Honor killings – What does it tell us about a culture?

Written by: Evrviglnt on Friday, November 23rd, 2007

When Americans who support the battle against extremist Islam wonder aloud at how the left in this country can sit idly by as freedoms are denied and equality is mocked, we are often told one of two things; that America is the cause of the extremism or that living in a multicultural world means allowing people to have their own definitions of freedom or equality. We can agree to disagree, but what is evident is that one side unabashedly brings to light the depravity of the medieval mindset that drives the terrorist, the other side forsakes its duty to defend the weak for the political hatred that drives the partisan. One would have thought that we could all agree on some things so integral to the American character – like individual liberty and the dignity every life deserves. Alas, even this we wrestle with today.

The Palestinian territories serve as a microcosm of what grows in an environment riven by prejudice and patriarchy. A recent article by the Christian Science Monitor reminds us of a horror all too common there, and throughout the Middle East – honor killings of women who have been accused of injuring the honor of the men in their family. What can one say about a Palestinian culture that has found a way to override nature’s instinct to protect a sibling by an appeal to something so subjective – the opinion of others?

A few weeks ago, the body of the young mother of four was found in a garbage dump east of town. Police arrested two of the woman’s male cousins for having trapped Ms. Wahdan and shot her to death, committing the third “honor killing” in Qalqilya last month.

Wahdan’s brutal murder devastated her husband and immediate family, who say that the rumor mill’s tales of Wahdan having an affair were untrue. But regardless of their veracity, suspicion alone can be enough to get a woman killed by distant relatives looking to “cleanse” the family honor when there is talk of an illicit relationship.

According to local organizations, such murders have risen in the Palestinian territories to nearly 50 this year – a fact that many here blame on the absence of any true law and order, which allows individuals to enforce their own version of justice. Palestinians here say the image of an ever-weaker Palestinian Authority has increased after Hamas‘s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, making this local vigilantism harder to combat.

Particularly galling to many here is the fact that a man who admits to murdering a female relative for reasons of honor can be sentenced to as little as six months in jail. Palestinians say that policy is based on an old Jordanian law, which still holds in the West Bank: Article 341 considers murder a legitimate act of defense when the killer acts “in defense of his life or his honor.”

*snip*

But ancient tribal mores, not Islam, are usually what drive family members to demand that their honor be restored. In this case, according to several of Wahdan’s relatives interviewed for this story, the men of the family met and came to a joint decision that Ms. Wahdan should be killed.

“These men have no fear of God,” says Wahdan’s mother, Umm el-Walid. She pulls out of a photograph of her daughter, big-eyed and pretty, sitting with some of Mrs. Walid’s now-motherless grandchildren.

“Had my daughter had an extramarital relationship, her husband would have been the first to notice and do something,” says Wahdan’s mother, stopping to squint out tears. “They charged her, sentenced her, and executed her all in one fell swoop.”

When we judge cultures, shouldn’t we take into account crimes such as these, actions that provide an insight into what that society deems important? Defense of a family’s honor is a noble act, but insisting that honor is upheld by murdering one’s own reveals an almost infantile understanding of what honor is. Honor means respect. To dishonor is to alienate. In all cultures, to alienate someone is a punishment reflective of forcing them outside of the protection of the group, which in symbolic terms is a death sentence. But in the Palestinian territories symbolism won’t suffice – the men who were once this woman’s protectors murdered her to earn the respect of those outside their family, as if upholding a cultural norm. Some argue that those that commit these crimes are uneducated and poor – not in any way a representation of the culture. But how can one argue that when the government refuses to arrest or try the murderers, or when they do, gives them sentences of 3 – 6 months?

What is it about these tribal cultures in the Middle East that foster environments that abet honor killings? Two things: a disregard for life and a patriarchal system. The Quran teaches its followers that all that matters is the paradise beyond this world, that life is cheap and better spent in supplication or in sacrifice than for the pleasures that can be found here. While the Quran condemns suicide bombing, it’s easy to understand why so many extremist Muslims believe that to die a martyr is the highest act before Allah – because the act forsakes this world for the next. That also explains why the Palestinian culture is steeped in a celebration of death, from the education of its children to the media that informs its adults, their lives are focused on one overriding goal – the killing of Jews. Life for many in the Middle East is a macabre journey through a minefield created to dehumanize them.

