Is honor killing a "Muslim Phenomenon"? Textual interpretations and cultural representations

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs

Volumn 31, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 423-440

  Doǧan, Recep ^a  

^a ANKARA UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84859140314     PISSN: 13602004     EISSN: 14699591     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2011.599547     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. Mikael Kurkiala, "Interpreting Honour Killings: The Story of Fadime Sahindal (1975-2002) in the Swedish Press", Anthropology Today, Vol. 19, No. 1, February 2003, pp. 6-7, 6.
2. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 7.
3. BBC News, Monday, 4 September 2006, "One in 10 'Backs Honour Killings'", available online from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5311244.stm. For the websites which support that honor killing is justified in Islam see the interpretations in http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?t, http://www.tafsir. com/default.asp?sid See also videos posted to YouTube, "Honour Killings and Islam", http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g1B-A5Dq5o, "Correcting David Wood on Honour Killings in Islam (by Yahya Snow)", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86RbtGugtnE&feature=related.
4. John George Peristiany, ed Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966, p. 11.
5. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
6. Julio Caro Baroja, "Honour and Shame: A Historical Account of Several Conflicts", in Honour and Shame, The Values of Mediterranean Society, ed. John George Peristiany, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966, pp. 79-137, 83.
7. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 84.
8. The perfect example of this conceptualization can be seen in the repealed Articles 551 and 578 of the Italian Penal Code (the Rocco Code 1931) which were in force until 1978 and 1981 respectively and regulated the crimes of abortion and infanticide for cause of honor.
9. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Sentiment of Honour in Kabyle Society", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, pp. 191-241, 221.
10. For instance, in Turkish, "onur", "gurur", "nam", and "şan" are gender-neutral words used to refer to prestige and respect, while the word "namus" is a gender-specific term used to refer to certain different qualities and standards that an honorable woman or man should have. Similarly in Pakistan, the word "ghairat" is used to mean "honor" "jealousy", "courage", "modesty", and "shame" and the word "izzat" is used to mean reputation and respect. For further discussion see Pnina Werbner, "Honor, Shame and the Politics of Sexual Embodiment among South Asian Muslims in Britain and Beyond: An Analysis of Debates in the Public Sphere", International Social Science Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2005, pp. 25-47, p. 27, and also see Clementine van Eck, Purified by Blood, Honour Killings amongst Turks in the Netherlands, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2003, pp. 20, 21.
11. Ahmed Abou-Zeid, "Honour and Shame among the Bedouins of Egypt", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, pp. 243-260, 247.
12. Julian A. Pitt-Rivers, "Honour and Social Status", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, pp. 19-77, 53.
13. The Spanish proverb which says that "glass and a man's honour shatter at the first blow" (Julio Caro Baroja, "Honour and Shame: A Historical Account of Several Conflicts", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, p. 96) reflects the difficulty that men face in terms of protecting the honour of female relatives.
14. John K. Campbell, "Honour and the Devil", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, pp. 139-170, 145.
15. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, pp. 145, 146.
16. John K. Campbell, "The Greek Hero", in Honor and Grace in Anthropology, eds John George Peristiany and Julian A. Pitt-Rivers, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 129-149, 131.
17. John George Peristiany, "Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Highland Village", in Honour and Shame, ed. John George Peristiany, pp. 171-190, 179; Constantina Safilios-Rothschild, "'Honour' Crimes in Contemporary Greece", The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 20, 1969, pp. 205-218, 205.
18. Constantina Safilios-Rothschild, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 205.
19. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
20. John George Peristiany, "Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Highland Village", p. 179.
21. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
22. In the case of Surjit Athwal, 27, a Sikh British woman who went missing in 1998 on a visit to her inlaws in India, was found to have been murdered in the name of honor. On 19 September 2007, Bachan Athwal, 70, Surjit Athwal's mother-in-law and Sukhdave Athwal, 43, Surjit's husband, were jailed for life for ordering the murder of Surjit Athwal, whom they claimed had disgraced their traditional Sikh family by having an affair (Timesonline, 20 September 2007).
