Differing cultural views are increasingly playing a role in parent-teen conflicts, the Peel Children's Aid Society says.

This battle between religion and cultural isn't the reason family quarrels come to the agency's attention, but is later unearthed as an underlying factor, said Gale Willgoss, a social worker with the society.

"When we do some exploration of the family's needs, we're finding more and more [that] some of these ethno-cultural conflicts are … at the root of some of the distress these families are feeling," Willgoss told CBC News.

The issue has been spotlighted this week after the slaying of a Mississauga teen.

Aqsa Parvez, 16, died late Monday night in Hospital. Her father, 57-year-old Muhammad Parvez, has been charged with murder.

Before her killing, friends say Aqsa had battled with her family frequently because she chose to wear slim-fitting clothing and didn't want to wear the traditional hijab headscarf.

In a letter placed on a tribute at her school, a friend named Shanie wrote that she had gone to police to tell them about Aqsa's home life.

Angela King, a senior official with the Children's Aid Society of Toronto, said conflict between children and parents over religious values is not grounds for intervention.

"A family would come to our attention if there are protection concerns related to things like abuse, which is violence in any form, sexual, physical abuse as well as issues of neglect," she said.

However, some who work in the domestic violence sector are worried that the debate over faith and culture overshadows the problem of gender violence, said Cindy Cowan, executive director of women's shelter Interim Place.

"It may look different depending on the women's experiences. So, for a Christian woman it may look different than for a Muslim woman … but the tools of the power and control and the abuse and violence are very similar."

With files from the Canadian Press