of my website and then did a post on it.
The other money quote was “what would any parent do?”
June 17th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
@ graham martin-royle, totally agree about ‘islamophobia’, a phobia by definition is an irrastional fear. My misgivings about pislam are rational.
@ ophelia, thanks for the enlightenment, provide links.
Totally o.t. Here but, sunday, 20/06/10 is a demo by one law foe all, run by apostate maryam namazie, 2pm outside richmond terrace junction (nearest tube westminester). Be there or wish you owned a pair!
June 17th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
“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.”
It’s all me, me, me – even the ‘you’ refers to himself.
June 17th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
@uzza
I read the link, a very good piece. Mentioned something that I still have a problem with, the whole “giving away” of a bride. It’s been in every marriage ceremony i’ve ever been to, from high church to jewish, from religious to secular. Everyone appears to want it, they don’t even think what it actually means. A woman is owned by a man, starts off with the father and she is then handed over to her new owner, her groom. I think that nowadays it has just become a tradition and people want their dad to have his part in the ceremony but it still feels wrong to me. “obey” got kicked out years ago, isn’t it time we started questioning “giving away”?
June 17th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
The thing that always causes me to raise my eyebrows is the fact that almost all western women take their husband’s name upon marriage. Does no one else consider this an archaic and sexist practice?
June 18th, 2010 at 12:37 am
The woman taking the man’s name – agreed, it’s quite bizarre really. But such anachronistic behaviour is just as readily accepted as wedding lists, hiring a photographer, seating plans and writing the invitations. It’s just how it is, this is what happens at a wedding so… this is what happens at a wedding. There is so much faffing around with weddings, virtually all of it pointless, that a bit more fluff is neither her nor there. I know women who really got a kick out of changing their name, as if it validated their marriage somehow, something had to be sacrificed to make it count, or real or…? I dunno. Most of the woman I have in mind would not hesitate to call themselves feminists and some are dyed in the wool ‘knit your own muesli’ Guardian readers, like myself.
I think there is something in this overlooking which speaks volumes about how deep a hold entrenched cultural positions have on us. Even the most modern and liberal freethinking people revert to type in some situations, especially when the nearest and dearest get keyed up and the rituals are dusted down.
I have discussed this with my partner, who was raised in a Hindu household, although an atheist. I was raised by non-practicing Jew/Catholic parents. She very much agreed it was a bizarre concept but didn’t think I’d have much luck finding anyone interested in hearing my thoughts on it, or ready to hear our side of things when we marry but nobody changes their identity. We’ll just be us, only married.
She did raise the question of what surname kids would have. She seems to think people will get very freaky on this one, probably my parents but perhaps hers too. But also society at large, on such matters everyone has an opinion, at least she thinks so.
What do you all think? Presumably some of you here have married and had children? Does it matter to you?
The thing with ‘harmless traditions’ is that I’m rarely in the camp defining what ‘harmless’ means.
June 18th, 2010 at 2:02 am
well Barrie my wife certainly didn’t take my name when we got married nor did I for a moment expect her to, want her to or think she would. nor did anyone give her away, or me either……we have a partnership not a hierarchical paternal or maternal clan group. Some people are a little confused about how to address us – some of her, and my, more conservative family members write to us as “Mr&Mrs sailor1031″, others “Sailor1031 & Virginia”, others “Virginia & sailor1031″….whatever their personal concept happens to be; it doesn’t matter. We are living our lives the way we want to and we don’t care about the expectations, or prejuduces of others, Just, as I’ve noticed, they don’t actually give a rat’s ass what we think about their domestic arrangements.
Surely we’re no longer religious because we’ve rejected all those customs and forms that today have no meaning for us.
June 18th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Where is the honour in making your community look like a bunch of backward savages?
If the perpetrator’s viewpoint is one of communal identification and concern for shame, would it not be better if the punishment communicated to the offender the insult and damage that their offence has caused to the reputation of their peers? The liberal view of justice balks at identifying the actions of an individual with the reputation of a group, but to what extent is this relevant when punishing someone who clearly doesn’t share this liberal view? It may be suggested that the liberal view is the ideal to which all should aspire, but (as advocates of multiculturalism often ask)why should we all aspire to it?
June 18th, 2010 at 11:42 am
My wife didn’t take my name when we got married either.
She’s American, and apparently it’s not so unusual over there, for ladies to keep their own name after marriage.
Also, she was 45 when we got married, and so she’d had her name a lot longer than many brides, and didn’t want the hassle of getting used to a new one/changing it on all her documentation (in two countries).
It is an archaic practice, when you think about it. I guess it goes back to when the wife was considered the husband’s property.
*isn’t bothered in the slightest that his wife has a different surname*
June 18th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I hope these two muslim idiots never again see the light of day, if these ass hats want to live in the west then they should obey the law of the west and not the law of some bullshit religion. If it was up to me they would be drowned in the blood of pigs and buried with their asses facing mecca.
June 18th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
It’s easy for all u guys to throw all the blame at Islam, sitting outside and judging it by what Muslims do! That’s unfair! If you want to know what Islam is about, read the Quran, the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)..judging it by what Muslims, who may have a very ill-formed idea of it is just plain dumb. Islam does not allow killing of people just because they refuse to follow the dress code ordained bt it…yes, it asks women to cover their heads but if they don’t choose to, it’s their own choice, something between them and God, a decision not to be interfered into by ANYONE else! Compare this to what the Bible says in the first Corinthian, calling for the shaving of the head of the women who do not cover their heads! Islam is only under fire because it is by far the most practiced religion (true many people are following their own twisted, distorted version of it but still)
June 18th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Well, A Muslim, you say that, but what have you done to prevent these things being done in your name and in the name of Mohammed?