23. OCCRI (Oxford Cross-Cultural Research Institute) retrieved 10 November 2007 from http://www. occri.org.uk/Articles/HonourKillings.htm; O. Craig, "Revealed: Rising Toll of Deaths before Dishonour", Sunday, Telegraph [internet] 17 June 2007. Available online from http://www.telegraph. co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/17/nhonour117.xml [Accessed 16 November 2007]; Conservative Women's Organisation "Report on the Violence Against Women Summit Held on 11th Oct 2007", retrieved 16 November 2007 from http://www.conservativewomen.org.uk/article.asp?art_id= 68; Hannana Siddiqui, "There is No 'Honour' in Domestic Violence, only Shame! Women's Struggles against 'Honour' Crimes in the UK", in "Honour" Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence against Women, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, London: Zed Books, 2005, pp. 263-281, 277.
24. Honor killings take place in countries including Brazil, Denmark, Egypt, Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Qatar, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen (Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women (2002), Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women (2003). See also Rana Husseini, Murder in the Name of Honor, Oxford, UK: One World Publications, 2009. According to Bettiga-Boukerbout honor killing also took place in Italy. Maria Gabriella Bettiga-Boukerbout, "'Crimes of Honour' in the Italian Penal Code: An Analysis of History and Reform", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 230-244, 235.
25. CEWLA (Centre for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance), "'Crimes of Honour' as Violence against Women in Egypt", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 137-159, 155, 159.
26. BBC News, 7 May 2005, "Killed for the Family's Honour". Available online from http://news.bbc.co. uk/2/hi/programmes/ from_our_own_correspondent/4522465.stm
27. Uma Chakravarti, "From Fathers to Husbands: Of Love, Death and Marriage in North India", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 308-331, 311.
28. On 7 April 2007, in the Bashiqa bazaar in Mosul province of Iraq, Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Kurdish Yezidi female who had an affair with a young Sunni male, was stoned to death in public, watched by hundreds of men cheering and yelling. The Sunday Times, 4 November 2007, "'Honour' Killings Grow as Girl, 17, Stoned to Death", p. 25.
29. Surah Yusuf-Joseph, Chapter 12, Verse 111.
30. Surah As-Sajdah-Adoration or The Prostration, Chapter 32, Verse 1-2; Surah Al-Baqarah-The Cow, Chapter 2, Verse 2.
31. Naila Minai, Women in Islam Tradition and Transition in the Middle East, London: Murray, 1981, p. 4; Yasar Nuri Ozturk, Kur'an'daki Iṡ lam, Bütün Eserleri 12, 40 i{dotless}nci{dotless} Baski{dotless}, Iṡ tanbul: Yeni Boyut, 2003 [Islam in Qur'an, All Work Series 12, 40th Edition, Istanbul: Yeni Boyut, 2003]; Yasar Nuri Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozla̧sti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? Vahyin dininden sapmalar, hurafeler, bid'atlar, Bütün Eserleri 31, 14 üncü Baski{dotless}, İstanbul: Yeni Boyut, 2005 [How was Islam Modified? The Distortions of and the Deviations from Islam, All Work Series 31, 14th Edition, Istanbul: Yeni Boyut, 2005]; Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, Reading, UK: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1991, pp. 126, 129, 138.
32. Naila Minai, Women in Islam Tradition and Transition in the Middle East, London: Murray, 1981, p. 4
33. The Republic of Turkey General Directorate for Religious Affairs, Press Release for March 8, International Women's Day, 2004, Ankara, Turkey.
34. The word "Jilbab" is translated in Dawood's translation of the Koran as a veil[s] (Nessim Joseph Dawood, The Koran, The Penguin Classics, London and Tanbridge: The Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1959, p. 287), in Sale's translation as a outer garment[s] with an explanatory note: "the large wrapper[s], usually of white linen, with which the women in the east cover themselves from head to foot when they go abroad" (George Sale, Sale's Koran, The Koran: Commonly Called the Alkoran of Muhammed, London: Frederick Warne and Co 1901, p. 320), in Arthar Husain's translation as a veil (Arthar Husain, The Message of Al-Quran, Lucknow (India): Academy of Islamic Research & Publications, 1977, p. 209), and finally in Bell's translation as mantle[s] with the explanatory note: "probably cover [their] face[s]" (Richard Bell, The Quran Translated with a Critical Re-arrangement of the Surahs, Vol. 2, pp. 345-697, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1939, p. 418).
