CANADA: “Justice for Jassi” petition
Posted by Joanne Payton on Saturday, June 30, 2007 (21:40:30) (1305 reads)

No one deserves to be killed for love

A petition that seeks Justice for Jassi who was murdered by her family after traditional values clashed with love.

Beautician Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu from Maple Ridge, British Columbia was kidnapped, tortured and killed in June 2000.
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Domestic violence; ‘Gender bias’ alleged as B.C. A-G speaks out
Brian Hutchinson, National Post Published: Saturday, April 07, 2007

VANCOUVER – Wally Oppal, B.C.’s Attorney-General, called it a “cancer” in the province’s Indo-Canadian community. He was speaking about domestic violence. Specifically spousal assault: Husbands beating their wives. Sometimes killing them.

For being blunt, Mr. Oppal was taken to task by some of his fellow Indo-Canadians. They implied he was a self-loathing traitor to his ethnicity and culture.

That was five months ago, after a string of murders and violent episodes involving Indo-Canadians in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. Two women had just lost their lives, allegedly at the hands of their husbands. Another Indo-Canadian woman had been shot in the face and was permanently blinded. Her husband then shot himself and died.

Paramjit Singh Ghuman had already been charged once for beating his wife, Gurjeet Kaur Ghuman, a Port Coquitlam nurse. Mr. Ghuman was on bail at the time he committed his final assault.

And now two more women have been killed. On Thursday, about 70 women gathered in Vancouver’s Punjabi market to honour the deceased and to protest the violence that continues. Indo-Canadian women continue to die, apparently for no reason other than being young, independent of spirit — and married to Indo-Canadian men.

Navneet Kaur did not show up for work last week in Phoenix, Arizona. Her husband, a Vancouver man named Avtar Grewal, was apparently in town; career paths kept the couple apart but Mr. Grewal was known to fly to Phoenix from time to time.

Colleagues went to Ms. Kaur’s house and found signs of a struggle. They saw blood. Police were called and they discovered Ms. Kaur’s lifeless body inside the house. She was 30 years old.

Her husband, meanwhile, was on a flight to India. Mr. Grewal, 35, was apprehended in New Delhi and is now in Indian custody awaiting possible extradition to the United States where he may face charges in relation to his wife’s death.

Those familiar with the couple have said Mr. Grewal did not like being separated from his wife, and wanted her to leave her job at a Phoenix-based medical services company where she was a software engineer.

Members of Ms. Kaur’s family are reported to have said that “many restrictions” were put on her. Allegedly, Mr. Grewal had attempted “to keep her confined” and had prevented her from attending a family wedding. Ms. Kaur, by several accounts, was unhappy in her marriage and was contemplating a divorce.

Two weeks earlier Mukhtiar Panghali, a resident of Surrey in suburban Vancouver, was charged with second-degree murder. His alleged victim: Manjit Panghali, his pregnant wife.

A popular 30-year-old elementary school teacher, Ms. Panghali was last seen alive in October at a prenatal yoga class. She never returned home. Her husband waited 26 hours before telling police she was missing. He then insisted to reporters he was not involved with her disappearance; however, there were indications she had antagonized members of his family including his younger brother Sukhvinder, whom she did not want living in her house.

Earlier, Sukhvinder Panghali was charged with criminal harassment of another woman. At his sister-in-law’s insistence he moved into an apartment suite along with his parents.

Ms. Panghali’s charred remains were found a week after her disappearance near a busy ocean port terminal in south Surrey. In addition to the murder charge, Mr. Panghali is charged with indecently interfering with a body. His brother, Sukhvinder, is charged with the same offence, and with being an accessory to murder.

In February, Amanpreet Kaur Bahia, 33, was found stabbed to death inside her Surrey home. A native of India and a farm worker, she had lived in Surrey with her husband, Baljinder, their three young children, and Baljinder’s parents.

No charges have been laid; a police investigation continues. Mr. Bahia told reporters after his wife’s funeral that he “is a suspect” in her murder. “The whole family is suspect,” he added.

Navreet Kaur Waraich was stabbed to death in her Surrey home late October on her 27th birthday. Her husband, Jatinder Singh Waraich, is charged with second-degree murder and scheduled to go to trial this month.

