America’s Honor Killings
Source: crossingthecrescent.com, 20-09-2008
Written by Junaid
Nothing is of greater interest to me than the way in which words are wielded as bulldozers to carve out deep chasms between one tribe of humanity and another.
One such pairing of words is "honor killing." Periodically we learn about an act in a remote rural corner of a Muslim country that involves the killing of a woman for the "honor" of her male relatives. We are invited to inveigh against these strange, unfathomable creatures and cultures that apparently permit such atrocities; we are enjoined to puff up with a great sense of satisfaction at our own inestimably more civilized status.
Naturally, in the present war-soaked atmosphere, the blame for the barbarism is laid at the feet of Islam and its "backwardness," even though honor killings are deeply anti-Islamic according to the core precepts of the faith.
Equally naturally, we are led to believe that this brutal treatment of women in the name of male insecurity and domination is "unique" to Muslims, even though any domestic violence advocate in
India or Russia or South Africa could point to countless counter-examples.
But a recent New York City report shows that we don't have to look so far to find other instances of this phenomenon.
The 2008 Report from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, titled "Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in NYC," reports that between 2003 and 2005, nearly half - half - of all women killed in the city were murdered by their partners.
Of course, few openly call these murders "honor killings" - though that is precisely what they are: jealous, enraged, angry, and chauvinistic men killing their current or ex-partners on account of suspicion or paranoia or an urge to exercise their patriarchal role. The violence faced by pregnant women in particular (also noted in the report) only reinforces this view.
But to utter such an admission - to call America's honor killings by its proper name - would be impermissible. It would close the gap between "us" and "them;" it would unhappily curtail the ability to tongue-cluck sanctimoniously about "those terrible things that those people do over there."
The report also contains useful insights - for those interested - about patterns in domestic violence. Women in minority groups, in poorer neighborhoods, and those bereft of police protection were the most vulnerable.
In a word, this isn't a "religious" problem. It is a social problem, requiring social solutions. But social solutions require a sincere approach and commitment to funding civil society, not self-righteous and titillating rhetoric aimed at whetting the appetite for war and blood.
And where's the profit in that?
Written by Junaid
Nothing is of greater interest to me than the way in which words are wielded as bulldozers to carve out deep chasms between one tribe of humanity and another.
One such pairing of words is "honor killing." Periodically we learn about an act in a remote rural corner of a Muslim country that involves the killing of a woman for the "honor" of her male relatives. We are invited to inveigh against these strange, unfathomable creatures and cultures that apparently permit such atrocities; we are enjoined to puff up with a great sense of satisfaction at our own inestimably more civilized status.
Naturally, in the present war-soaked atmosphere, the blame for the barbarism is laid at the feet of Islam and its "backwardness," even though honor killings are deeply anti-Islamic according to the core precepts of the faith.
Equally naturally, we are led to believe that this brutal treatment of women in the name of male insecurity and domination is "unique" to Muslims, even though any domestic violence advocate in
India or Russia or South Africa could point to countless counter-examples.
But a recent New York City report shows that we don't have to look so far to find other instances of this phenomenon.
The 2008 Report from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, titled "Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in NYC," reports that between 2003 and 2005, nearly half - half - of all women killed in the city were murdered by their partners.
Of course, few openly call these murders "honor killings" - though that is precisely what they are: jealous, enraged, angry, and chauvinistic men killing their current or ex-partners on account of suspicion or paranoia or an urge to exercise their patriarchal role. The violence faced by pregnant women in particular (also noted in the report) only reinforces this view.
But to utter such an admission - to call America's honor killings by its proper name - would be impermissible. It would close the gap between "us" and "them;" it would unhappily curtail the ability to tongue-cluck sanctimoniously about "those terrible things that those people do over there."
The report also contains useful insights - for those interested - about patterns in domestic violence. Women in minority groups, in poorer neighborhoods, and those bereft of police protection were the most vulnerable.
In a word, this isn't a "religious" problem. It is a social problem, requiring social solutions. But social solutions require a sincere approach and commitment to funding civil society, not self-righteous and titillating rhetoric aimed at whetting the appetite for war and blood.
And where's the profit in that?
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