
Unwept, unremembered
Some time ago Pamela Geller began to take up a collection to provide honor killing victim Aqsa Parvez with a headstone — at present Aqsa lies in an unmarked grave, plot #774 in Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton, Ontario. I joined Pamela in this effort, which was a chance to honor Aqsa personally and to show those who commit honor killings that we in the West will not acquiesce in their devaluing and destruction of these human beings, and attempt even to erase their memories.
As things have developed, however, Aqsa’s family rejected the grave marker we had offered to place at her gravesite, which contained her name and dates and the legend “Beloved, Remembered, Free.” This was always their prerogative, but it is ironic in light of the fact that family members apparently stood idly by as Aqsa was brutalized and ultimately murdered by her father. They seem to prefer, in line with the honor killing ethos, that she continue to lie in an unmarked grave rather than be remembered. Meanwhile, the Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case, owns all the land surrounding the gravesite, preventing us from placing a monument near Aqsa’s grave.
Pamela has a new update here, and responds here to “journalist” Chris Selley, who slammed the initiative in Canada’s National Post. There are also numerous good comments from supporters of the initiative at the National Post site — see especially the one by John Jay, posted February 20 at 2:58 AM.
In any case, we are not giving up, and are looking into other ways in which we can memorialize Aqsa, and show the honor killers in the West — and the dhimmis who abet them in various ways — that we will not let their terror and brutalization, and dehumanization of women, go unchallenged. Thanks once again to all those who contributed to Pamela’s initiative. I’ll continue to keep you posted.