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By
Azam Kamguian
In the last few weeks, Swedish society has been touched by the brutal and
calculated murder of Fadima Sahindal; a courageous young woman who chose to
live according to her will and paid the price with her life. In the last two
months, two other young women in Denmark and Britain have been killed by
their fathers for the honour of the family. The honour of men and the family
took their lives. Honour killing is a tribal and Islamic practice prevalent
in Islam - ridden countries and Muslim - inhabited communities in the West.
Being killed deliberately and brutally is, in fact, a price that victims pay
to practice their minimal human rights such as how to dress, talk to men
other than their male family members, live, work and study independently,
and marry at will, or have voluntary sexual relations.
Hundreds of women get shot, burned, strangled, stoned, poisoned, beheaded or
stabbed every year in Islam - ridden countries because their male relatives
believe their actions have soiled the family name. They die so family honour
may survive. According to this tribal and religious practice, woman is a
man's possession and a reflection of his honour. It is the man's honour that
gets tarnished if a woman is 'loose'. The murderers and their defenders
refer to this verse of the Koran that allows husbands to beat their wives:
"As to
those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill - conduct, admonish
them, refuse to share their beds, beat them", the Koran, chapter 4,
verse 34.
Honour
killing is a tribal practice that has been incorporated into the religion of
Islam, because of its anti - women nature and misogynist philosophy. And the
law is usually on the man's side, not only in the Middle Eastern and the
Central Asian countries, but shamefully, in the Western countries too. They
often let murderers go unpunished or with a light sentence.
According to this Islamic concept and tradition, from the early childhood,
girls are taught about "eib", which means shame, and
"sharaf", which means honour. And everywhere girls go are
reminders that their most important mission in life is to remain virgins
until they marry. Boys are also taught to have "ghayrat", meaning
to be ardent. All these concepts are Islamic concepts, and that is why the
killers always defend their acts of murder by these Islamic concepts.
According to the UN statistics, the majority of these murders occur in the
Islam - ridden countries and Muslin inhabited communities in the West.
Though, honour killing may not seem very surprising in societies such as
Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, its occurrence is indeed shocking and
shameful in the heart of Europe in the 21st Century. And that is where the
reactionary idea of Cultural Relativism is put into practice to justify
women's victimization by excusing Islam and backward traditions.
Unfortunately, until recently, when some measures were implemented by the
Swedish government, this government not only neglected to protect the lives
and the rights of these women, but also justified their murders under the
name of respecting 'other' people's religion and culture. Meanwhile the
murderers have repeatedly and openly defended their acts by referring to
Islam and the Koran. Feminists, the mainstream media and intellectuals
largely try to explain these murders as the prevalent patterns of domestic
violence against women in the Western societies. While the murderers,
whether in the Middle Eastern countries or in the Muslim inhabited
communities in the West, openly state that their act of murder are
"crimes of honor", and that they are merely following the
directions set down in their religious beliefs, both in the Koran and in the
Bible, the apologetic Western intellectuals repeatedly assure us that it is
not Islam and the backward traditions, it is the common pattern of violence
that is happening to the Western women too.
Swedish intellectuals should show the honesty that is required and expected
of intellectuals, by speaking the truth, by siding with those innocent young
women who were victimized and continue to be brutally victimized because of
the Islamic and backward tradition. It is not acceptable to apologize for
Islam and backwardness.
And as far as the Swedish government is concerned, there shouldn't be a
different basis for people's rights in the one and same society; in the
Swedish society. All should be considered as Swedish citizens and equal
before the law. Banning the veil for girls under 16 and promoting women's
rights are amongst the fundamental actions that should be taken by the
government. The Swedish society is duty bound to safe guard and protect the
rights of women and girls from Muslim origins. This could be done only by
abolishing all the respective discriminatory laws against these girls and
women. This could be done only when there is no respect, excuse and legal
interpretation for the misogynist Islamic and traditional beliefs and
practices.
March 2002
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