Father charged with murdering daughter allegedly for not wearing hijab

Father charged with murdering daughter allegedly for not wearing hijab

TORONTO (AFP) — The devout Muslim father of a 16-year-old girl, whose friends say was killed for not wearing a hijab, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the case, and denied bail.

Aqsa Parvez died Monday night in hospital after being attacked in her home in a suburb of Toronto.

Police have not commented on any motive in the case.

But the girl's friends said Parvez frequently clashed with her estranged family over her reluctance to wear a traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab.

"She would tell us how her dad would always yell at her and how he wanted her to be someone else," her friend Natalie Rance, 14, told the daily Toronto Star.

"Her dad wanted her to be a person who followed the religion. But she wanted to follow her own rules, wear her own clothes. But her dad wouldn't let her do that."

Police said in a statement they received an emergency call at 7:55 am local time Monday from "a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter."

In fact, the girl clung to life for hours after she was rushed to hospital, said officials, without disclosing the nature of her injuries.

Her father, cab driver Muhammad Parvez, 57, was arrested at the scene.

The victim's 26 year-old brother Waqas was also charged with obstructing police in the investigation.

According to her friends, Aqsa had worn the hijab at school last year, but rebelled in recent months.

They said she would leave home wearing a hijab and loose-fitting clothes, but would take off her head scarf and change into tighter garments at school, then change back before going home at the end of the day.

Two weeks ago, she left home for the second time in three months, and had been staying with a friend. According to reports, she returned to her parents' home Monday only to collect her belongings.

Wendy Horton, executive director of a Toronto shelter where Parvez found refuge during a previous altercation with her father, told the Star the root cause of their strife is not uncommon.

Immigrant parents want their children to remain faithful to traditional ways but find themselves at odds with kids growing up in Western society. "It creates a lot of tension," she told the paper.

The Parvez family had emigrated from Pakistan, she noted.

Across Canada, the killing has taken on larger proportions, with many using it to more broadly indict fundamentalist Islam, and one Internet blogger going as far as suggesting a boycott of all taxicabs driven by Muslims.

But a spokesman for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) said he is dubious of opinions the girl's death resulted from a clash of cultures.

"Teen rebellion is something that exists in all households in Canada and is not unique to any culture or background," CAIR-CAN's Sameer Zuberi told AFP. "Domestic violence is also not unique to Muslims."

The death of Parvez "was the result of domestic violence, a problem that cuts across Canadian society and is blind to color or creed," echoed Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association.

The two groups and 18 other Muslim groups in an open letter to prosecutors asked for the strongest possible prosecution of her killer, and "zero tolerance for violence of any kind against women or girls."

Dressed in orange prison garb, Muhammad Parvez appeared unemotional during his brief court appearance, muttering his responses to the judge. His next court date is scheduled for January 29.

Outside the courtroom, one of the victim's seven siblings, Sean Parvez, told reporters, "We don't know" what led to the assault.