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Teen clings to life, dad in custody
The suggestion of violent disputes between a 16-year-old girl in Mississauga and her father over her desire to show her hair and live a "normal" lifestyle raises questions about tensions between parents and children in the Muslim community.
Mississauga father charged in attack on girl; classmates say she argued with family over hijab
Dec 11, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Wilkes
Staff Reporter
Friends suspect a clash of cultures led to an attack in a Mississauga home yesterday that has left a 16-year-old girl clinging to life and her father facing an attempted murder charge.
A source said the teen was strangled and is not expected to survive.
School chums of Aqsa Parvez, a Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights Secondary School, say the teen had been arguing with her devout Muslim family for months over her desire to shun the hijab, a traditional shoulder-length head scarf.
Pal Ebonie Mitchell, 16, and other friends said Aqsa still wore the hijab to school last year, but rebelled against dressing in it this fall.
They said she would leave home wearing the traditional garment and loose clothing, but would often change into tighter garments at school.
She would change back for the bus trip home.
"Sometimes she even changed her whole outfit in the washroom at school," Mitchell said.
Peel Region police went to the family's Longhorn Trail home about 8 a.m. yesterday after a man called police, said Const. J.P. Valade.
Paramedics rushed Parvez to a Mississauga hospital after finding a faint pulse.
She was transferred in grave condition to a hospital in Toronto.
She is being kept alive on life support as family members decide whether to donate her organs for transplant, the source said.
Neighbours described the family as very private and said several members from three generations have lived in the two-storey home, near Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave., for just over two years.
"I was shocked," said Fatima Domingos, a mother of two daughters. "I have a 20 year old and a 14 year old and I couldn't imagine ever coming across something like that.
"It's sad. I hope she makes it. It's close to Christmas. At any time of the year this is a tragedy."
Neighbours said the father drives for Mississauga's Blue and White Taxi. A company official declined to comment.
The teen was known to her classmates and Facebook friends as Axa. She posted several pictures of herself on the website in colourful clothes and accessories.
At Aqsa's high school, friends gathered in groups, struggling to come to grips with what happened and lamenting how she had quarrelled with her father to the point that she recently moved out to live with a friend.
"She said she was always scared of her dad, she was always scared of her brother ... and she's not scared of nobody," said classmate Ashley Garbutt, 16.
"She didn't want to go home ... to the point where she actually wanted to go to shelters."
Friends said the root of her problems was a desire to blend in with friends at school, to wear the fashionable clothes she liked to buy on trips to Toronto's garment district, where she went with friends just last month.
"She liked fashion," said Mitchell. "We went to different stores; she was shopping; she bought lots of clothes."
"She loved clothes, she loved shopping and she loved taking pictures of herself," classmate Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, 16, said outside the school as friends sobbed at the news.
"She just wanted to show her beauty. She just wanted freedom, freedom from her parents."
"She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person," said Holmes-Thompson.
"She was a very kind person, she was really nice; everybody loved her."
Friend Shianne Phillips, 16, said she last spoke with Aqsa on Friday.
"She was crying and she was like `I'm really scared to go home. I don't know what I'm going to do.' And that was it," Phillips said.
Muhammad Parvez, 57, is to appear in a Brampton court today where he is expected to be formally charged.
The area has had other troubles lately. Last month, about two blocks away from where the girl was found, police investigated an apparent murder-suicide.
Maria Del Carmen Villaman de los Santos, 51, was found dead at 25 Trailwood Dr. on Nov. 29.
Her husband, 60, was taken to hospital.
Peel Police had expected to charge him with the slaying of his wife, but the man died two days later.
The suggestion of violent disputes between a 16-year-old girl in Mississauga and her father over her desire to show her hair and live a "normal" lifestyle raises questions about tensions between parents and children in the Muslim community.
Mississauga father charged in attack on girl; classmates say she argued with family over hijab
Dec 11, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Wilkes
Staff Reporter
Friends suspect a clash of cultures led to an attack in a Mississauga home yesterday that has left a 16-year-old girl clinging to life and her father facing an attempted murder charge.
A source said the teen was strangled and is not expected to survive.
School chums of Aqsa Parvez, a Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights Secondary School, say the teen had been arguing with her devout Muslim family for months over her desire to shun the hijab, a traditional shoulder-length head scarf.
Pal Ebonie Mitchell, 16, and other friends said Aqsa still wore the hijab to school last year, but rebelled against dressing in it this fall.
They said she would leave home wearing the traditional garment and loose clothing, but would often change into tighter garments at school.
She would change back for the bus trip home.
"Sometimes she even changed her whole outfit in the washroom at school," Mitchell said.
Peel Region police went to the family's Longhorn Trail home about 8 a.m. yesterday after a man called police, said Const. J.P. Valade.
Paramedics rushed Parvez to a Mississauga hospital after finding a faint pulse.
She was transferred in grave condition to a hospital in Toronto.
She is being kept alive on life support as family members decide whether to donate her organs for transplant, the source said.
Neighbours described the family as very private and said several members from three generations have lived in the two-storey home, near Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave., for just over two years.
"I was shocked," said Fatima Domingos, a mother of two daughters. "I have a 20 year old and a 14 year old and I couldn't imagine ever coming across something like that.
"It's sad. I hope she makes it. It's close to Christmas. At any time of the year this is a tragedy."
Neighbours said the father drives for Mississauga's Blue and White Taxi. A company official declined to comment.
The teen was known to her classmates and Facebook friends as Axa. She posted several pictures of herself on the website in colourful clothes and accessories.
At Aqsa's high school, friends gathered in groups, struggling to come to grips with what happened and lamenting how she had quarrelled with her father to the point that she recently moved out to live with a friend.
"She said she was always scared of her dad, she was always scared of her brother ... and she's not scared of nobody," said classmate Ashley Garbutt, 16.
"She didn't want to go home ... to the point where she actually wanted to go to shelters."
Friends said the root of her problems was a desire to blend in with friends at school, to wear the fashionable clothes she liked to buy on trips to Toronto's garment district, where she went with friends just last month.
"She liked fashion," said Mitchell. "We went to different stores; she was shopping; she bought lots of clothes."
"She loved clothes, she loved shopping and she loved taking pictures of herself," classmate Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, 16, said outside the school as friends sobbed at the news.
"She just wanted to show her beauty. She just wanted freedom, freedom from her parents."
"She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person," said Holmes-Thompson.
"She was a very kind person, she was really nice; everybody loved her."
Friend Shianne Phillips, 16, said she last spoke with Aqsa on Friday.
"She was crying and she was like `I'm really scared to go home. I don't know what I'm going to do.' And that was it," Phillips said.
Muhammad Parvez, 57, is to appear in a Brampton court today where he is expected to be formally charged.
The area has had other troubles lately. Last month, about two blocks away from where the girl was found, police investigated an apparent murder-suicide.
Maria Del Carmen Villaman de los Santos, 51, was found dead at 25 Trailwood Dr. on Nov. 29.
Her husband, 60, was taken to hospital.
Peel Police had expected to charge him with the slaying of his wife, but the man died two days later.
What a waste.
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