If you’re looking about information on what Arabs and Muslims are doing about honour-killing (or honourless killing), a good place to start is this website. I highly recommend the site as a good resource for progressive opinions on this dreadful phenomenon. I also invite you to check out my friend and anti-honour crime crusader, Jordanian journalist Rana Husseini. Finally, stop by Ali Eteraz’s blog for possible Quranic wisdom on the subject.
These resources are important, especially today, when many of us outsiders are content to say, “eh, it’s their culture,” oblivious to the fact that there is a conflict raging on within the culture itself.
While honour killing is a very specific phenomenon, it does have its echoes throughout the world. Consider a criminal case you’ve heard about, perhaps a case like this one, wherein the victim is not sufficiently virginal (or, like in many cases, not sufficiently white), and is being blamed for what happened to her. The idea that some people are tainted, and hence do not deserve life, is as old as the world and is present in Western societies as well. Fortunately, our criminal justice system demands punishment for such murder – though merciless bloodlust still finds its way into our discourse.
Many people also draw parallels between honour crimes and crimes of passion, as they are called, although one should not that in the majority of cases, honourless killing is premeditated, and agreed upon by several relatives. Gossip and rumour tend to be harbingers of doom for the victim. Societal pressure often plays a huge role in driving the perpetrator(s) to commit such a crime.
Here in Jordan, a man recently got 10 years for murdering a female relative – a welcome change, considering that previously, he may have only gotten 6 months. Although there is still legislation on the books in Jordan that essentially make an honourless crime not a crime at all, many Jordanians, both male and female, are fed up with the barbaric, proprietary treatment of women in this society.
Honourless crime is the logical extension of a mindset in which a woman is reduced to a piece of property, to dispose of as one wishes. It would be erroneous to assume that other women do not play a part in the carnage – Leila Hussein stood up to her daughter’s killers, but many other mothers, aunts, cousins, neighbours are more than willing to stand by as the bloody “cleansing” takes place, or else demand blood themselves. Although some women simply feel that they have no choice in what is happening, considering lack of community support, others will vehemently defend the practice. It’s not just the men’s minds that are warped in this regard, though men are usually the direct perpetrators. Men can also be victims – especially in Pakistan.
You may (or may not) be surprised, but some Christians (and Hindus, and Sikhs, and so on) are just as viciously committed to keeping the practice of honour killing alive as their Muslims counterparts. This is because honour killing isn’t really a religious issue, although it is painstakingly dressed up as one. Both violent fundamentalists and Islamophobes wish to present honour killing as something integral to the religion of Islam. It’s a fight that’s happening within the faith, and around it.
I’m not an expert on the subject, but this is the sort of thing that makes you die a little inside each time you hear about a new case. I don’t know if one can change the mind of a person who believes this practice to be a good thing, but considering the creeping changes in Jordan, I live in hope.