| -Caveat Lector-
Imagine... your throat is
slit because you dared to become
"westernized"... all because you bore a
vagina instead of a penis.
Letter from London: Honour killing
dishonours us all
Irfan Husain
Muslims are more resistant to
change than any other community. But above all,
it is our attitude towards
women that disgraces the entire faith and community
Recently, London
newspapers carried detailed reports about the trial of a
47-year-old
Kurdish father who slit the throat of his 16-year-old daughter.
Abdalla
Yones was sentenced to life imprisonment, although he asked for the death
sentence for his gruesome crime. As the ultimate penalty was outlawed
years
ago, the judge couldn�t oblige the killer.
The reason for the
murder was that the defendant�s daughter, Heshu Yones, had
become too
�Westernised� for her father�s liking, going to the extent of
having a
Lebanese-Christian boyfriend. Abdalla lost face when he received a
letter
accusing his daughter of �behaving like a slut� and went into a depression.
Heshu had written a long letter before her death, accusing her father
of
frequent violence against her: �...Hey, for an older man you have a
good strong
punch and kick. I hope you enjoyed testing your strength on
me, it was fun being
on the receiving end. Well done...� Last October, her
father attacked her
with a knife, inflicting terrible injuries before
slitting her throat and letting
her bleed to death.
While
sentencing the murderer, Judge Neil Denison noted: �This is, in any
view,
a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between
traditional Kurdish values and western society.� This murder was described
as
an honour killing, and was one of a dozen such crimes committed last
year.
While the police were quick to point out that honour killings
were not
committed only by Muslims, the fact is that the bulk of these
gruesome murders occur
among Britain�s large Muslim community. Almost
invariably, girls are the
victims as some of them refuse to live narrow
traditional lives and dare to choose
to explore the freedoms they are
permitted in the West. In many cases, their
refusal to marry a man their
parents have chosen leads to tragedy. For first
generation parents, such
rebellion means a loss of face in the community that
can only be restored
by an honour killing.
In a permissive society where the individual
choice of a young man or woman
takes precedence over parental wishes,
especially when it comes to choosing a
partner, it is incomprehensible
that adults should resort to murder to prevent
a relationship. Talking to
Westerners, Muslims defend this practice by
claiming that it is Islamic.
In reality, consenting adults have the freedom to choose
as no coercion in
matrimony is permitted in Islam. Nevertheless, these
criminal acts
continue, especially in Pakistan where more often than not, the
killers
get away scot free or with a mild sentence.
The �irreconcilable
cultural differences� Judge Neil Denison referred to
while sentencing
Abdalla Yones exist across the spectrum, but specially with
everything to
do with women: they are the ones who are supposed to uphold �family
honour�. Any deviation from traditional behaviour jeopardises the family�s
(particularly the patriarch�s) honour and must therefore be punished.
Males are
absolved of this responsibility except when they have to take
punitive action;
a failure to do so makes them dishonourable. These
attitudes to sex and women
are part and parcel of the cultural values in
much of the Islamic world. They
also exist in the backward parts of Spain,
Sicily, the Balkans as well as
South America. Interestingly, Muslims ruled
over Spain, Sicily and the Balkans
for centuries, and the Spaniards
conquered much of South America and implanted
their views and cultural
values in most of the continent.
Most migrant groups struggle to come
to terms with the alien belief system
and culture of the host society
where they have chosen to make a new life.
Britain has been more tolerant
than most and has encouraged the _expression_ and
development of foreign
traditions, but the welcome may finally be wearing a bit
thin. Immigrants
and asylum seekers are too often viewed as abusing the generous
social
security system, and the refusal of many communities to learn English
and
conform at least outwardly to British norms has begun to grate. Although
most people acknowledge the contribution made to the local economy,
culture and
gastronomy by foreigners, they are increasingly critical of
groups who keep
to themselves and resist integrating into the
mainstream.
In this category, Muslims are more resistant to change than
any other
community. But above all, it is our attitude towards women that
disgraces the entire
faith and community. Recently, a two-part TV series
showed girls of Pakistani
origin being taken to remote family villages on
the pretext of a vacation and
then being forcibly married to barely
educated cousins there, their passports
taken away and being forced to
live in the most primitive conditions. Such
images do terrible damage to
Muslims and Islam and until such barbaric practices
are put behind us, we
will continue to be viewed as an uncivilised and
backward
people.
The writer is a freelance columnist
[Non-text portions
of this message have been removed]
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