Mr. Oppal cannot comment on the specific nature of these incidents, of course; however, he will point out the glaring similarity. He has refused to back down or retract his earlier comment. He thinks he got it right. There is a sickness in the community. It is cultural and it has to be confronted.
“Those of us in the criminal justice system know there is a disproportionate number of domestic assaults in the South Asian community,” says Mr. Oppal, a former justice of the B.C. Supreme Court. “Regrettably, people are still in a state of denial about it.”

According to Mr. Oppal, there is “clear evidence of gender bias in the Indo-Canadian community. Young girls are not as valued as young boys,” he says.

The imbalance is demonstrated early on, he adds. “Teachers tell me that so many Indo-Canadian boys are uncontrollable from a disciplinary perspective. They bring that conduct to their personal relationships. But many people don’t want to talk about that. They just don’t want to do anything about it.

“Saving face is too important in our community to admit there is a problem, but it’s obvious.”
People outside his community seem even less inclined to discuss the issue. When Mr. Oppal addressed domestic violence in Indo-Canadian society, some mainstream academics actually demurred.

“Bringing in the ‘Indo-Canadian’ aspect of these women’s identities stems from the persistent racism of our wonderful multicultural nation,” wrote a pair of Simon Fraser University assistant professors in an opinion piece published in the Vancouver Sun.

Such warnings may be well intentioned but they are not helpful. Cultural factors do impact domestic behaviour, and can play a role leading to violence, says Ninu Kang, director of family programs at MOSAIC, an immigrant and refugee services organization based in Vancouver.

“I thought Wally Oppal’s comment about a ‘cancer’ in the community was tremendous. I applaud it,” says Ms. Kang, herself of Indian descent. “And he’s right about the culture’s gender bias. It is very much the case in the South Asian community.”

Her organization runs programs for immigrant men who have been convicted of domestic abuse. Many participants exhibit similar traits, says Ms. Kang, including a desire to “control” their female partners, who come to Canada seeking — and often finding — freedoms they did not enjoy at home.
This can be especially true of South Asian women, she adds.

Indo-Canadian husbands can feel pressure to exert authority over their wives, especially in cases when the marriage has been arranged and when the couple lives with the man’s parents.

“It can be problematic when living in extended family units, with different generations under one roof,” notes Ms. Kang. “A woman may find herself in much more of a traditional role than she is used to or wants. Even if she loves her husband, she may be unhappy. And that can put stress on the husband.”

“What I’m seeing is a backlash against women who are exercising their new empowerment,” says Ms. Kang, who leads group discussions with abusive men.

“Keep in mind that people are still coming to Canada from places such as India where these freedoms may not exist. They arrive with traditional values and suddenly their world opens up to them. And this can threaten their husbands, and their families.”

HTTP://WWW.CBC.CA/NEWS/BACKGROUND/INDIA/WOMEN.HTML

IN DEPTH
India
Trapped by abuse, the long struggle for women’s rights
Last Updated Aug. 16, 2007
by Georgie Binks

Women in New Delhi march on International Women’s Day to call attention to the abuse of women worldwide, March 8, 2001. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)

Last Saturday, in the heart of India’s south New Delhi, two men poured acid and gasoline on Tarveen Suri, 36, then set her on fire. They burned 80 per cent of her body. Police are investigating what they call a “strained” relationship with her husband.

Suri is just one of thousands of Indian women attacked yearly as a result of domestic violence. A UNICEF report in 2000 stated 45 per cent of married men in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh acknowledged physically abusing their wives during marriage.

That same report states that 5,000 women are killed by their husbands and in-laws each year in “accidental” kitchen fires. Other killings take the form of acid attacks and honour killings. Yet other atrocious behaviour plaguing some Indian women includes bride burning, female infanticide, eviction of widows and murders over dowry issues.

Prominent Indian lawyer and activist Indira Jaising said earlier this year in an interview that domestic violence is so pervasive in Indian society that it’s difficult to talk about other issues, such as education or employment for women, when many are so trapped by abuse.

From The National
Pakistan: Land, gold, women

Jaising and women’s groups in India have been instrumental in forcing the government to pass the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, which became law two years ago. While it protects women from violence, the country still has no law against marital rape.

