The memory of Aqsa Parvez is seared in my mind. As a Muslim father of two daughters and an uncle to at least a dozen nieces, I am aware of the enormous pressures that Muslim girls face as they are forced to become the flag bearers of Islam. All this while their brothers -- de facto guardians of their sisters' honour -- are set free to enjoy the pleasures of youth.

One way these daughters and sisters are kept in check is to force them to don the Arab headdress, the hijab; not the Pakistani duppata, nor the colourful Sudanese headscarf, or the Bangladeshi pallu, but the Muslim-Brotherhood-prescribed hijab. Aqsa Parvez, like millions of Muslim girls around the world, said no to the hijab. For refusing to wrap her head with a piece of cloth, the Mississauga, Ont. teenager paid with her life, at her family's own hands, on Dec. 20, 2007.

One would have expected the media to have some sensitivity towards the murdered Aqsa Parvez; show some respect for the wishes of the dead child. This is why many Muslim Canadians were enraged when they discovered that the Toronto Star had sent a reporter who has for years advocated and celebrated the hijab and niqab, to cover the guilty pleas of the father-son team that killed Aqsa.

When the Star assigned the story to reporter Noor Javed -- who is of Pakistani descent, wears the hijab at work, and has written in glowing terms about her own hijab wardrobe -- it was a crass act that reflected at best an ignorance about the case. At worst, it cast insult on the memory of a dead child.

In her story, Ms. Javed asked the rhetorical question, "Was this the GTA's first honour killing? Or was Parvez simply a domineering father, who feared losing control of his youngest daughter?" Her dubious conclusion: "Experts say it's a debate with no resolution."

Ms. Javed interviewed "community activist" Uzma Shakir, who tried her best to dilute the Crown's position and the family members' own admissions-- clearly indicating that this was a classic honour killing -- by saying, "What makes you think you understand this person's notion of honour?"

"At the time of Aqsa's murder in 2007, it was believed that she had been killed for simply refusing to wear a hijab, as her friends told the media following her death," Ms. Javed wrote. "However, the statement of facts read in court shows the situation inside the Parvez household was much more complex. It was never about imposing religious doctrine on Aqsa, it was simply about controlling every aspect of her life."

The reporter tried to argue that the murder had to do with generic "domestic violence," not honour. Toward this end, she quoted "community worker" Nikhat Rasheed, who put the focus on the economic rigors of life in Canada, declaring: "This whole [immigration] process puts a lot of tension between parents and children -- and it can create stress in the family ... There are a lot of adjustment issues, and violence is one very ugly way that some people deal with it."

The Star was not alone in acting as an apologist for fundamentalist Islam. Within days of the tragedy, a group of clerics addressed a press conference at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). While denouncing Aqsa's murder, they tried desperately to deflect the overriding factor in Aqsa' Parvez murder--the hijab.

Denying the killing had anything to do with Islamic teachings, Alaa El-Sayyed, imam of the ISNA mosque in Mississauga, contradicted himself by saying, "If we stay away from the teachings of Islam, we will pay for it." And then, to denigrate the dead child who refused to wear the hijab, he said, "Women who wear hijabs occupy higher positions in Islam, according to religious teachings."

Almost all Islamic organizations, except for the Muslim Canadian Congress, rhymed the mantra: It's just another case of domestic violence. It happens in all faiths and communities.

Over the years, I have come to expect nothing of value from Islamist clerics who are inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. However, in the case of Aqsa Parvez, it is not just the mosques and Islamic centres where the Islamist apologists are heard.

There are millions of Muslim women around the world who feel imprisoned in the hijab and trapped in the niqab. Aqsa Parvez to them was a hero; one young Torontonian woman told me: "Aqsa Parvez was a martyr for Muslim women's rights."

For years, the Toronto Star has placed most liberal or secular Muslims on their "no-fly-list." Muslim women such as authors Raheel Raza and Farzana Hassan, who occasionally wrote for that paper, have now been effectively silenced. Although both have written about the Aqsa Parvez case, the Star did not approach them for comment or for any Muslim women who felt the case was a true example of an honour killing.

What a disgrace to Aqsa Parvez's legacy.

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- Tarek Fatah is author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State. His next book, The Jew is Not My Enemy (McClelland & Stewart) will be on bookshelves this October.

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