The Lethal Combination of Tribalism, Islam & Cultural Relativism |
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Azam Kamguian I
intend to contribute to the debate surrounding honour killings as an
activist and writer engaged in issues affecting women in the Middle East
and in societies under influence of Islam. I shall examine the legal,
social, religious and tribal dimensions of honour killing and will discuss
the issue as it stands in the region, in the West and among intellectuals
and the academic world. I will conclude my talk with my analysis of what
needs to be done. Is
honour killing tribal? Is it Islamic? Is there any justification for
violence against women in the religion of Islam? What is the role of
religion in honour killing? Can we explain honour killing within the
general framework of domestic violence against women? Is honour killing a
form of universal patriarchy? Hundreds
of women get shot, burned, strangled, stoned, poisoned, beheaded or
stabbed every year in Muslim inhabited countries because their male
relatives believe their actions have soiled the family name. They die so
that family honour may be preserved. According to tribal and religious
culture a 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'. Being
killed deliberately and brutally is, in fact, a price that victims pay for
attempting to practice their minimal human rights. It
takes far less than a pre or extramarital relationship for a woman to be
condemned as dishonourable and deserving of death. There is no 'typical'
case one can speak of: 'honour crimes' can include a husband killing his
wife for leaving the house too often, a son killing his mother to prevent
her from remarrying, a brother killing his sister and her husband for
marrying without the family's consent, a man killing his wife for refusing
to wear the veil when leaving home. Reputation and rumour play an active
role in instigating honour crimes and the killing of women. This
phenomenon is comparable to the emphasis on the chastity of wives in
Victorian morality. Because the concepts of male honour and female
subservience are deeply ingrained in Islam and in tribal culture, honour
killings have become commonplace in Arab and Middle Eastern countries, in
other Muslim inhabited countries and Muslim immigrant communities in the
West. The
available statistics in honour killings show just the tip of an iceberg.
The reality is far darker. The statistics do not show the number of female
suicides provoked, or engineered to cover up an honour killing, nor the
number of mysterious disappearances. Many honour killings never get
reported or registered. Many are mislabeled. In
Egypt between 1998 - 2001 suspicion of 'indecent' behavior was the reason
behind 79 per cent of all crimes of honour. The women were killed just
because of rumours or suspicions that they may have crossed the line. The
UN statistics for 1997 show: Yemen 400, Pakistan over 1000, Egypt 52, and
Jordan 25 -35. The UN also reported that as many as 5000 women and girls
worldwide were killed last year by family members, majority of them for
the 'dishonour'. Tribal
dimension According
to tribal culture and values, women's 'misbehavior' is not only a shame on
the family but on the community, the village, the tribe, the neighbourhood
and the neighbours. The tribe and community participate in the killing by
endorsing it. If and when the family fails to kill the woman, the tribe
will cast it out. During the pre - Islamic period Arab society was
patrilineal and Bedouin, where the highest authority was the father or
male members of the family. At the time slavery was rife and women were
perceived to be the property of their family or tribe with the potential
of bringing disgrace to their kinsmen. The Bedouins before Islam practiced
female infanticide. Later, the Islamic religion attempted to regulate
sexual relationships and transgressions: prostitution, zina, infanticide
were prohibited, and sex out of wedlock and adultery were brutally
penalised. Yet, the pre-Islamic code of conduct survived, creating a
powerful value system, parallel to Islam and practically and mutually
nurturing and supporting one another. Honour
killing has been practiced in Mediterranean societies as well as the
majority of Muslim inhabited countries. While most Mediterranean countries
have abolished laws condoning such crimes and crimes of honour occur only
rarely, most Arab and Muslim inhabited countries still maintain specific
articles in their penal code dealing with such crimes. In
addition, the post colonial elite in the Middle East seeking to produce a
new woman - who is not supposed to resemble her mother, and must be
anything like a modern woman, a Western woman, endorse and support honour
killings. Women's honour in this discourse becomes a symbol of national
identity. Many Islamists as well as pan-Arabs and tribal sheiks are united
on this issue, perceiving leniency towards it to be a symptom of
'westoxiction'. Legal
dimension Frequently,
honour killings are conducted in an even more calculated manner. In the
patriarchy/religion-ridden society where a woman's honour is a family's
only measurable commodity, male family members and elder women gather to
vote on the death of women. They also decide who will carry out the
killing, usually someone under the age of 18 who will be treated more
leniently under the law. Murderers walk almost free, no witnesses speak,
so the court has to believe what the perpetrator says, and he gets the
minimum charge, although it is homicide and it is calculated and is in
cold blood. The
articles regarding honour killing in the penal codes of the Middle Eastern
countries conform to or are influenced by the Islamic Shari'a Law. These
articles are found in the penal codes of majority of Arab and Middle
Eastern countries. Article 562 in Lebanon (abolished in February 1999),
Article 340 in Jordan, Article 548 in Syria, Article 153 in Kuwait,
Article 237 in Egypt, Article 309 in Iraq, Article 334 in the United Arab
Emirate, Article 70 in Bahrain, Article 179 in Iran before 1979, Articles
418-424 in Morocco, and Article 252 in Oman. Saudi Arabia, Iran, the
Sudan, Pakistan and Qatar apply the Islamic Shari'a law. According
to these articles: "A man who surprises his wife, daughter or sister
practicing adultery or illicit intercourse and kills or harms on of two
partners without premeditation, benefits from the legitimate excuse, that
relieves him of the burden of murder." Charges
of adultery are almost exclusively against women. Laws regarding honour
killing provide that men accused of these killings are not to be
prosecuted for murder but for 'crimes of honour' which carry lenient
sentences, averaging three months to one year. The legal authorities put
women in jail instead of imprisoning and punishing the murderers. Judges
and police officers have been known to side with the "wronged"
man. Judges usually look for justifiable excuses to exonerate the killers.
