Next month is the anniversary of Aqsa Parvez’s death, a 16 year old Muslim girl from Toronto who was murdered at the hands of her family.     

To commemorate her life, Toronto Life has produced a cover page feature on Aqsa for their December 2008 issue which can be found online here.

In response to this full feature coverage, a group of young Muslim women and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) have organized against what they see as the misrepresentation of the issue.

In a press conference held on November 10th, 2008, they noted that this type of media coverage of Aqsa’s death perpetuates “common stereotypes about Muslim and immigrant communities” and diverts attention from the larger context of violence against women. Other groups at the press conference, such as METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children), and the CCMW (Canadian Council on Muslim Women) similarly spoke out about the Toronto Life (mis)representation.

I want to say that I was impressed by the articulate and insightful responses the young women speaking gave to the media, because I was. I don’t mean this in the condescending sense where people are often surprised that young people can speak clearly to their experiences and form arguments and opinions. My impression came from the sense that Aqsa’s death and the experiences she had (intergenerational and cultural conflict, and domestic and gendered violence) are hard issues to talk about, especially if you identify with any of her struggles. And many of the women there did. But they didn’t shy away from producing strong statements about why they found Toronto Life’s article both misrepresentative and offensive on many fronts, despite the difficult nature and context surrounding Aqsa’s life and death. For a more comprehensive look at the debate, read the article on Aqsa and take a look at the links below, especially the Facebook group.

To read more about how youth are responding to how a peer’s death is being discussed in the media, visit the Aqsa Facebook group.     Coverage of the press conference can be found here: CBC - “Muslim, Women’s Groups Protest Article on ‘Honour Killing’ of T.O. Girl” MastheadOnline - ”Critics: Toronto Life feature ‘puts a whole religious community on trial’” Torontoist - “Aqsaing For It”