Book Shelf

Honour Killing: Dilemma, Ritual, Understanding

Author: Amir H Jafri, Pp160; OUP 2008;

In this book, the author, who is Assistant Professor of Communication at Davis & Elkins College, explores the various contexts in which men commit honour killing in Pakistan, and analyses the discourses that deal with it. It undertakes the task of understanding the possible cultural, religious, historical and, increasingly, political reasons that create the dilemma, the exigency for men to kill a female member of their own family. In the year ending 2004 Pakistan had seen 4,000 killed for honour out of whom 2,774 were women, meaning that when honour was at stake women were sure to be killed.

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).  

Sharing:

Your comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *