Feminists use Muslim girl's death while ignoring difficult issues in Toronto's first honor killing

by: Salaam

Thu Nov 13, 2008 at 10:49:38 AM EST

Salaam writes: The Mary Rogan article that is the object of the complaints is here. Yes, the protesters are correct in asserting that Islam does not sanction murder and violence. But the protesters favor an abstract feminist intellectual construct of domestic violence (systematic power and control by men), thereby obscuring and ignoring the fact that these killings are ignited at the cultural nexus of religion and male control of women's bodies, ie, religious men's fanatical concern with female modesty, imparted to them from the strident conservative modality of Islam.
In fact, I see the non-Muslim feminists position here as particularly unsavory: They come with an agenda, essentially using the case as a platform to promote their generic complaint about gender-based violence in the larger society, thereby leaving the motivations of Parvez's killers unaddressed, thereby pulling the blanket over social dynamics in the Muslim community that will lead to other honor killings. Their attitude toward the specific problem of honor killings is glib, unserious - a position in which they are quickly supported by Muslim apologists who may be more concerned with the reputation of the religion than with the death of the teenager, or preventing the death of other teenagers like Parvez.

I also disagree with the assertion that one person quoted here makes which says the article equates Islam with domestic violence.

A coalition of Muslim, immigrant and feminist groups gathered in Toronto Tuesday to express their unhappiness over a magazine article about the killing of Aqsa Parvez.
The story by Mary Rogan in Toronto Life's December issue gives an account of Parvez's final months, suggesting that she was killed because she wasn't adhering strictly enough to her family's view of how a Muslim woman should dress.
Her father and brother have been charged in connection with the death of the 16-year-old.
The group protesting the article particularly objects to the headline on the article, which describes Parvez's death as Toronto's first "honour killing."
The Toronto Life article "serves to fuel myths and stereotypes that harm Muslim women and their communities and that distract from the real issues of gender-based violence against women," said Cindy McCowan, executive director of Interim Place, one of the organizations protesting the story.
"Violence against women is about the systematic power and control by men, and the assertion that Miss Parvez's murder was because she was Muslim or due to Islam is based in both racism and Islamophobia. Violence against women is not a value in any culture or faith community," she said.
Summaya Kassamali said the way the article is written equates Islam with domestic violence.
"It sort of implies that anyone who grows up Muslim - and they are taught there are certain things God wants, or there are certain requirements - is automatically subject to violence," she told CBC News. Story here.

Salaam :: Feminists use Muslim girl's death while ignoring difficult issues in Toronto's first honor killing