The author gives an interesting spin on the 1999 honour killing of a lady from the NWFP who was shot dead in the office of the human rights lawyers Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir; the murder was prompted by her own mother because the girl wanted a divorce from her husband. The case became a cause célèbre and in the Pakistan Senate (Upper House of Parliament) the likes of Ilyas Bilour opposed a resolution of condemnation because it went against the Pashtun tradition of honour. Nothing happened to the killers and the two lawyers in whose office she was killed were condemned by agitators who came out in defence of honour killing.
About the concept of honour, the author says, it is used to rationalize killings under the notion that a person’s honour depends on the behaviour of others and that behaviour, therefore, becomes a key component of one’s own self-esteem. It is important to note that this view is different from saying it should be the individual’s own behaviour which should be linked with his or her honour.”
Honour in terms of power should be understood as “the ideology of the power-holding group which struggles to define, enlarge, and protect its patrimony in a competitive area”. Apart from shoring up the identity of a group, honour defines the group’s social boundaries and defends against the claims of competing groups.
“Honour concepts are only another way of understanding the operation of patriarchy which is anchored in the assumption of male authority over women and male definition and expectation of ‘appropriate’ female behaviour”. (p.21) “Central to this theory of patriarchy is male sexual violence, a mechanism by which men maintain control over women. Patriarchal oppression, like other forms of oppression, may manifest itself in legal and economic discrimination, but like all oppressive structures, it is rooted in violence”.
Once the family honour is tarnished, it becomes imperative on the male members to re-store the honour; blood must be shed (p.22). Anthropology literature is replete with connections of honour with family. Of the community norms, sexual purity of women is the most important reflection of a family’s reputation (p.22). ‘One’s honour is involved only in particularized relations in which each actor is a well-defined social persona. When the actors are anonymous, honour is not involved’. (p.23).
What is the difference between ‘honour’ and ‘virtue’?
Well, ‘virtue is civilized behaviour, an achievement of culture; honour is mired in the primal, in nature’ says the author (p.26).