World television premiere of 'In the Name of the Family' airs Sept. 7 on CTV

by: CTV
Date: 9/3/2010 11:07:00 AM ET

Around 8 a.m. on December 10, 2007, police in Mississauga, ON responded to a 911 call from a man who had said he had just killed his daughter. When officers arrived, they found 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez suffering from life-threatening injuries. She later died in hospital. The fate of this young Muslim woman and three others is explored in depth in the world television premiere of the two-hour Original CTV Documentary IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY, Tuesday, September 7 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times). The film will be available on demand on the CTV Video Player at ctv.ca following its broadcast premiere.

IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY puts a very human face the harrowing circumstances estimated to claim the lives of 5,000 women around the world every year. Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker Shelley Saywell (Crimes of Honour) continues her list of hard-hitting films that deal with human rights issues. Selected to screen at Hot Docs earlier this year, the film was awarded the 2010 Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature, marking the second time Saywell has earned this distinction at Hot Docs.

“Stamping out violence against women requires ongoing education in mainstream society and local communities,” said Saywell. “This film is a call to social, religious and school leaders to say this is wrong, and will hopefully help keep immigrant communities and families from feeling alienated and under fire.” 

In addition to Parvez, the film also looks at teens Sarah and Amina Said of Dallas Texas, shot to death allegedly by their father who has disappeared, and university student Fauzia Mohammad of New York, who miraculously survived eleven stab wounds inflicted by her brother. IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY examines each case from multiple viewpoints and explains how the clash between an ancient tribal notion of honour and western culture leads to these crimes.

Islam does not sanction this practice in any way.  But the murder of young women by their family members is often justified by distorted religious and cultural interpretations. As immigration to Canada and the United States increases, there has been an upswing in the brutalization and murder of young Muslim women by their fathers or brothers for defying male authority, which they feel brings shame on their family.

IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY follows the course to violence as the girls start embracing the culture of their new countries. From the refusal to wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf, to wearing figure-flattering clothes and having connections with non-Muslim men, male family members believe they are justified in punishing them. They often show no remorse for these acts. In the film, viewers meet the girls, their families and friends, and enter into a normally closed world where young women wanting to bridge two worlds are victimized by the men who claim to love them the most.

Shelley Saywell is a Canadian documentary filmmaker whose films focus on social-political issues. She has won numerous international awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, and has been short-listed for the Academy Awards®. In Canada, her work has garnered three Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival awards, and three Gemini Awards. Saywell has personally been honoured with UNESCO’s Gandhi Silver Medal for promoting the culture of peace.

Saywell’s most recent film is Martyr Street, a feature-length documentary shot over five years, focusing on life in Hebron in the West Bank. It won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2006. Her films also include Generation of Hate (Iraq), A Child’s Century of War, Out of the Fire, Crimes of Honour, Legacy of Terror: The Bombing of Air India, Kim’s Story: The Road From Vietnam, Rape: A Crime of War, Fire and Water, No Man’s Land: Women Frontline Journalists and Shahira. Shelley Saywell is author of Women in War (Penguin Books, 1986) and contributing author to Ourselves Among Others (St. Martin’s Press, 1988).

IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY is a CTV Original Documentary and a Bishari Films production. IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY is the latest in CTV’s repertoire of award-winning original documentary programming. Recent titles include THE PIG FARM and LIFE WITH MURDER.