People insult Mohammed, outcry. People kill children and blame Mohammed, silence.
June 19th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Most Muslim apologists and also some gullible westerners want to argue that the ‘so called “honor killing†is not Islamic and it’s a tribal/cultural vice.’ This statement is utterly untrue and only a wish full covers up. It’s true that in pre-Islamic Arab culture this heinous honor killing of women did exist; likewise, many other uncivilized practices like stoning, flogging, beheading, slavery etc also existed in the pre-Islamic Arab society. But Islam did incorporate entirely most of these inhumane/uncivilized practices of pagan society, which they now call them Allah’s laws.
Had it been the tribal/cultural practice, ‘honor killing’ would exist amongst the Arabs only. But honor killing does happen amongst the non-Arab Muslims also. Also Arabs belonged to all religions (Muslims, Christians, Jews, Bhai etc.) would practice honor killing with equal prevalence. Fact of the matter is—no Arab Christians, Jews or Bahai etc do practice this uncivilized act at all. Only Arab Muslims do practice this heinous act with a regular pattern.
http://www.islam-watch.org/Sye.....illing.htm
June 19th, 2010 at 12:32 am
For some reason this has reminded me about an experience of dealing with an apologist in the police force, of all places.
We had been having some trouble with an old landlord who was dragging his feet and not complying with his legal obligations. Basically we had a boiler which was condemned as dangerous and he was obliged to replace it. This was expensive so he just stopped answering our calls. He kept wanting the rent though and showed up when we wrote to tell him the rnet was being paid on time and held by a solicitor who he could now deal with, etc. Anyway said landlord showed up in a rage and attempted to physically attack one of our guests. I think he had convinced himself our guest was a boiler installation engineer and we would forward the bill to him. Hard to say, he was a paranoid nutcase so…
Anyway this thing was this, my partner rang 999 and spoke to the operator and asked for the police to send someone around immediately. By now he’d got into the house and I was breaking up a brawl on the stairs. They asked my partner’s name, which is an Asian name and there was a significant pause. Then the operator came back on the line and asked if this was considered normal in my partner’s culture. If it was then they couldn’t send anyone over as cultural norms must be respected. We had a raving maniac trying to seriously wound someone and the police we’re deciding whether to show up or not on the basis or race/religion/culture, in itself judged by an exotic sounding name.
After insisting they agreed to send a police car, which took a very long time and arrived with no blue lights or fanfare. They parked outside, waved a neighbour over (an Asian man) and he told them he didn’t know anything about anything as he was just going for a paper or whatever. This satisfied them that they ought to be elsewhere and they drove off. Didn’t even get out fo the car. Meanwhile I had to literally drag this guy into the street single-handedly.
I just was left feeling that if I had given my name then it would have all been so different. There are a lot of Hindu families in my street but no Muslim families that I’m aware of. The whole incident seemed to be treated as an ethnic thing, based on our address and the name of the person making the call.
Across town there is a large Muslim area. What happens to the women there with exotic names who ring for help in an emergency reporting a violent man on the premises? My hunch is that the police keep the fuck out of it, not wanting to rock the boat. We may not have Sharia law in the UK but to all intents and purposes there are postcodes where it’s effectively in place already.
Really shitty. This is where my tax goes?
Apologies for the venting, this thread has tapped into some poisonous memories I’ve been incubating.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
@j
that is disgusting. i don’t know how long ago this incident was but you should register a complaint with the ipc.
June 19th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Local tribal custom, they tell us, nothing to do with religion.
Islam ‘submission’ – the faith requiring complete submission to the will of Allah and covering every aspect of life at every level of society.
Well then, all those nasty un-Islamic practices so prevalent in Muslim societies – why aren’t they as rare as eating pork?
_____
June 20th, 2010 at 8:23 am
I do realize that I live in a patriarchal society. I say this to preface my argument because I realize it was part of my upbringing. That said, when the topic of my fiancee’s name came up, I was a bit apprehensive. Down here in the southern US, the few women who do keep their names are typically doctors or Ph. D.’s who need the recognition for practice or research. Almost all other wives take their husbands’ names. On the one hand, it does make it easier for the kids (I think the religious practice aspect of it had roots in the anti-inbreeding portion, though of course the bible has several stories seemingly condoning inbreeding). On the other hand, we could consider taking the wife’s name, e.g. Japan, to keep the lineage aspect.
Either way, having a distinguished name I feel can encourage laziness (standing on the shoulders of one’s forbears). The hyphenated name is definitely a possibility, though I think with all the tendency of humanity to compress information, e.g. information transfer, it wouldn’t take very long for children to abandon it.
At any rate, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about the issue. On the one hand, I don’t want to stop her being who she is. Also, the prospect of one or both our names having to change is daunting. On the other, I’d like our children to have our name and would honestly prefer that to be mine (selfish, I know, but it’s a feeling and I don’t apologize for having it, only if I acted solely on it). We had the discussion, and I found out she was already wanting to take my name. I felt relieved and somewhat saddened at the same time as she will be the last one in her family to bear that surname. I don’t really have any advice on this subject, except that both people should talk it over and come to an agreement, because if a marriage starts with one being the leader and the other following, then there will be problems.
Also, though it has changed from the father simply giving the bride away to him announcing “Her mother and I do,” I will still try to prevent her dad from saying anything about giving away if I can.