When the Past and Present Collide - Can One Speak of World Civilizing?
Looking back into millennia of human history, historians and academics in general are keen to view the process of human development as evolution and progression. In this context, academics are likely to argue that the world is moving towards civilizing and subsequent improvement of inter-human relations. This statement has its reasons for existence, and, in fact, the experience of the last century has proved that total war would simply mean annihilation of human being from the face of the Earth. On the other hand, interpersonal conflicts remained an every-day reality of contemporary societies. Another argument against pacification of human interactions is that irrespective of the globalization trends, each society developed in a different way.
This is particularly vivid in case Western and eastern traditions are compared. The point of retrospective analysis, the point is not that some societies are on more advanced level of development, while others remain less developed. The actual point is that, today, there are communities in which millennia old traditions prevail over general human rights. The aim of the present research is to explore female honor killing as an archaic redundancy of the past centuries which was still present in the recent history, accepted and justified by wider public in certain countries. Thus, the main argument of the paper is that irrespective of the general civilizing of the world, various societies remain on the tribal level of behavior and "justice". Based on an actual historical example of the honor killing, the act shall be described from the point of its historical, societal and cultural perspectives. Thus, in order to show inconsistency of such archaic and inhuman practice with the general tendency of world civilizing, instead of using centuries' old example of honor killing, the argument is based on relatively recent historical example taking place in Jordan in 1997.
The case of Rania Arafat.
Being 21 can be a wonderful age for a girl or a woman because it is the time of self-exploration and self-estimation, but not, in the Jordan of 1997, and it was not the case of Rania Arafat. Before she turned 21, a few years of her life were characterized by family turmoil about her marriage, resulting in her final refusal from family arranged marriage with one of her cousins, choosing her Iraqi boyfriend (Morrall 68). As a protest to family decision, she left home a couple of times, but returned asking her family for forgiveness and understanding. The situation which could have been considered nothing but family misunderstanding and female liberation in any other country resulted in tragedy. Then Rania's family realized that they had no influence on her decision and that she was nothing but shame for them. From family's perspective, they had no choice but to clear their disgrace by blood of the guilty one. The very same day Rania returned home on 19th of August 1997, under the pretext of arranging a secret meeting with her boyfriend Rania was lured into outskirts of Amman by her aunts. Instead of meeting her boyfriend she was faced with her younger brother Rami Arafat of 17 years. Brother's love did not go further than five shots into Rania's head (Morrall 69).
Although it could have been expected that at least from the legal and public perspectives, the crime would have been condemned and punish accordingly. That was not the case of Jordan society of 1997. Irrespective of the news coverage and protests of some of the women protection organizations both national and world-wide, the murder did not receive a substantial disapproval mainly because it is a matter of everyday life in Jordan and for a wider public female body belongs to her family and can be used only for the family benefits. Thus, a female individual had no right of choice or disobedience. From their perspective, she had no right to bring disgrace upon her family (Morrall 69).
Tribal Rule.
The phenomenon is being archaic not only because it does not accept contemporary perception of human rights, but because it is originated in the ancient tribal customs and rationale. Thus, in order to understand how such barbaric phenomenon might still exist in recent history, its origins should be tracked. In this context is meant that initial possessive attitude to females in families was conditioned by interests not only of families but also of tribal survival. In times of Arab Tribes formation, survival depended on the size of a tribe: the bigger was the tribe, the more swords were used in the battle, and the larger territory was covered under the rule of a single tribe (Bowman 24). In this context, meaning of women was quite crucial since they were producing population of the tribe, therefore, women were meant only for providing babies and their subsequent growth. In those times, a female body was treated as a commodity and belonging of the family because, strictly from a strategic point of view, women were means to an end (Morrall 72).
Therefore, according to the traditional tribal rule, women were not only denied the right to choose their partners, but also they were viewed as ownership of the tribe. According to this rationale, if a woman decided to marry someone from another tribe against family's will, it would have been not only an act of disobedience, but also an act of treason and support of a rivalry tribe (Van Eck 52). In other words, the woman would be considered as an enemy because she would carry babies which would become warriors of the rival tribe; thus, she would have been no longer a member of her tribe, but a disgrace. The tribal rationale was that if the woman could not be useful for the tribe she should cease to exist as an asset of enemy's prosperity. Based on this archaic, tribal rationale family dogmatization of marriage and keeping bloodlines within the family becomes a matter of tribal survival and provision of its materialistic interests. Thus, if a girl goes against family order, her father as a head of the family would be disgraced if he does not destroy a threat for the family's survival.