35. Ozturk, Kur'an'daki Iṡ lam (Islam in Qur'an), p. 711.
36. Jawad Syed and Faiza Ali, "A Historical Perspective of the Islamic Concept of Modesty and Its Implications for Pakistani Women at Work", 2005, pp. 1-16, 9, retrieved 3 November 2005 from http:// www.historians.ie/women/syed.PDF
37. Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments, Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988, pp. 124-134; Carol Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, pp. 286-290; van Eck, Purified by Blood, p. 51.
38. Nessim Joseph Dawood, The Koran, The Penguin Classics, reprinted with minor revisions, London: Clays Ltd, 2003, p. 60.
39. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 110.
40. Bible-knowledge, retrieved 13 May 2007 from http://bible-knowledge.com/Adam-and-Eve.html.
41. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
42. Edward William Lane, Selections from the Kur-an Commonly Called, in England, The Koran with an Interwoven Commentary, London: James Madden and Co 1843, p. 123.
43. Almost the same versions of this story which reflects the belief about women's inferiority have still been told among the Bedouins of Western Egypt (Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments, pp. 124-125), and among Turkish villagers (Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, pp. 286-290).
44. Bronwyn Winter, Denise Thompson, and Sheila Jeffreys, "The UN Approach to Harmful Traditional Practices", International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2002, pp. 72-94, 81.
45. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, p. 191.
46. Ozturk, Kur'an'daki Iṡ lam (Islam in Qur'an), pp. 106, 547; Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozla̧sti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? (How was Islam Modified?) pp. 334-336; The Republic of Turkey General Directorate for Religious Affairs,.; Minai, Women in Islam, p. 13, Danielle Hoyek, Rafif Rida Sidawi, and Amira Abou Mrad, "Murders of Women in Lebanon: 'Crimes of Honour' between Reality and the Law", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 111-136, 113.
47. Richard Bell, The Quran Translated with a Critical Re-arrangement of the Surahs, Vol. 1, pp. 1-343, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937, p. 264.
48. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 49.
49. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 59.
50. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, pp. 50-59.
51. Minai, Women in Islam, p. 17.
52. Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozla̧sti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? (How was Islam Modified?), p. 352; Minai, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 24.
53. Ozturk, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 327.
54. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, pp. 60-61.
55. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 126.
56. Husain, The Message of Al-Quran, p. 64; Sale, Sale's Koran, 53.
57. Bell, The Quran, 1937, p. 69.
58. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 128.
59. Syed and Ali, "Islamic Concept of Modesty", p. 3; Alice Bettencourt, Violence Against Women in Pakistan, Human Rights Advocacy Clinic Litigation Report Spring 2000, p. 3, retrieved 27 October 2005 from www.du.edu/int/humanrights/violencepkstn.pdf
60. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, p. 296.
61. Minai, Women in Islam, pp. 27, 28.
62. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, pp. 251-252.
63. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, pp. 100, 101.
64. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 64.
65. Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozla̧sti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? (How was Islam Modified?), pp. 380, 381; Mernissi, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 70.
66. Mernissi, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
67. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 73, emphasis added.
68. Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments, pp. 124-134; Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, pp. 41, 93; Amir H. Jafri, Honour Killing, Dilemma, Ritual, Understanding, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 61, 72.
69. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, p. 168.
70. Bell, The Quran, 1937, p. 220.
71. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 31.
72. Dawood, The Koran, 2003, p. 33.
73. Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, p. 74.
74. Sale, Sale's Koran, p. 23.
75. Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozlaşsti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? (How was Islam Modified?), pp. 369-375; Ozturk, Kur'an'-daki Iṡ lam (Islam in Qur'an), pp. 449-452; Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, pp. 301-311.
