Honour is an abstract concept manifested in a code of conduct that defines and predetermines ‘ethical’ behaviours. Under normal circumstances, honour should be a personal concept impacting every individual and their own moral compass. However, for a long time, this perception of honour, and particularly male honour, has been associated with women and their behaviours.
Women and girls’ conduct is used as a value system of the family’s honour. In other words, it is the women and girls who are deemed to hold the family’s honour intact, and this honour typically revolves around a women’s chastity and sexual ‘purity’.
This gendered narrative is reflected in the expression of violence against women across diverse cultures. In many parts of the world, honour is widely relied on –typically by male family members– to punish women who do not respect it, and the punishment can be as severe as death.
This is the widely known notion of ‘honour killing’. A woman in those communities is killed if she does not conform to the social norms imposed on her by her family and society.
According to the UN, around 5,000 women and girls are killed every year in the so-called ‘honour’ killings predominantly by members of their own families. The numbers are presumed to be higher considering that many killings are underreported or not investigated properly.
This code of ‘honour’ seems to be stricter on women than it is on their male counterparts. This form of gender-based violence against women and girls is widespread and extensively practised in many countries around the world and is not limited to one region. However, in patriarchal communities and especially in South Asia and the Middle East, the numbers are rather significantly and consistently high.
Over the years, the number of honour killings has increased catastrophically instead of decreasing. The reason behind this huge shift could be explained by the fact that women are becoming more aware of their rights and are daring to disobey the patriarchy. This defiance challenges men’s patriarchal and oppressive role and triggers a violent response.
According to the UN, around 5,000 women and girls are killed every year in the so-called ‘honour’ killings predominantly by members of their own families
Although honour is a fabricated social construct, it has impacted the law and turned into a codified concept in many jurisdictions used to justify murder.
This narrative of women’s morality and chastity, coupled with notions of male chivalry, is replicated in the legal systems of many countries in the Middle East. In those countries, honour killings are either completely legal or considered a mitigating circumstance where the perpetrator receives a slap on the wrist.
For example, Article 237 of Egypt’s Penal Code allows a court to exercise leniency towards men who kill their wives upon discovering them in an act of adultery.
Article 153 in the Kuwaiti Penal Code states that if a man kills his wife, mother, sister, or daughter, finding out they were committing adultery, his sentence is commuted.
Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code exempts from punishment those who kill female relatives found committing adultery.
Article 630 of the Iranian Penal Code stipulates that a man who finds out that his wife is committing adultery is allowed to kill her. Those examples are in no way exhaustive.
Male family members are considered to have been emasculated through their failure to defend their family’s honour and therefore resort to violence. This gendered script of masculine chivalry is toxic and destructive.
Therefore, many violent and abusive men use this loophole in the law and wave it as an excuse for murdering their female relatives even when their acts are based only on suspicion or without any basis. And when a case is taken to trial, the focus is often on the woman’s alleged behaviour that led to her killing instead of the heinous act of the perpetrator.
Although honour is a fabricated social construct, it has impacted the law and turned into a codified concept in many jurisdictions used to justify murder.
In Iran, the number of honour killings is notoriously high with 400 to 500 women getting killed brutally every year. While the stigma related to family honour is longstanding, the ways in which it is utilised continue to evolve with time.
In February of this year, headlines about the gruesome murder of Mona Heyderi, an Iranian woman, by her husband in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz shook the world. The husband brutally beheaded his 17-year-old child bride and paraded her severed head in the streets in an attempt to prove that he is an ‘honourable’ man.
So really, the question that poses itself here is where is the honour in femicide and what is so honourable about such barbarity?
Some countries such as Lebanon and the UAE have repealed any provision that mitigates penalties for honour crimes in their criminal codes. This step is a major reform of the countries’ criminal laws. Other countries in the region must follow steps and enact laws to protect women and girls from child marriage and domestic violence.
However, while governments are trying to step up efforts to ensure that they meet their gender-based human rights obligations, it is also necessary to highlight the increasing impact of patriarchal societies in impeding the achievement of genuine gender equality.
Honour is a deeply rooted and strongly held notion that underpins social interactions; however, it must be clear that a woman’s sexual activity is not an attack on anyone’s personal honour. It is inherently crucial that society understands that the family’s honour is not correlated to the sexuality of its female members.