Couple that unhealthy appetite for death with a patriarchal system and you have a recipe for widespread murder of enemies and allies alike. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book “Infidel” gives a great insight to how a patriarchal system creates monsters of the men it empowers. Young boys are taught a complex array of rules meant to preserve their power and control the world around them. Conflict is inevitable in an environment that is soaked in testosterone, it distorts relationships between men and the women they rule over. It doesn’t help that the median age of males in Palestine is 14, but one has to wonder if the level of immaturity would be any different were it 55. Throughout the Middle East men have created a world where they rule unquestioned, as kings in their homes and as pawns in a strict hierarchy of power. Ironically, that is exactly how their religion is set up, where men are urged by Mohammad to rule their world while he controls theirs. The Quran is an instruction manual that dictates things in such detail that it even dictates which foot to lead with when leaving the toilet. It is only natural that men raised like this would seek to play the God.

But there is nothing natural, or healthy about succumbing to the rule of the desert. It may be the sole reason why so many in the Middle East are living within cultures unchanged since the seventh century. Liberals insist change will come, that our presence there only retards the inevitable. But the eyes we stare into today are peering at us from a place that should have faded into history 1300 years ago. Can we make peace with cultures such as these? Cultures so foreign in notions of freedom and dignity that any meaningful common understanding is lost in the swirling, blinding sandstorms of tribalism?

Ms. Ir-Rai says that while it is possible for victims’ survivors to press charges in a civil court, they rarely do so because of the fear it will unleash a cycle of continued vengeance-taking and bloodshed.

The Jafra Center has launched a new awareness campaign on this issue and holds workshops throughout the West Bank for women, who often contribute to the phenomena. They place ultrastrict expectations on other women and accuse others of unchaste behavior, sometimes assisting in and even committing honor crimes as well. That’s why the law needs to push ahead, she says, pulling societal norms with it.

“We haven’t heard anyone from any group go to the mosque and condemn it. If you ask people on the street, you’ll find they support it, and that the families are happy when they’ve cleansed the family honor,” says another women’s activist who asked not to be named. “I cannot go to the street and condemn this based on women’s rights. They’ll say whoever is defending her is just like her.”

More honor killing articles:

OpedNews.com: “Our sister’s impurity brought great dishonor to the family,” Anas told me, “She had to die. Now I can walk down the street a proud man knowing that honor has been restored to my family.”

Today’s Zaman: Güldünya was “guilty” of being raped by her cousin, and refusing to become his “second wife” after giving birth to a baby. She was 22.

National Geographic News: “In Jordan, if a woman is afraid that her family wants to kill her, she can check herself into the local prison, but she can’t check herself out, and the only person who can get her out is a male relative, who is frequently the person who poses the threat.”

Michelle Malkin:  The Toronto Star reports that Aqsa’s friends were barred from her funeral by a family acting like it has something to hide…

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Topics: Islam, Women's Issues

2 Responses to “Honor killings – What does it tell us about a culture?”

RealClearPolitics - ReaderArticles - All Submissions Says:
November 24th, 2007 at 4:13 pm

[...] candidates smarter than their party bosses? Submitted By DDilegge – Nov 24, 3:53 pm 1 votes | VOTE Finding the honor in honor killingWhen we judge cultures, shouldn’t we take into account actions that show what that society deems [...]

John Lewis Says:
December 17th, 2007 at 1:49 am

“Open rebuke is better than secret love.”
Proverbs 27:5

I don’t see how anyone can view Islam as a nation or religion of peace. I am openly pro-Christian and I believe that Islam proves one of the many prophesies in Revelation given two thousand years ago. We are in the last days, so make sure that you are right with God.

 

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