76. For instance, in Pakistan courts interpret Qur'anic verse 4:34 as "men are qawam over women". A qawam is "a person who is responsible for running the affairs of a person or an institution or system in a correct manner, to safeguard and provide for the necessities of life" (Sohail Akbar Warraich, "'Honour Killings' and the Law in Pakistan", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 78-110, 91). Therefore, without discussing whether there is a sudden loss of self control or the issue of provocation in a way that it is understood in England, only with the emphasis on being responsible for protecting women, men as husbands or brothers have received mitigated sentences by Courts in Pakistan in such honor killing cases as The State vs. Muhammad Hanif 1992 SCMR 2047, Ali Mohd vs. Ali Mohd, PLD 1996 SC 274, Muhammad Faisal vs. The State 1997 MLD 2527. For different interpretations of Qur'anic verse 4.34 and its impact on court rulings in honor killing cases see Warraich, "'Honour Killings' and the Law in Pakistan", in "Honour" Crimes, eds Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, pp. 78-110, see also Jafri, Honour Killing
77. Husain, The Message of Al-Quran, p. 68. Emphasis added by author.
78. Sale, Sale's Koran, p. 58.
79. Bell, The Quran, 1937, p. 74.
80. Dawood, The Koran, 1959, p. 358.
81. Sale, Sale's Koran, p. 58.
82. Dawood, The Koran, 1959, p. 358.
83. Bell, The Quran, 1937, p. 74.
84. Sale, Sale's Koran; Dawood, The Koran, 1959,.; Bell, The Quran, 1937
85. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b
86. Aftab Hussain, Status of Women in Islam, Lahore, Pakistan: Law Publishing Company, 1987; Syed and Ali, "Islamic Concept of Modesty" pp. 8, 9.
87. Ozturk, Kur'an'daki Iṡ lam (Islam in Qur'an), pp. 569-572; Ozturk, Iṡ lam Nasi{dotless}l Yozla̧sti{dotless}ri{dotless}ldi{dotless}? (How was Islam Modified?) pp. 341-348.
88. Hussain, Status of Women in Islam, p. 9; Syed and Ali, Islamic Concept of Modesty, p. 8.
89. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, "Reexamining Femicide: Breaking the Silence and Crossing 'Scientific' Borders", Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2003, pp. 581-608, 587; Syed and Ali, "Islamic Concept of Modesty", p. 4; CEWLA, "'Crimes of Honour' as Violence against Women in Egypt" p. 140; Fatma Khafagy, "Honour Killing in Egypt", paper presented at Expert Group Meeting Violence against Women: Good Practices in Combating and Eliminating Violence against Women, 17-20 May 2005, UN Division for the Advancement of Women, Vienna, Austria, retrieved 25 October 2005 from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-gp-2005/ docs/experts/khafagy.honourcrimes.pdf, p. 3.
90. Kevorkian, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 587.
91. Fadia Faqir, "Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: The Case of Jordan", Third World Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2001, pp. 65-82, 74; Gideon M. Kressel, "Sororicide/Filiacide: Homicide for Family Honour", Current Anthropology, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1981, pp. 141-158, 142.
92. Dawood, The Koran, 1959, p. 208.
93. Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 378.
94. Husain, The Message of Al-Quran, p. 81.
95. Bell, The Quran, 1937, p. 98.
96. Syed and Ali, "Islamic Concept of Modesty", p. 3.
97. Ozturk, Kur'an'daki Iṡ lam (Islam in Qur'an), p. 711.
98. Syed and Ali, "Islamic Concept of Modesty", p. 9.
99. Minai, Women in Islam, p. 129; Abu-Lughod, Veiled sentiments, pp. 73, 116; van Eck, Purified by Blood, p. 29.
100. Minai, Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross, Melbourne, Australia: Deror Books, 2010b, p. 125; Abu-Lughod, p. 12; Delaney, The Seed and the Soil, pp. 44, 83.