Bree

Alright, I confess...I picked up a copy of September's Glamour magazine. I came upon an article detailing a horrific crime - apparently a woman, who was pregnant at the time, was hung upside-down from the ceiling of her home, beaten with an axe, then had her ears, eyes, nose, and fleshy parts of her face cut off because her husband suspected she was having an affair (she wasn't). The article made it sound like there were hundreds of thousands of women who have experienced these kind of crimes (the author called them "Honour Crimes") and that little to no attention is paid them.

The article mentioned that these crimes have religious ties, but the author failed to cite/mention any of them and stuck to the more sociological aspect instead.

Can anyone provide me with more information regarding these Honour Crimes, and what kind of religious/sociological ties they have to that particular culture?

[ September 10, 2001: Message edited by: greenbean51 ]

DMB

I suspect they occur in other cultures, but the ones I have seen documented have largely been in muslim countries, particularly in Jordan (but one may hear more about them happening there because Queen Noor campaigned against them). I have also heard of them happening in Pakistan and a few cases have occurred among muslim immigrants in Britain.

Basically they involve the murder of a woman by her family because she has (sexually) "dishonoured" them. Thus, a brother may kill his sister because she has been raped.

The murderers get away almost unscathed in countries like Jordan, where they receive widespread sympathy, despite having broken the law.

The basis of this kind of crime is the idea that women are property and have no human rights of their own. The victims are sometimes women who have been forced into arranged marriages against their will because they have already met someone with whom they are in love. If they run off or conduct an affair with their lover, they are staining the honour of their family.

Don't forget that this attitude was common in much of Europe until fairly recently.

MadMordigan

Don't forget that this attitude was common in much of Europe until fairly recently.

Even now, the euphamistic 'crime of passion' is used to excuse acts of violence in response to infidelity. As if somehow sexual betrayal justifies a lack of self-control. Men, in particular, are not expected to know right from wrong in the event their lover has relations they do not want them to have.

Quite frankly, these crimes are simply the symptoms of the psychological damage caused by sexual possesiveness. That they are not blamed on the mores which reinforce this possesiveness is a compounding lunacy.

ybnormal

Where did that one take place, greenbean?

Guess I look at all this cultural stuff in relation to time. Social evolution. Problem is, it seems as slow as evolution itself, huh? Maybe the two are in tune with each other.

I found this story a couple of weeks ago. It does a good job of showing the present day caste system in India for what it is. Pretty bad! I'm one who believes that things would be just as bad here in the States if we ever let the Real Christians run amuck. They are definitely stuck back in the Middle Ages. Or earlier.

Vorkosigan

Did Christians prior to the Enlightenment routinely murdur their sisters and wives for having affairs? i don't think we in the west ever did that.

That seems to be some middle eastern tribal thing that got taken up into islam and spread around asia. But it seems to have stopped at the water. Does it happen much in Malaysia or Indonesia?

Michael

Gurdur

Actually, there's a little bit of evidence for widespread - though hardly routine - such murder in parts of the West.

See the book "Jealousy" which includes a cultural and psychological short history of the concept of the emotion called "jealousy" in mediaeval Spain.
Damn, I can't remember the authoress; I'll get back ASAP on this.

Edited to add:

Actually, I already got one thing wrong; it wasn't sisters getting knocked off in Spain, but wives.
The kind of "honour killing" of sisters or daughters does seem to have been very rare indeed in the West at any time.

[ September 08, 2001: Message edited by: Gurdur ]

Bree

Pakistan.

This remarkable lady was taken in by an American surgeon and given prosthetics (nose, ears, glass eyes and eyelids) in order to help restore her in the eyes of her native country. Apparently people over there believe that if you were a victim of an Honour Crime then you certainly must have done something to deserve it - now that she has restored her face, her reputation is restored as well.

Gravity

GRRRR!

Deathscyth Hell

I think the Husband needs to have some of HIS bodyparts removed.

Particularly in the lower regions of his body.