Islam by Bernard Ellis Lewis Buntzie Ellis Churchill & Buntzie Ellis Churchill

Author:Bernard Ellis Lewis,Buntzie Ellis Churchill & Buntzie Ellis Churchill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pearson Education Limited (US titles)
Published: 2009-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

Honor Killing and Mutilation

At a time when European opinion and comment were predominantly hostile to Islam, the great Hungarian Jewish orientalist Ignaz Goldziher devoted much time and effort to defending Islamic practice and achievements against detractors. A particularly important point he made was that Islam as a religion and as a culture should not be blamed for the tribal customs of some of the peoples who adopted it. A good example is the genital mutilation of young females, widely practiced in Africa and, to a lesser extent, in some other places, but without any foundation whatsoever in Islamic scripture, tradition, or law. Another example is the practice of honor killing.

Islamic legislation in the Koran and in the Shari‘a is designed to protect women from abuse of this kind, but in many parts of the Islamic world today, even the rules of law designed to protect women are used to abuse them. When the Prophet’s nine-year-old wife, A’isha, chatted briefly with a young boy during a journey, she was accused of adultery, which was punishable by death. The Prophet, following a revelation, ruled that such a charge had to be supported by four adult male witnesses. This rule, designed to protect women, is commonly used to protect their assailants and is interpreted to mean that a woman accusing anyone of an attack on her is required to produce the four adult male witnesses, which is highly unlikely. In present-day Western legal systems, a prime issue in judging an illicit sexual encounter is whether it is consensual or coerced. In Shari‘a, this is not an issue. Instead, the prime issue is whether the relationship is lawful or unlawful. A lawful relationship can only occur between a man and a woman who is his wife or his slave concubine. Any other is unlawful. The popular, though not legal, presumption is that in such an unlawful relationship, it is the woman—even a child—who is the instigator, and in this sense the elaborate covering of the female face and body is designed not so much to protect women as to protect men from their incandescent sexuality.

There have been a number of attempts in recent years to legislate against honor killings. A draft law proposed by King Abdullah of Jordan, criminalizing honor killing, was rejected by the Jordanian parliament. Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan have passed such laws, but public opinion has prevented their effective enforcement. It is difficult to get a conviction, and even with a conviction, it is unusual for the perpetrator to receive more than a nominal penalty.

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