Unity of honor.
The tribal origins did not only indoctrinated patriarchal supremacy in the Arab society, but also created supremacy of small communities and subsequent importance of honor as a corner stone of social status within these communities. The traditional Arab society is characterized by the unity of two types of honor - sharaf and ird (Bowman 18). The sharaf honor refers to the self-identification of the social elements like family or social class. Through socially-accepted behavior, a family can increase its status of sharaf or decrease if a family member has misbehaved. English equivalent for sharaf is "dignity" (Feldner 44).
On the other hand, the ird honor refers exquisitely to women value, which cannot increase, but only decrease through female activity. In this context, English equivalent would be "purity" (Feldner 43). Since woman cannot increase her ideal inborn purity and hopes of her family, her main task in life is not to decrease that purity and follow every single word of male family members. The connection between two honors is that ird is one of the ways of increasing sharaf; thus, if woman's purity is violated, a family losses part of its sharaf. In order to restore sharaf, punishment is required, since ird cannot be restored, but only preserved (Bowman 21). Particular feature of the traditional Arab society was that definition of the female purity differed from place to place and was not pinned to the person herself or the situation, but rather situational implications of a certain act on public opinion and subsequent social status of the family. In this context even walking past house were single boys lived might have been considered as a violation of purity norms. On the other hand, such grave offence as rape could have been resolved is the rapist married the victim. Particular feature is that, unlike Romans, who considered that killing the rape victim was merciful because her life would have been unbearable, Arab traditionalists did not consider her as victim and would kill her in order to clean family disgrace (Morrall 71).
Historical conditionality of survival.
The aforementioned aspects of honor killing do not only suggest that the phenomenon has a long history within the Arab world. Therefore, due to the respect of the ancestors still prevailed in 1997, but also that under conditions of tribal feud and necessity for family and tribal unity needed secured bonds, which were provided through marriage and honor status within local communities (Van Eck 71). It does not mean that honor killing can be justified or that it is anything else but a brutal slaughter of the innocent. On the other understanding of its barbaric rationale, gives an opportunity to understand the reasons why it survived through centuries and managed to remain present in some states even nowadays. In this context, history itself would be the answer.
First of all, the severity of the social structure was conditioned by sever climate conditions of the Middle East, necessity to travel long distances, fight and secure water resources and subsequent development of tribal culture, which was already mentioned. On the other hand, the next centuries of the Arab World development did not show a substantial unity except for the Ottoman Empire, within which division between tribes still prevailed. Opposition to Crusades, short time of Ottoman rule, then World War I and beginning of the mandate rule of the Western countries did not contribute to the opening of the tribal world to the new trends in development (Dino 29). In this context, unlike Slavic nations, which were quite flexible to changes, closer to the West and accepted new trends easier, the Arab world was more defensive about its tribal customs (Bowman 47). In other words, instead of accepting new realities of the international relations and transforming them into local; specifics, the tribal society of some Arab countries became even more self-absorbed and survival-oriented, which in their terms meant even more severe indoctrination of the existing practices of family honor-centered structure of society.
Social justice vs. Legal justice.
Having realized historical conditionality of the phenomenon and reasons for its survival until contemporary times, it is crucial to understand how it managed to survive in the contemporary world, where even religion-oriented countries have a legal system with laws and punishment of crimes. In this context, two types of justice should be considered. In the contemporary tribal society of Jordan and other countries where honor killing is practiced, the driving forces for the kill are coming from both inside and outside the family. It is often that neighbors start mocking at family of the convicted girl and begin to encourage the crime (Feldner 47). In this context, some of the criminals argued that the main reason why they committed the crime was that they could not stand the disapproval of the local community. The others were convinced by the elder family members suggesting that it was their fraternal duty to wash disgrace with blood (Chesler 10). Thus, socially accepted justice becomes dominant in the tribal society.
