The double life of Aqsa Parvez

Police have charged a Mississauga, Ont. man with second degree murder in connection with the death of his teenage daughter.

Aqsa Parvez, 16, was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries on Monday after police said a man claiming to be the girl's father called them and said he had killed his daughter. Katie Rook and Amy Smithers write about the line Aqsa Parvez straddled before her death:

Aqsa Parvez was a well-liked Muslim girl who, classmates say, had been experimenting for months with the arrangement of her hijab.

She finally decided to go without the Islamic head scarf in September. It was a gradual change classmates say they were indifferent toward, but one which some members of her family had difficulty accepting... (more)

Are these Muslims any more unforgiving than Catholic Christians were in the Middle Ages?

Read on if you'd like to learn more about REAL Muslims!

An interesting video making the rounds on features young Muslim women discussing why they wear hijab.

From Roba's blog: "I thought this little video that discusses hijab with several young East Asian Muslims is really interesting. They have a lot of the prevalent stereotypes; the fashionista, the extremist, the “cool believer”, and the one who seriously believes in it completely out of her own conviction."

Watch the VIDEO

Back in 2004, I interviewed people involved with the film “Nothing To Hide,” which tells the story of Iman, a Muslim girl who struggles to be an American teen-ager while preserving her outward image and identity as a Muslim. HERE'S A SNIP OF WHAT I POSTED AT THAT TIME:

Schenectady High School junior Sharara Kazimi stars as Iman; other students acted in and worked behind the scenes on the movie, produced over the summer by High School Fine Arts teacher Tom Sarnacki for the Blue Roses Theatre Company’s annual Festival of Short Films. The event was held in July at Proctor’s Theatre and at the High School.

The movie was written by High School English teacher Noura Badawi, a 26 year old Muslim woman who has taught at Schenectady for three years.

“`Nothing To Hide’” tells a story about recognizing the inner beauty in ourselves and becoming comfortable in one’s own skin in order to find inner peace, said Badawi, who also appears in the film. “As an American Muslim, I feel that although Islam and Muslims are covered daily in the news, the American public has not been exposed to Muslims as everyday Americans who sometimes struggle with what it means to be American and Muslim.”

I think no one says it better (what it means to be American and Muslim) than a dear friend, who guest-blogged for me in 2005. Read:
"A young girl's response to anti-Islamic sentiment."

Tags: Aqsa Parvez, Aqsa Parvez