Just two days before she was killed, 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez went to the movies for the first time.
She had fought her parents for the right to wear Western clothing, and to jettison the hijab they wanted her to wear. She was going to apply for a part-time job, something her father refused to allow. Then she ran away from home for the second time in three months. The first time, her father had sworn on the Koran he would kill her if she ever ran away again.
Yet on the morning of Dec. 10, 2007, Ms. Parvez went home. Thirty-six minutes later, her father called 911 saying he had killed her. When police arrived, they found Ms. Parvez's mother crying hysterically and her father with blood on his hands.
In a Brampton courtroom Tuesday, Ms. Parvez's father, Muhammad Parvez, 60, and her brother, Waqas Parvez, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. They will be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
When asked by his wife why he had killed their daughter, Ms. Parvez said her husband told her: "My community will say you have not been able to control your daughter. This is my insult. She is making me naked."
Observers say the case, among the first so-called honour killings to gain widespread attention in Canada, will cast a spotlight on generational strains that can tear at families adapting to a new culture.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said it's a particularly pernicious form of murder to kill a member of one's own family for cultural reasons.
"That's one of the reasons we have been explicit in condemning what we call barbaric cultural practices such as honour killings," Mr. Kenney said.
"We want to underscore that multiculturalism is not an excuse, or a moral or legal justification, for such barbaric practices. Multiculturalism does not equal cultural relativism."
Muslim Canadian Congress founder Tarek Fatah said the guilty plea is a wake-up call for parents to understand that young women are not the possessions of men. Muslim leaders who do not call Ms. Parvez's murder an honour killing are avoiding the real issue, Mr. Fatah said.
"If someone cannot see through the notion of the hijab being used as a basis of killing someone, they're blind," Mr. Fatah said. "How many more Muslim women have to die before ... Islamist groups open their eyes?"
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations said domestic violence touches all religions, and the public shouldn't assume anything merely because the killing took place within a Muslim family.
"It's important not to generalize. There are cases of violence across all faiths and all cultures," CAIR-CAN executive director Ihsaan Gardee said. "The Muslim community is well aware of these types of issues that are being discussed in mosques and other forums. The community is dealing with it and trying to understand the phenomenon."
There have been a dozen such killings in Canada, according to Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist who teaches at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador and is preparing a brief for government on the issue. He said most cases of honour killings involve some form of mental illness, typically a personality disorder or some form of psychosis.
In the months before she was killed, Ms. Parvez told friends she felt she had no freedom at home. Her parents had come to Canada from Pakistan, and Ms. Parvez, the youngest of eight siblings, was the only one to wear Western clothes. Five of her siblings were wed in arranged marriages to cousins from Pakistan, and none of her female siblings worked. She bristled at these traditions, telling a friend her father had already chosen someone in Pakistan for her to marry. When she ran into trouble at Applewood Heights secondary school, her father threatened to enroll her in an Islamic school.
She ran away from home for the first time in September, 2007, going to a shelter that a school guidance counsellor helped her find. Her father reported her missing to police, saying they had fought over her refusal to wear the hijab. After three days, she came home, persuaded by her parents' promise to take her shopping for Western clothes.
The situation at home did not improve, however. At the end of November, she decided to leave home again. She went to the home of her friend, Amal Tahir. Ms. Parvez's parents tried to persuade her to return home several times. In an emotional meeting at the Tahir home, Ms. Parvez's parents wept as she told them she did not want to live with them.
Eight days later, Ms. Parvez was at a bus stop on her way to school when she was persuaded to get into a van driven by her brother.
Just before 8 am, her father called 911 and said he had killed his daughter with his own hands. His daughter had come home to collect her belongings and he got angry with her, he said.
Ms. Parvez's mother was videotaped talking to herself afterward in a police interview room. She said, "You made my life into hell. Oh my Aqsa, you should have listened. Everyone tried to make you understand ... said will break legs and arms - has killed her straight away. What should I do?"
A witness, Steve Warda, said Ms. Parvez's brother told him he intended to kill his sister and that his father would take the blame. He asked if Mr. Warda could get him a gun and wanted to know the consequences of killing someone in Canada. In a meeting secretly videotaped by police in June of 2008, Ms. Parvez's brother told Mr. Warda that he choked his sister until she died, and that he couldn't get the image out of his head. He said only he and his father were involved but the whole family knew what was going on, according to the agreed statement of facts read in court Tuesday.
Ms. Parvez's mother submitted an appeal for pity with the judge, writing, "I [had]many wishes and hopes to come to Canada for my family, but unfortunately my family has been broken ...[have]mercy on my son and husband."
The Crown and defence jointly recommended that the men remain ineligible for parole for 18 years. They will be sentenced Wednesday.
With a report from Cigdem Iltan
Joe Friesen