Old traditions die hard

Abuse of south Asian women isn’t just confined to India and Pakistan. When immigrants seek a new life in Canada, sometimes the old traditions die hard. In the past year, several B.C. women of Indo-Canadian descent have died as a result of domestic violence. They include Manjit Panghali, a young mother whose body was found burned in October by a roadside in Delta. Her husband, Mukhtiar Panghali, was charged in connection with her death. That same month, Navreet Kaur Waraich, the mother of a four-month-old boy, was stabbed to death in Surrey. Her husband, Jatinder, has been charged. Gurjeet Kaur Ghuman was blinded after being shot in the face by her husband, who then killed himself. Sadeqa Siddiqui, co-ordinator of Montreal’s South Asian Community Women’s Centre, says, “The problem is that women are considered second-class citizens. This is a male society — men are ruling.”

Although this type of violence doesn’t apply to the vast majority of Indo-Canadian families, the problem is worrisome enough that there have been large public forums to address the issue in British Columbia.

Abused at conception

Baljinder Narang, a spokesperson for the We Can End All Violence Against Women, B.C. Campaign, formed in June, agrees. “It’s deep-rooted. Women are abused at the point of conception. Their fetuses are aborted if it’s discovered they’re female.

“When they’re born, the father of the bride is already worrying about the dowry. He thinks if he kills her before she’s born, he won’t have to provide a dowry for her.”

Narang says many young boys grow up with violence in the home and end up repeating it with their own wives. Educating them to change their behaviour is important. Men must be told that their attitudes need to shift and that it’s a human rights issue, she says. As well, Narang says women need to be taught they’re not objects of abuse just because they’ve seen their mothers and grandmothers in that situation.

Earlier this year, B.C.’s attorney general, Wally Oppal , angered some members of the Indian community when he spoke out about the violence. He called it a “cancer” in the province’s Indo-Canadian community.

Some of his fellow Indo Canadians implied he was a traitor to his ethnicity and culture. His reply was, “Saving face is too important in our community to admit there’s a problem, but it’s obvious.”

Siddiqui says many women are afraid to complain. “Once you come out in society and complain about sexual harassment or abuse, police and the neighbours see you differently. You’re not a victim, but they will victimize you more.”

However, she says South Asian women must speak out if they’re experiencing violence.

“Women are suffering in isolation. It’s not because the police aren’t doing anything, but because their society is isolating them. We always try to show how happy we are at home. I think all women are suffering the same degree of abuse.

“Society needs to know that it was happening 100 years ago, but in the 21st century we are not going to take it. Abuse is abuse.”

Right now, both women are working to educate those in the Indian community, but they are taking it slowly and carefully. For instance, Siddiqui is teaching small groups of women about violence using a theatre setting. Narang is teaching people to try to change attitudes about violence with five other people they know.

She explains, “We know things won’t change overnight, and we might lose other women in the process, but the target audience is people bringing up young kids. They need to create an environment where there is no violence.”

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/22can.htm
Cops investigate murder of Indo-Canadian family

Ajit Jain in Toronto November 22, 2007 18:14 IST
Last Updated: November 22, 2007 20:11 IST
The Ottawa police has begun investigations into a gruesome crime involving an Indo-Canadian family.

They first found three bodies in a single-family home on Wednesday and after several hours when they went again to search the place, they reportedly stumbled upon the fourth body.
The police are wondering as to how during their first inspection, they missed the fourth body.

The deceased have been identified as Santbir Singh Brar, wife Amanjeet Brar, daughters — Dildeep, 22 and Manmeet 20.

It is being reported that Brar first shot his wife and then his two daughters. He then turned the gun on himself. Reports say the gun was found next to his body.

Police haven’t found any suicide note.

When the police first received the call at around 2 am from a person who reportedly expressed concern about a relative living in the southern part of Ottawa, they went to the scene, rang the bell but there was no response, no movement and so they came back.

But the officers went again early next morning and smashed the window to gain access to the property.

That is when they reportedly discovered the gruesome scene inside. At that time the police discovered three bodies — two females and one male, all adults.

Surprisingly, the police found the fourth body when they went again in the afternoon to search the house.

According to a published report, Constable Alain Boucher couldn’t explain why the fourth body was not discovered in the first instance.

“A quick search of the house was done initially to make sure there was nobody injured and nobody was found,” he is quoted as saying. “At closer inspection, she (another female) was located,” Boucher said.