On the other hand, it could have been expected that irrespective of the prevalence of archaic customs in the society, the legal system should punish grave crimes like murder. In fact, it does, but in a specific tribal way. In this context, the criminal code of Jordan had a distinction between a regular murder and honor killing. The difference is crucial, since honor killer is considered to be under the influence of specific circumstances. Therefore, he is often held in prison from 3 months to 2 years in comparison to 10-15 years for a regular murder (Chesler 8). In this context, Article 98 of the Jordan criminal code suggests that penalty can be reduced if the act of murder is conducted in anger caused by victim's illegal actions (Van Eck 61). Another article dealing with the matter is Article 340, which argued that a husband is exempt from the penalty if he commits a crime against his wife caught at adultery; the same refers to a brother concerning illegitimate relations of his sister (Feldner 49).
Therefore, the legal system, which was supposed to protect innocent and impose penalties for the socially justified crimes, actually serves as means for justification of the honor crimes in contrast to regular murder. What this fact tells us about is that social opinion and social norms are inseparable from the judicial and governmental branches of power, which is classic for tribal rule - heads of families/tribes are the same people in charge of the municipalities and courts (Chesler 6). Although this conclusion might seem an exaggeration, but governmental attempt to introduce more strict laws against honor killers in 1999 was the best example of prevalence of tribal, archaic thinking within most of the Jordan society. Although intentions of King Abdullah II for reformation of the judiciary system were mainly conditioned by the desire to show certain democratization of the country for the West and were not driven by considerations of human rights protection, the protests against this initiative proved immaturity and intolerance in the Jordan society of 1999 (Feldner 50).
World civilizing and honor killing.
In terms of the world civilizing, it can be argued that, strictly from theoretical and interpretive perspectives, the practice itself has evolved. Unlike the times of Transjordan Emirates, there is a legal system which imposes punishment for honor killing. On the other hand, until which extent this punishment equals the severity of crime is entirely different matter. The example of the Jordanian legislature and subsequent attitude to the honor killing proves two aspects of societal evolution. First of all, irrespective of general world trends in attitude to human life and female rights, some communities were developing in a different way. This way of development was conditioned by different historical and ethno-cultural environment of societies' development. Particular factor in this development was initial tribal structure of societies, which was conditioned by severity of climate and lack of resources for survival.
Another reason for different tempos of development was relative closed status of the local communities in respect to the rest of the world. This aspect was conditioned not only by different cultural specifics like language, religion and geographical limitations, but due to psychology of small communities, which opposed everything alien and viewed family ties as reasons for control and possession of one's destiny (Van Eck 39). In other words, centuries of communities' isolation from the trends of the wider world and inability to accept general human trends resulted in prevalence of archaic principles of living and gruesome acts of honor killing.
Another feature of this phenomenon is that through the whole history of its existence in the Muslim world, it was never conditioned by prescription of Koran (Chesler 9). Thus, it is not religious believes that dictate such behavior, but exaggerated and, in fact, a prehistoric patriarchal instinct of ruling and possessing everything in terms of material value. After all, even two types of honor described above were identified in terms of material perception. Human behavior and blood bonds were viewed as honor - not human personality, not virtues or creativity or feelings. All ordinary feature of a human being, a girl were over-simplified in a single notion of ird as an addition to the family honor (Dino 38). Thus, a living creature was denied personality as such and was simply viewed as material means for male self-estimation as patriarchs in the local communities. Thus, the main delusion of the whole phenomenon and its perceived rationale was the inability of the human mind to evolve with the rest of the world and realize the difference between traditions of ancestors and new practices of the new world (Dino 24).
Works Cited
Bowman, James. Honor: A History. New York: Encounter Books, 2006. Print.
Chesler, Phyllis. "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killing", Middle East Quarterly 17.2 (Spring
2010): 3-11. Print.
Dino, Rana. Killing in the Name of Honor: Honor Killings: Cultural and Legal Implications
in Jordan and Its Obligations Towards International Human Rights Law. Berlin:
VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 2011. Print.
Feldner, Yotam. ""Honor" Murders - Why the Perps Get off Easy", Middle East Quarterly
7.4 (December 2000): 41-50. Print.
Morrall, Peter. Murder and Society. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print
Van Eck, Clementine. Purified by Blood: Honour Killings Amongst Turks in the Netherlands.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2003. Print.
