Dr Edmond Melhem – The Tragic Intersection of Patriarchy and Female Sexuality: Honour Crimes in the Arab World.
Honour crimes “are the manifestation of culturally inherited values that impose on women socially-expected behaviour which is derived from prevailing patriarchal norms and standards”.[1] Trespasses on this expected behaviour by women are not tolerated. As one author states: “Honour is what makes life worthwhile: shame is a living death, not to be endured”.[2] Thus, every year, hundreds of women and girls in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine are punished or murdered by male relatives to cleanse the honour of the family, which is very dependent on a woman’s virginity. According to Arab cultural mores and customs, a woman who loses her virginity before marriage brings everlasting shame upon her own family and loses her chance of finding a suitable husband. She may be punished with physical death or moral death. The Arab society considers the very honour of a girl, and her family, directly linked to the preservation of her virginity. The very fine membrane called a hymen is highly valued and perceived as the most cherished and important part of a girl’s body. As noted by the renowned Egyptian female doctor, writer and novelist Nawal El Saadawi: “An Arab family does not grieve as much at the loss of a girl’s eye as it does if she happens to lose her virginity. In fact, if the girl lost her life, it would be considered less of a catastrophe than if she lost her hymen”.[3]
The vast majority of men in the Arab world insist on virginity in their partner at marriage. Few men, however, understand that “the hymen varies in texture, size and consistency from one girl to another, just as the male sexual organ differs from man to man”.[4] A girl whom nature has provided with an elastic hymen, which does not bleed on the first night of marriage, can be unfortunate and humiliated. Moreover, a girl whose delicate hymen was torn away and lost by a minor accident during childhood would also suffer a miserable fate on her first night of marriage. Such a girl is incapable of proving her innocence of any sexual relation because her hymen is not intact. This led El Saadawi to speak of a distorted concept of honour in Arab society:
A man’s honour is safe as long as the female members of his family keep their hymens intact. It is more closely related to the behaviour of the women in the family than to his own behaviour. He can be a womanizer of the worst calibre and yet be considered an honourable man as long as his womenfolk are able to protect their genital organs. There are certain moral standards for females and others for males, and the whole of society is permeated by such double moral standards. At the root of this anomalous situation lies the fact that sexual experience in the life of a man is a source of pride and a symbol of virility; whereas sexual experience in the life of women is a source of shame and a symbol of degradation.[5]
An average of one woman per month is reportedly killed in Lebanon by a close male relative who claims “she has soiled the honour of the family by committing adultery or engaging in pre-marital sexual relations”[6] or even by marrying and divorcing without the consent of the family. In Jordan, about 25 murders are committed every year according to most estimates.[7] In Palestine, 38 cases of femicide or ‘honour’ crimes were documented between 1996 and 1999.[8] Some observers put the figure much higher. They agree that each year the number of ‘honour killings’ in Palestine (including the West Bank and Gaza) fluctuates between twenty and forty.[9] According to Kahaled al-Kidra, the former Palestinian Attorney General in Gaza, “society considers a man who commits this crime a hero.”[10] In Iraq, an estimated 4000 women and girls were victims of ‘honour killings’ during the 1990s. This was because the Baˊathist regime of Saddam Hussein had reinforced and legitimized the tribal practice of killing women for ‘honour crimes’ after a long period of being outlawed. It has been argued that the Iraqi regime promulgated the legislation to gain the support of Iraqi’s tribal leaders and religious fundamentalists, in preparation for the invasion of Kuwait.[11] On the other hand, Saddam Hussein was accused of using the ‘honour’ ideology in the service of his regime and its suppression of political opposition. Women, although granted equal rights with men, “became a tool of male repression through the agency of state rape, which was used to crush the spirit of political prisoners, to recruit women into the internal spy network, and to break the eyes’ of families or communities”[12] As reported by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights:
Security personnel would sometimes rape a young woman in order to later use her as an informant under the threat that her non-compliance would result in the revelation of her rape, thus subjecting her to public disgrace and ostracism. It has been alleged that some of these rapes were recorded on videocassettes to be given to the victim’s family in the event of non-compliance. Other women were reportedly raped simply as an act of insult or vengeance directed against their families. Testimony received from former Iraqi security officers corroborates these allegations. (UNESCO 1992, 24-25)[13]
[1] See a report titled “The legal and social status of Palestinian women” prepared by Women Centre for Legal Aid and counseling, in http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_articles=278 p.4.
[2] Shirin J. A. Shukri, Arab Women: Unequal Partners in Development, op. cit., p. 1.
[3] Nawal El Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, Trans and edited by Dr. Sherif Hetata, London: Zed Press, 1980, P. 26.
[4]Ibid., p. 28.
[5]Ibid., p. 30.
[6]Kim Gattas, “Beirut hosts ‘honour killing’ in conference”, in http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_article=138
[7]Quoted in Stefanie Eileen Nanes,“Fighting Honor Crimes: Evidence of Civil Society in Jordan”, op. cit., p. 71.
[8] See a report titled “The legal and social status of Palestinian women” prepared by Women Centre for Legal Aid and counseling, in http://www.mediterraneas.org/article.php3?id_articles=278 p.4.
[9] Diane Baxter, “Honor Thy Sister: Selfhood, Gender, and Agency in Palestinian Culture” op. cit., p.753.
[10]Quoted in Jamileh Abu-Duhou, Giving voices to the voiceless: Gender-Based Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, op. cit., P. 53.
[11]Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri,Women in Iraq: The Gender Impact of International Sanctions, op. cit., p. 113.
[12] Jacqueline S & Shereen T. Ismail, “Gender and State in Iraq”, in Suad Joseph (ed.), Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, op. cit., p. 197.
[13]Quoted in ibid.
related:
The Price of Honour: How Cultural Norms Perpetuate Domestic Violence in the Arab World
Triple Victimization: Legal, Social, and Cultural Violence Against Women in the Arab World
Honour and Death: The Tragic Reality of ‘Honour Killings’ in the Arab World
