Family, friends remember ‘a very caring and generous woman’
Aasiya Hassan remembered as caring and generous
Aasiya Z. Hassan spent her last day just as she had spent every other day of her life — putting others’ needs before her own, her stepson recalled Sunday evening at a memorial service.
Michael Hassan described how he had come home from school Feb. 12, badly in need of a haircut. After she had worked all day, she took him for a haircut, and they planned to go to Denny’s for dinner.
“That day, she had midterms to go home and study for, but she put my needs in front of her own,” Michael said. “She would always do what she could for someone else.”
He, like several other people who spoke Sunday, conjured fond memories of a woman who was well loved and widely respected.
“Aasiya was a very caring and generous woman,” the Orchard Park High School senior said. “I would like you all not to focus on the end, but on all that happened before.”
Aasiya Hassan, 37, was found slain a month ago in the Orchard Park offices of Bridges TV, a Muslim television network that she and her husband, Muzzammil S. Hassan, had founded together five years ago.
After enduring years of domestic violence from her husband, she had filed for divorce less than a week before she died. Muzzammil Hassan is being held without bail on a charge of second-degree murder.
Sunday evening, more than 100 people filled the seats in Orchard
Park Presbyterian Church. They included those who had known her, as well as those who never met her, but knew of her.
The Rev. Richard Young, pastor of the church, said the clergy in Orchard Park wanted to pay tribute to Hassan and reached out to Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, who helped coordinate the service with the family.
“Aasiya was well known to many in our community, and Aasiya was well loved by many in our community,” Young said.
The pastors of several Christian congregations in Orchard Park participated in Sunday’s service, along with Imam Nazim Mangera of the Islamic Society of the Niagara Frontier. Mangera recited verses of the Quran in Arabic, offering English translations.
He called on men to treat the women in their lives with respect.
“If you think your wife has some fault, some blemish, stop focusing on that,” Mangera said. “Start focusing on the thousands of good points. I pray to God, may God give us inner strength to control ourselves in times of anger.”
Haris Zubair, Hassan’s brother from Pakistan, fought tears as he recalled his sister’s devotion to her children. She had two small children, 4 and 6, as well as two stepchildren, Michael and Sonia, a freshman at the University at Buffalo.
“She adored her children, and even with work and school, would never let her children down,” Zubair said of his sister, who was enrolled in an executive master of business administration program at UB.
He offered thanks to countless people in Orchard Park who have helped the family.
“We have come here from Pakistan not knowing a single soul, yet it feels we are in a loving family,” he said. “We will never forget what each of you has done for us. You will always be in our prayers.”
Sawsan Tabbaa, a board member of the Islamic Society of the Niagara Frontier, called for Hassan’s death to become a call to action. She said she hopes to hold an open forum about domestic violence every second Saturday in February to raise awareness.
“Silence is an abuser’s strongest weapon. Yet Aasiya did speak up. She filed for divorce. She had a protection order,” said Tabbaa, an orthodontist who teaches at UB. “Maybe this is a wake-up call. Maybe her death is a way to save so many lives of those who are being abused.”
She cited passages from the Quran that urge husbands and wives to have a peaceful relationship.
“My message is for abusers: Please seek help,” she said.
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