Actually, Aqsa's death was on 10th December, 2007. So this article I posted was late by a week. But the issue never cease to persist. A story of defiance, and oppressions. A young girl, killed by her father and brother for refusing to conform to the religious values her family upholds for life.
Aqsa, then a 16 years old girl of Pakistani origin living in Ontario, Canada, was killed after she refused to wear a hijab and declared her desire to define her own identity (that included wearing clothes she chose, which apparently angered her pious family). A cheerful person who had a passion for music and dance, Aqsa was deeply loved by her friends (even up to this day they never forget to put flowers on her un-named tombstone, i'll get into that later. And set up a foundation to help oppressed teenagers). After her death, many of her friends claimed that during her live, she refused to wear the veil and would often change her clothing once she got to school, then change them back before going home.
A newsbreak by CBC reporyting Aqsa's killing a year ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpV_cJ5E0wQ&feature=related
I told you I'll get back to the story of her tombstone. After that one year, the only thing remains from Aqsa, is just a number '774' crafted by the cemetery employee in the Meadowvale Cemetery, Brampton. No name, no birth date, no date of death. No nothing.
Tarek Fatah, founder of Muslim Canadian Congress and author of Chasing a Mirage who admitted that he was disgusted by the killing said "A victim of an honour killing is always left in an unmarked grave. Imagine caring more about your faith than your child? When this happens, it shows they don't give a damn about her and the fact a family has chosen to not put the name on a grave proves the point that they are embarrassed and gives an insight into honour killings."
Other said that the grave has no headstone because neither the family nor the community wanted one for her. Aqsa's family adopted a Wahabi belief, which are said to be against headstones. They claim it is worshipping the dead, which was forbidden by the religion.
Whatever the reason is, Aqsa's resting place is kept anonymous by her family, probably also as a symbol stressed by her sanctimonious community to deny her short-lived existence of non-conformity. The whole concept has became too familiar for me here, in our country... where the religious authority begun imposing values and tries to hush the non-conformists with violence, even with legal law...
Our UU-Anti Pornografi has been legitimized, it's now legal in our country to punish and criminalize woman who defy that pseudo-concept of virtuous clothing. I'm now counting the days where there will be more cases like Aqsa's here happening in our country. It may happen in ten years, it may happen in five years, or as short as tomorrow (remember, after the fall of Shah it only took Iran two years to become a nation full of religious fascists and their sick religious implementations), for all I know, it WILL happen. If we don't do anything about it. Are we going to defy?
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