The investigation has now been taken over by the major crime unit of the Ottawa police.

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http://muslimahmediawatch.blogspot.com/2007/12/real-tragedy.html
Thursday, December 13, 2007
A Real Tragedy

This past week the death of Pakistani-Canadian teen, Aqsa Parvez, has been in the news in Canada. This terrible tragedy has made headlines because of the nature of her death – she was strangled to death by her own father in their Mississauga, Ontario home. Before I say anymore I would like to pray that God bless her soul and grant her paradise. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajioon (meaning: Verily we belong to Allah, and to Allah we return). I would also like to join the many other voices out there that have absolutely, under no uncertain terms, condemned this horrific murder. May she rest in peace.

Aqsa, a Muslim girl of 16, was said to have had trouble with her family. The reports from her friends demonstrate that there was a large rift between herself and her parents. According to news reports, her parents wanted her to dress in what they felt was proper Islamic attire, whereas she wanted to wear more Western style clothing and integrate with her non-Pakistani, non-Muslim friends. It appears that her family had a great deal of trouble with this and the result was the tragedy of her murder.

When we speak of Islamic dress the piece of clothing which gets the most attention is the hijab. Many have reported that the arguments between Aqsa and her family were often about the hijab as Aqsa, who at one point wore the hijab, had decided to remove it. Her family wanted her to wear it.

The media of course has been all over this case and all over the hijab. I cannot blame them though. Anytime a parent kills their child it does tend to make the news. However, the hyper focus on the hijab has been frustrating. Just some of the articles include Girl, 16, dies after hijab dispute with father, Father says killed daughter in hijab case , Dad charged after daughter killed in clash over hijab. This is especially frustrating as at this point we are not clear on the motive. Disagreements on Islamic clothing as motive are only speculations based on accounts by Aqsa’s friends. However, most media stories have appeared to focus mainly on the Islamic clothing, namely hijab, issue. One article in The National Post even has as, its picture, the eyes of a niqabi woman, even though the niqab has not once been mentioned in this whole tragedy. Not to mention that this particular story is entitled The deadly face of Muslim extremism. The content of the article focuses on the messages being given to Muslims about the proper attire for a Muslim woman, and although they make some relevant points, the argument is lacking and the title inaccurate. Such titles only work to further reinforce a fear of those “crazy Muslims.” The article furthers this fear by stating that the messages in mosques are the cause of such acts. Although one may say that the messages about proper female attire may be questionable, I think insinuating that mosques condone killing one’s children if they do not conform is a dangerous and inaccurate accusation.

From the news reports it would appear that the main reason Aqsa was killed and the main reason there was a clash between her and her family was that she did not dress Islamically enough for her family. Obviously, as this is the only lead the media has, they are taking it and running with it. And I have no doubts that this indeed was a point of argument in her home. However, this, to me, seems to be an insufficient and shallow explanation. Additionally, this focus may take away from another problem which may be more relevant and which the media has shed some light on – that of cultural integration of immigrant parents and their children and cultural clashes which result.

Dressing in one manner at home and another at school is one way young Muslim girls in Canada are negotiating competing cultural demands, says Jasmin Zine, a sociology professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. In her research with Muslim girls, Ms. Zine said, she has rarely encountered youth who are being coerced into wearing a hijab by their parents; however, many Muslim girls in Canada are struggling to reconcile Muslim traditions with more secular Western behaviour.“For some youth, what they do is develop a double persona. At home, they’re the good Muslim kid, they pray and they fast and go to mosque,” she said.“When they go to school, they become a different person. They create a persona to fit with the competing cultural demands of home and school.”(The National Post , Muslim girls can play cultural chameleons, researcher says)

Ms. Parvez’s friends described the Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights Secondary School as someone who was drawn to Western culture even as her family adhered to a devout form of Islam. (The Globe and Mail)

Although we are focusing on the culture clashes of a Muslim girl, and I do not deny that the interpretation of Islam probably did play a role in sad events, I also cannot ignore the fact that the Parvez family did come from a very patriarchal culture. A culture in which a father is supposed to be able to control every aspect of his daughter’s life. And although some Muslim organizations have correctly pointed out that the hyper focus on a Muslim woman’s clothing within the wider Muslim community plays a role and must cease to define a Muslim woman’s worth (MCC), the real and difficult cultural pressures which children of immigrant parents, all immigrant parents, face is being overshadowed by their exclusive focus on Islam.

