Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely, I do.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think, first of all, Canadians have to sit down and work out the whole idea of what are our values. When I throw that out to audiences, they say, hmm, so? In my perspective, Canadian values and the values that I have come to this country to embrace are the values of gender equality, the values that men and women are equal, the values of individual thought and freedom, freedom of press, freedom of choice, freedom of voice.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Female genital mutilation is a practice that has taken place very much behind closed doors. When you read the statistics, it's horrifying to know that grandmothers, mothers, and midwives have been performing female genital mutilation. The doctors who have been involved have not been forthcoming about what they have seen or what they have experienced with their patients.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, there have been cases, but very few. It's not to say that this does not exist in, let's say, western societies or in the Judeo-Christian culture. If you look back at the history of the western world, 150 years ago honour culture very much permeated western society as well. Young girls in the Catholic communities who had children out of wedlock were taken into nunneries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have not been approached by the East Asian community, or I haven't had much interaction in terms of knowing where that stands. A few girls from China have come and said that they have also experienced a kind of oppression of women's rights going back some time, but nothing directly regarding honour-based violence.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What I was going to suggest is that every time there is a new law, there has to be a public awareness campaign. We talk about public service announcements regarding domestic violence. Similarly, there needs to be that awareness in the public, so that those people who are not aware of their rights will understand.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It should be in a language they will understand. This is the beauty of living in this diverse country, that we have access to so many languages. Public service announcements, brochures, pamphlets in different languages, that is what they have done in England. They provide the information to the masses, to the communities, in a language they understand.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The groups I've spoken to have been very diverse. When the victims come up, that's when you realize that this kind of abuse, honour-based violence, crosses all barriers and all boundaries. Our tag line is that culture is no excuse for abuse. Honour-based violence exists in the Sikh community, in the Hindu community, in the Muslim community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure, thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm just a rule breaker. You can ignore me.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have. In fact the screenings of this film have actually brought out some victims. I can give you a specific example. We had a screening at the Washington Press Association, and this young woman from Gambia just walked in. She flew in from Atlanta. She said she was a victim of female genital mutilation in a forced marriage.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. I have always said that forced and underage marriage is nothing less than child abuse. We have laws against child abuse. Therefore, this should be considered child abuse. It's the first form of child abuse. I am very glad that our government is taking such a keen interest in this.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. Two and a half years ago, a human rights lawyer had been watching the Arab Spring and she realized that this issue of honour-based violence is something that had not been spoken about openly, especially by Muslim women themselves. I say this of course because I am a Muslim woman, and the incidence of honour-based violence is statistically the highest in Muslim-majority societies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Good morning. I'm privileged to be here as an advocate for human rights, specifically the rights of women. So for us, this is an extremely important bill. There's an important factor in discussing this bill. In my opinion, it applies not just to a particular segment of society but to all women because as we are well aware, violence against women takes many forms and exists in many cultures.