Honor Killing Evil Targets Women!
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Honor
Killings,
Illicit Sex,
and Islamic
Law
by Kecia Ali
June 3rd, 2003
BRANDEIS.EDU
Intimate violence
against women
is a worldwide crisis.
From “crimes of passion”
to “dowry deaths,”
not to mention domestic violence,
many types of aggression against
women occur at the hands
of family members.
The so-called “honor killing”
of women and girls in some
Muslim nations is one
horrifying manifestation of
this global phenomenon.
These killings,
which occur with shocking
regularity in certain parts of
the Middle East and South Asia,
target women whose actions –
actual or suspected –
violate the honor of their family,
an honor which is thought to
depend on the sexual purity
of its female members.
Anything from speaking
with an unrelated man,
to rumored pre-marital
loss of virginity,
to an extra-marital affair
can be cause for an attack,
often carried out by
a father or brother.
In some especially
tragic instances,
even women and girls who
have been raped are slain
to remove the stain from
the family honor.
As with other forms of intimate
violence against women,
perpetrators are seldom punished.
Some have viewed honor killings
as a logical extension of
traditional Islamic gender practices,
the natural consequence of system
that enforces sex-segregation
through veiling and female seclusion
and harshly punishes violations
of these boundaries.
Others have argued that
honor killings are the antithesis
of Islamic morality.
This latter view is essentially
correct from the perspective
of Qur’an,
prophetic traditions (hadith),
and Islamic legal thought,
as a careful analysis of
the relevant texts shows.
“The Treatment of
Honor Killings in
Traditional Texts.”)
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However,
certain elements of traditional
sexual ethics do contribute to
the climate of intense scrutiny
of female conduct that finds
one extreme expression
in honor crimes.
in Qur’an,
prophetic tradition,
and law,
one finds a very strong presumption
of women’s chastity along with
numerous safeguards to prevent
any imputation of unchastity.
Within such a context,
honor killings are
utterly criminal.
Numerous prophetic traditions
report that when asked about
a husband finding his wife
with another man,
the Prophet agreed that the
husband must procure three
additional witnesses to her
act before the public authority
can judge her offense;
otherwise he would be liable
to lashing for publicly accusing
her or to being killed if he killed.
If a woman discovered in
flagrante cannot be even
publicly accused unless there
are four witnesses to her act,
then mere suspicion can
never justify slaying a woman.
Questioned by another man
who claimed that his honor
(ghira) would require him
to immediately slay his wife’s
lover in such a case,
the Prophet reportedly declared
that God’s honor was greater
than any human’s.
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The implication is that God’s
revealed procedures for dealing
with illicit sex must take
precedence over human
ego and emotion.
This does not mean,
of course,
that human honor
is unimportant.
The stress placed on safeguarding
women’s reputations and punishing
slander demonstrates an awareness
that such accusations can have
devastating consequences
for those accused.
From the perspective of Qur’an,
prophetic traditions,
and law,
sex outside of a legally binding
tie is considered zina,
and is punishable for
both women and men.
Though there is a double
standard in that men are,
under certain circumstances,
permitted to have several
lawful sexual partners while
women must always
remain monogamous,
when it comes to punishment
for illicit intercourse men
and women are treated
exactly alike.
In this sense,
the traditional framework
for dealing with illicit sexual
behavior is balanced –
unlike in the case of
honor killings for actual or
suspected sexual misconduct,
in which only women are targets.
Still,
while honor killings find no
sanction whatsoever in Qur’an,
prophetic traditions, or law,
these sources cannot be absolved
of all responsibility for placing
a greater share of the burden
of maintaining societal
chastity on women.
Though the Qur’an commands
both men (24.30) and
women (24.31) to
“cast down their gazes”
and to
“protect their chastity,”
it specifically regulates only
women’s dress (Q. 24.31; 33.59).
Yet it is a long stretch
from these commands,
which have the declared
intention of protecting
women from harassment
(Q. 33.59),
to the legal rules that allow men,
especially husbands,
to impose seclusion on women,
forbid them from
leaving the home,
and limit their access even
to other relatives.
These rules for seclusion
were never strictly observed
by more than an elite minority,
and are not generally
enforced today.
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But the basic
perspective they embody –
that the separation of men
and women is to be enforced by
keeping women apart from men,
and that women who violate
these boundaries are suspect –
remains influential.
Some have suggested that
the best means of combating
honor killings is to insist on a
strict application of traditional law,
under which only the public
authority is empowered to punish
illicit sexual intercourse,
and then only with incontrovertible
proof of wrongdoing.
The evidentiary requirements
for conviction in cases of zina
(four eyewitnesses to the
actual act of penetration
or confession by the offenders)
ensure that punishment will
virtually never be carried out.
By claiming the Islamic
“high ground” such a move
could be influential in shaping
Muslim ideas about honor
and punishment.
The danger to this approach,
though,
is that by enshrining traditional
texts as literally applicable to
the contemporary world,
one leaves unchallenged those
elements of traditional sexual
ethics that create a climate of
hyper-attention to women’s
bodies and behavior.
So-called honor killings
are indeed one extreme
outgrowth of this climate.
A Muslim feminist sexual
ethics must help create the
conditions for the Qur’anic
and traditional values of
modesty and chastity to
be lived by Muslim women
and men in ways that are
faithfully chosen and
equitably maintained.
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STOP HONORCIDE link!
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____reformislam
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