Aqsa’s family was from a strongly patriarchal culture but was living in one in which patriarchy is challenged at every step.* Her family was from a culture in which children do as their parents say because, due to their collectivist culture, they are expected to place the needs of others (especially family) above themselves, even if it means sacrificing their happiness. However, they were living in an individualist culture in which each person’s uniqueness and individuality is emphasized and praised. Many children of immigrants find themselves juggling these two dimensions.

Apart from the role of Islam and culture, we must always remember that, at the end of the day, this was a case of violence against a woman. The result of patriarchy and in its worst manifestation. And although there is some merit in bringing to attention the pressures of clothing among Muslim women, the real issue in this case appears to be something much greater. We should not lose sight of this in the media portrayals of the case.

*Canada is still patriarchal but to much lesser degree than South Asia.
POSTED BY DUNIYA AT 1:30 AM

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Woman dead, husband in custody in Surrey
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 5:24 PM ET
CBC News
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Homicide investigators are at a house in Surrey, B.C., on Wednesday, after a 50-year-old real-estate agent was found dead and her husband was taken into custody.

RCMP were first called to the 15400 block of 91A Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Subalini Ratnanesan was found dead inside her home in what RCMP Sgt. Rob Morrow described as a “dramatic scene.”

Her husband, 51-year-old Sivapragasam Ratnanesan, was found injured and taken to hospital, Morrow said. He was later released into the custody of homicide investigators.

Homicide and forensic investigators were inside the home Wednesday and police were not releasing the cause of death or any other details.

Morrow would not say whether Ratnanesan was considered a suspect in his wife’s death, and would not comment on speculation the incident was a murder-suicide attempt.

The couple was from Sri Lanka and had two children — one daughter in high school and another attending university in Edmonton, neighbours told CBC News.

Subalini Ratnanesan was a real estate agent with Homelife in the Fleetwood neighbourhood, they said.

Police are now providing more details about the murder of a baby girl
Jan, 18 2008 – 1:30 PM
DELTA/CKNW(AM980) – Disturbing details are emerging after the murder of a baby girl in Delta.
According to Constable Paul Eisenzimmer, Delta police were called to a home in the 78-hundred block of 116th around nine in the morning after receiving a call about a murdered infant.

“Our officers arrived at the scene and confirmed that a young child was, in fact, dead. A single male has been arrested for an investigation of homicide. Currently, detectives from the criminal investigation branch are at the scene and preparing a search warrant to enter the property.”

Neighbors tell CKNW the man arrested is Lakhvinder Kahlon – an out-of-work drywaller who is a father of three daughters who was depressed because he had no sons.

A friend of the family who used to live in the home says the children’s mother took her two oldest daughters to school and came home to find the infant murdered.

Police won’t confirm Kahlon was arrested and will only say there is a family connection between the suspect and the dead infant.

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Updated: Mon Jun. 22 2009 17:31:04

Murder of sons Ranjit Sing Gill and Amarjit Sing Gill by Stepfather (and mother in critical condition)

ctvbc.ca

Charges of murder and attempted murder have been laid against a Surrey, B.C., man after his two teenage stepsons were killed and their mother badly wounded on Father’s Day.

Cpl. Dale Carr of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says Mahendra Singh Johal, who also goes by Mahendra Singh, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

The two slain brothers have been identified as 17-year-old Amarjit Gill and 15-year-old Ranjit Gill.

Johal has also been charged with attempted murder in connection with the injury of his 35-year-old wife, who has not been identified.

The 66-year-old man appeared in Surrey Provincial Court Monday afternoon.

Police responded to the home on 126th Street at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning and found the bodies of the two teenagers.

Johal’s wife was taken to hospital in critical condition. Carr says her condition has since been upgraded to stable, after she underwent surgery late Sunday.

Neighbours speaking to CTV News said the family recently moved to Canada from India.

Police have not confirmed reports the suspect may have called 911 himself.

Investigators have also not said how the victims died, but a bullet hole is visible in one of the home’s third-floor windows and officers at the scene could be seen picking up what appear to be shell casings around the property Sunday afternoon.