My Thesis - The Crime of Honor

I am going to post my undergrad thesis that I finished this past May. I have some ideas for adding onto it, changing it, extending it, etc. But as of now this is where it stands. If there are any questions just send out an email and I'll reply asap.

INTRODUCTION

Dawn will come and the girls will ask about her
Where is she? And the monster will answer,
We killed her.
A mark of shame was on our forehead
And we washed it off.
Her black tale will be told by neighbors,
And will be told in the quarter even by the palm trees,
Even the wooden doors will not forget her,
It will be whispered even by the stones.
Washing off the shame… Washing off the shame.
O neighbors, O village girls,
Bread we shall knead with our tears
We’ll shear our plaits and skin our hands,
To keep their clothes white and pure,
No smile, no joy, no turn as the knife so waiting for us
In the hand of father or brother.
And tomorrow, who knows which desert
Swallows us, to wash off shame?
- al-Malaika (Lang 43)

My interest in this work initially began when I chose to study abroad throughout the fall of my junior year at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. After pursuing various opportunities I finally settled on a program through Student International Training (SIT) that was centered in Amman, Jordan and fanned out to cover the entirety of the country, as well as Syria. I chose this program, because it was one of only two offered in the region, and it was the only one that focused primarily on the social and economic aspects of the area. The work contained a variety of subjects that ranged from language (Modern Standard Arabic and dialect), to Islamic banking, to Royal NGOs, to minorities within the community, to Islamist social groups (such as the Muslim Brotherhood), to student organizations and religious movements/belief groups.

On top of this programming a cumulative independent study finished off the semester. A combination of what was learned through course work and field excursions, as well as three weeks of independent interviews and research with an advisor who was a specialist in our chosen field of research came together to form a 30-50 page ethnographic paper.

I chose to research the social phenomenon known as honor crimes or honor killing. Previously I had been involved with a domestic violence shelter as a volunteer Rape Victim Advocate, in addition to a number of other projects on campus and throughout the local community in Missouri that dealt with women’s issues, so this struck me as a natural fit.

The summer leading up to my study abroad experience I began to research honor crimes. I didn’t know the availability of internet in Jordan, and I wanted to get a large amount of preliminary information before I began my journey. I became disappointed as hours of work discovered only dismal amounts of usable information that was not steeped in shock value story lines. Very quickly it became evident that honor crimes were something that only a handful of people in academia had dedicated time to researching. The majority of information available came from stories in teen and women’s magazines looking only for a sensational story. There was extremely little available that relayed accurate information about the simple facts of women’s lives or what factors played into honor crimes without a thick layering of cultural bias.

At the time what I didn’t know was actually my largest stumbling block; without a general knowledge of the social workings of the Middle East it was next to impossible to find viable works on the subjects that I needed. I lacked the words to place in the search engines, and the experience to spot things that could have bearing on the subject from an indirect angle. There is little in Middle Eastern culture that is simply explained by its surface appearance. It holds varied cultures with numerous layers and connections that are dictated by countless rules and regulations that help keep the society functioning within its predefined boundaries and markers.

Without a doubt being female in the Middle East gave me the greatest advantage in learning about the lives of women. In a culture that is strictly gender segregated it would have been nearly impossible to have gained as much first hand knowledge had I been a man. Surprisingly, my second biggest asset was my nationality. When I first arrived and mentioned my intentions to my director and others that were interested I was immediately told that doors would be slammed in my face – This was not a subject to be discussed. Yet, the fact that I was young and foreign gave me an advantage over someone who may have investigated within their own community and gained the censure of everyone around them. I was not seen so much as meddling into other’s personal affairs, as a curious innocent who was merely trying to finish her required assignment.

Since my return to the United States I’ve discovered that despite all of the media exposure available there is still little knowledge as to what constitutes an honor crime or how widespread the phenomenon actually is throughout the world. While the media expressly focuses on the Middle East and Islamic traditions there have been cases of honor crimes covering the globe for as long as there have been structured culture and society. For example, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a practice that has ancient roots, falls into the category of honor crimes committed against women throughout Africa and the Middle East and is more widely recognized in the West, as such there have been great strides taken at education of villages and tribes to bring eradication of this practice.