Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: the Case of Jordan
Third WorldQuarterly, Vol22, No 1, pp 65 – 82, 2001 Intrafamilyf emicidein de fenceo f honour:the case o fJordan FADIA FAQIR ABSTRACT This article deals with the issue of honourkillings, aparticular type of intrafamily femicide in defenceof honourin Jordan.The legal, social, religious, nationalist andtribal dimensionsand arguments on such killings are presented.Drawing on Arabic and English source material the role ofrumour, social values andother dynamicsin normalisingthis practice in Jordantoday is analysed.Honour killings, whichcontradict manyinternational andnational laws andcovenants, are clearly connectedto the subordinationof womenin Jordanand to the ‘criming down’of domestic violence.The prevailing discrim- inatory culture cannotchange without implementing a comprehensivepro- grammefor socio-legal andpolitical reform. The debateon harm Scholarlyconcentration on harm to womenhas beencriticised recently bymany feminists, whoargue that the debatefocuses solely onviolence, victimisation andoppression of women. 1 TheArab world, however, has notreached the stage wherea similar debateis possible becausedocumentation of and discussion aboutviolence against womenare still in the infancystage. Suchdebates within the Anglo-Saxoncontext, theref ore,do not seem relevant in their entirety to Arabwomen’ s experiences,since most suchwomen are still occupantsof the domestic, private space.Other Western theories, models andanalysis, however, canbe transferred andapplied (with caution)to the Arabexperience of gender violence,which is still largely undocumented. Whatis violence againstwomen? Violenceis the use ofphysical forceto inict injuryon others,but this denition couldbe widened to includeimproper treatment orverbal abuse. It takes place atmacrolevels, amongnation states andwithin communities, andat micro levels within intimate relationships. Theuse ofviolence to maintain privilege turned graduallyinto ‘the systematic andglobal destruction ofwomen’ , 2 orfemicide, 3 with the institutionalisation ofpatriarchy over the centuries.
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