It is ironic that society denies women certain rights under the pretext
that they are emotional beings and may become irrational when under
pressure, while resorting to the "emotion argument' as an excuse for
men's behavior in 'honour crimes'. A man is not accused of adultery unless
the act occurs in the marital home, and if there is proof of adultery, the
punishment must not exceed six months imprisonment. Islamic
dimension, Political Islam According
to Islamic culture and tradition, girls are taught from early childhood
about "eib", which means shame, and "sharaf", which
means honour. Everywhere, girls are reminded that their most important
mission in life is to remain virgin until they marry. Boys are also taught
to have "ghayrat", meaning to be zealot. All these concepts are
Islamic, and that is why the killers always defend their acts of murder by
these concepts. According to the UN statistics, the majority of these
murders occur in Muslim inhabited countries and Muslim immigrant
communities in the West. In majority of cases, 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" Koran, chapter 4, verse 34. There
are numerous similar verses in the holly book, which promote and prescribe
violence against women. Laws regarding honour killing provide that men
accused of these killings are not to be prosecuted for murder but for
'crimes of honour'. And the law is usually on the man's side, not only in
the Middle Eastern and the Central Asian countries, but shamefully, in
Western countries too. They often let murderers go unpunished or let them
off with a light sentence. Religious
discourse is misogynist and has an important role in enforcing the double
standards that society and the laws apply to women. A man remains
honourable even if he has sexual relations with three-quarters of earth's
women, but this is not the case for a woman's voluntary sexual
relationship. Islamic
Shari'a law is strict in the matter of adultery. According to Islamic law,
penalty for adultery for unmarried women (and men) is 80 lashes and
stoning for married women (and men). Islam and the Shari'a law have kept
and try to keep the monopoly over the killing of women in the matter of
adultery. When unable, however, Islamists wholeheartedly support honour
killings and exonerate the murderers. Theoretically, Islam does not
sanction honour killing yet the majority of Islamic leaders and Imams
wholeheartedly promote and support it. Tribal
and political Islamic groups are against harsher punishments for honour
crimes arguing that this would set women on the road to promiscuity.
According to a Jordanian Islamic lawmaker "Women adulterers cause a great threat to our society because they
are the main reason that such acts take place." Political Islamic groups and Islamic leaders basically reject abolishing
of or any changes to the laws regarding honour killings, arguing that it
would lead to the moral disintegration of society and will get rid of
major social deterrent to relationships between men and women. Islamic
leaders consider any changes to these laws as a violation of the Shari'a
that would encourage adultery, and as an attempt to legalise obscenity. In
the Region The
emergence of political Islam and the coming to power of Islamic regimes in
the Middle East in the last two decades has unleashed wave of state
sponsored terrorism against women. Countries such as Iran, Algeria,
Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Sudan further constrained the lives
of women by introducing more and more aspects of the Shari'a into their
legal systems. A century of struggle for the separation of state from
religion came under constant attack, being seen by Islamists as a
conspiracy against Islam and the East. Women were the first targets. In
this context, the most brutal violence against women including mandatory
veiling, a complete system of sexual apartheid, stoning and honour killing
were and are all in rise. This
continues while members of younger generations especially girls, become
better educated and more exposed to the world outside. Increasingly, they
are rebelling against parents and families who cling to traditions that
prohibit socialising with the opposite sex, choosing a husband for
themselves, or visiting freely with friends outside the home. The rising
social pressures on both generations have led to an alarming increase in
honour killings, beating and other violence within families as well as
suicide among urban and rural girls and women. As
far as the legal system concerned, neither the Shari'a law, family laws
based on the Shari'a or civil states laws are systematically or
consistently applied to women by most Arab countries. The legal process is
selective, with the worse possible elements being in its treatment of
women. The institution of the state in majority of the Middle Eastern
countries is neither civil nor civilised. One cannot expect an end to
honour killing in a State, which continuously and brutally strips its
citizens of their basic human rights and has no respect for citizen's
right to life. In
the West Though,
honour killing may not seem so surprising in countries such as Jordan,
Saudi Arabia and Yemen, that it exists in the heart of Europe in the 21st
Century is indeed both shocking and shameful. But sadly, this is where the
reactionary idea of Cultural Relativism is used to justify women's
victimization and to excuse Islam and backward traditions. In
many of the sizable Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, brutality
against women is justified in the name of respecting 'other's' culture and
religion. How can we respect any culture or religion that endorses
violence and terrorism against women? Over the past twenty years cultural
relativism has led to a culture of tolerating intolerance. Criticising
these unacceptable traditions, cultures and religious beliefs and
practices has been labeled racism and Islamophobia. Human beings are
worthy of respect but not all beliefs can or should be respected. It is
