Honour: Crimes, Paradigms & Violence Against Women-Book
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: May 8, 2006
Child
A review of ”’Honour’: Crimes,
Paradigms, and Violence Against Women”,
edited by Lynn Welchman and Sara
Hossain.
By Rochelle Jones – AWID
For most, the term
‘honour crime’ conjures up a multitude of images,
primarily abstract and
focusing on the murder of women by their male kin
for allegedly offending the
‘honour’ of the family. Under the surface of
the term ‘honour’, however, lies
a convoluted tension between cultural
relativism and the ‘universal’
applicability of human rights, and
context-specific interstices which contain
diverse experiences and insights
into the concept of ‘honour’ and how it
impacts women in varied ways.
The recently published book ”’Honour’:
Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence
Against Women” [1], edited by Lynn Welchman
and Sara Hossain, is a
collaborative project gathering voices from different
regions, cultures and
contexts. The book sheds some crucial light on the
issues surrounding
so-called ‘honour’ crimes, with contributors such as: Dr.
Purna Sen –
Programme Director of the Asia region at Amnesty International;
Dr Radhika
Coomaraswamy – former United Nations Special Rapporteur on
violence against
women, its causes and consequences (1994-2003); Aida
Touma-Sliman –
co-founder and General Director of Women Against Violence
(WAV), a
Palestinian women’s organisation in Israel; and Dr Nazand Begikhani
–
founding member of the NGO Kurdish Women Action against Honour
Killing
(KWAHK), to name but a few. With their diverse perspectives, the
authors
traverse the terrain of ‘honour’ on the ground, as well as
providing
thought-provoking analysis of the value and meaning of the term,
and
international approaches to the crimes perpetrated under its
rubric.
What is the value and meaning of ‘honour’?
There is no
attempt made in this book to define ‘honour’ or ‘honour
crimes’. As Sohail
Akbar Warraich observes about ‘honour crimes’ in
Pakistan, “…local
understandings of this term vary depending on who kills
whom and the
perceived transgression of social norms..” (p78). In the
Preface, Radhika
Coomaraswamy contextualises the value and meaning of
‘honour’, however, in
her simple statement:
“Honour is generally seen as residing in the
bodies of women”
She expands on this by explaining how “in many societies
the ideal of
masculinity is underpinned by a notion of ‘honour’ – of an
individual man,
or a family or a community – and is fundamentally connected
to policing
female behaviour and sexuality”. According to Radhika, ‘honour
crimes’
include direct violence, such as murder, “as well as indirect
subtle
control exercised through threats of force or the withdrawal of
family
benefits and security”.
Purna Sen, in her contribution,
outlines six key features that she believes
characterise ‘honour crimes’ as
distinct from other forms of killing – two
notable points being:
*
Gender relations that problematise and control women’s behaviours,
shaping
and controlling women’s sexuality in particular; and
* Collective decisions
regarding punishment, or in upholding the actions
considered appropriate, for
transgressions of these boundaries (p50).
Throughout the book and across
cultures, it becomes apparent that women’s
bodies and sexuality are the
territory for perceived family, conjugal, and
community
honour.
‘Honour’ and the law
The authors of this collection of
essays adopt an explicitly legal theme in
their analysis of ‘honour’ and
crimes of ‘honour’, mostly because the book
evolved out of a research project
with a legal manifesto. For example, in
one contribution, Sohail Akbar
Warraich situates ‘honour crimes’ in
Pakistan through a dissection of the
Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code
and how notions of honour have been
socially sanctioned through both
Colonial and Post-Colonial governance. Other
chapters analyse the legal
frameworks in their local contexts that both
assist and impede women’s
protection and justice, such as Anja Bredal’s
analysis of government
initiatives in Norway to counter the practice of
forced marriages.
Despite this legal locus, however, ‘Honour’ also
provides insightful
analysis, with important themes captured and articulated
by Welchman and
Hossain in the Introduction, coupled with a clear outline of
why an
analysis of the law – particularly domestic law – is so
critical:
“As Jane Connors sets out, international human rights law
requires states
to exercise due diligence in protecting women from such
violations by
private actors, while domestic legislation, court practice and
informal
legal structures vary in the level of protection and remedy they
offer
women, in particular where family or conjugal ‘honour’ is invoked.”
(p3).
In cases where the political environment is volatile, there is an
even
greater need to ensure that women’s rights are protected by the law and
not
overlooked in the face of a ‘larger’ cause. Aida Touma-Sliman
discusses
these challenges in her paper on Palestinian women’s rights in
Israel:
“In the context of such a political reality and a minority
struggle seeking
unity of the community at any price, women’s issues –
including ‘crimes of
honour’ as violence against women – were marginalised
and ignored for the
sake of the general cause. Any effort to challenge
‘honour crimes’ was
perceived as an effort to shatter the delicate balance
between the
different political and social groups inside the community”
(p182).
Between the lines
Some of the key discussions and themes
emerging from the collection
include :
* Interrogating the term ‘honour
crime’ with regards to violence against
women and whether it is in fact
harmful for women. Some argue that using
terms such as ‘dishonour’, and
‘shame’, will transmute the association of
honour to that of both men and
women and move away from situating honour
squarely within the bodies of
women. Others suggest that any reclamation of
the term in the context of
violence against women should be approached with
caution.
*
Connections between ‘crimes of honour’ and ‘crimes of passion’ and how
the
former is generally associated with the ‘East’ and the latter
associated with
the ‘West’.
* The changing nature of ‘honour’ crimes, with a greater
number of
perpetrators being husbands of the victims, rather than blood
relatives.
* Dispelling the myth that ‘honour’ crimes occur only within
Muslim and
minority communities – with analysis from Brazil, Mexico and
across Latin
America.
The book is a valuable resource pertaining to
violence against women in the
context of ‘honour’and the legal frameworks
that exist across cultures to
prevent and eradicate it. The legal focus in
different local contexts
highlights the complexities resulting from cultural,
religious and gendered
opposition to women’s human rights and freedoms. It
offers unique
perspectives and new insights into a phenomenon that has tended
to be
generalised and misunderstood across borders due to a lack of
information
sharing. Perspectives from Africa are notably missing from the
book, and
would have offered a greater balance across cultures, but overall
it is an
excellent tool for lawyers, activists and anyone dedicated to
the
eradication of violence against women.
Notes:
[1] Published by
Zed Books 2005.
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