perfectly feasible to love the believer but hate the belief. Relativism
and respect for misogynism is no shield against racism. Quite the
opposite. It promotes racism by depriving women and girls living in
European and Middle Eastern countries of their universal rights and civil
liberties. While
murderers have repeatedly and openly defend their act by referring to
Islam and the Koran in justification, many feminists, the mainstream media
and western intellectuals largely try to explain these murders as part of
the prevalent patterns of domestic violence against women in western
societies. While the murderers, whether in the Middle Eastern countries or
within the Muslim communities in the West, openly state that their act of
murder are "crimes of honour", and that they are merely
following the directions set down in their religious beliefs, the
apologetic 'Western' intellectuals repeatedly assure us that it is not
Islam and backward traditions that are to blame, but that these murders
are part and parcel of the common pattern of violence that is happening to
Western women too. Equally
worrying is the tendency among political leaders, academics and feminists,
to reject the application of human rights discourse to personal matters,
describing human rights as a purely western concept foisted on the more
traditional societies of the east without adequate debate. And
as far as European governments are concerned, there shouldn't be different
bases for peoples rights in European countries. All should be considered
as citizens and equal before the law. Society is duty bound to safe guard
and protect the rights of women and girls from Muslim origin. This could
be done only by abolishing all the respective discriminatory laws and
regulations against these girls and women. This could be done only when
there is no respect, excuse and legal justification for the misogynist
Islamic and traditional beliefs and practices. In
the Academic World Academic
theories such as cultural relativism, identity politics, post
structuralism and post modernism in Academia have been used to apologise
for this misogynist religion and for this anti-women culture, and for the
denial of women's universal rights. Under
the guise of avoiding neocolonialism and treating the Middle Eastern women
as backward and over oppressed, many feminist - academics keep silent
about the brutality committed against women. In this way, they apologise
for 'their own culture', 'their own religion', 'their own community' and
'their own state'. These feminists academics keep silent about FGM, forced
marriage, honour killing, mandatory veiling, sexual apartheid, stoning and
many other cruelty of the Shari'a and the Islamic traditions against
women. They call such brutality and cruelty 'sensitive issues'. This is
simply a cover up and no way can it be considered advocacy for justice,
human rights and women's rights. This is rather a dismal and cowardly
apology for tribal and Islamic misogyny. These feminists and intellectuals
repeatedly tell us that these topics are not specifically Middle Eastern
but also found in the West. In this discourse, any criticism of Islamic
and traditional values is labeled as "West's orientalist obsession
with women's sexuality in the Arab world and the tendency to use crimes of
honour as an example of Arab male oppression of women". (Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, New Haven,
Yale University Press) By
emphasising religious and tribal dimensions, I do not intend to picture
Middle Eastern culture as a homogeneous misogynist culture and therefore
overshadow or ignore the egalitarian and progressive component of this
culture. A component which due to political position is largely ignored,
or is less known and affirmed. What
is to be done A
society ruled by a misogynist tribal and Islamic laws and values permits
the killing of women. Honour killing is a reflection of ancient patriarchy
embracing Islamic misogyny and ancient tribal values. In the West, in
collaboration with cultural relativism, it has created a deadly mix that
has brutally victimised many young girls and women. Honour
killing, which contradicts many basic human rights and values, is clearly
connected to the subordination of women. The prevailing culture of
discrimination and misogyny in Islamic religion and society will not
change without the implementing a comprehensive and radical
socio-political and legal changes in the situation of women. The
civil rights of Arab citizens generally depend on their status, class,
tribal affiliation and proximity to the regimes. This altogether
discriminatory culture strongly affects women. It is not easy to dislodge
let alone eliminate honour killing and other forms of violence in the
absence of a radical transformation of the unequal social and economic
order. The
only effective strategy to abolish honour killings is to safeguard and
advance women's rights and status; by fighting against Islamic,
patriarchal and tribal traditions; by separating religion from the state;
and by forming secular and egalitarian governments in the region. Then,
when equality before the law, civil rights, human rights, justice, freedom
are achieved and safeguarded for all citizens regardless of their gender,
class or race, women will benefit by extension. The struggle against
honour killing is inseparable from the struggle for women's civil
liberties, for the separation of Islam from the State, the struggle
against political Islam and Islamic States in the region. All restrictive
and backward cultural and moral codes and customs that hinder and restrict
women's freedom and independence as equal citizens must be abolished.
Severe penalties must be imposed for the abuse, intimidation, restriction
of freedom, degradation and violent treatment of women and girls. These
are the tasks of women's liberation movement along with the progressive
and egalitarian movements in the region as well as in the West. |
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