Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: the Case of Jordan
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
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. Most women experienceviolence in oneway or another in their lifetime. ‘Men’s sexual violenceis part ofthe backdropof all women’s lives andnot something FadiaFaqir is atthe Centre forMiddle Eastern and Islamic Studies, South End House, South Road, Durham DH1 3TG, UK. ISSN0143-6597 print; 1360-2241 online/ 01/010065-18 Ó 2001 ThirdWorld Quarterly DOI: 10.1080/01436590020022583 65 FADIA FAQIR experiencedby a minority whocan be labelled as inadequateand helpless victims.’4 Violenceagainst womencan take the shapeof rape both within andoutside marriage,beating, childhood sexual assault andincest, harassment in the work- place andeven the killing ofwomen. It cuts across all cultures. 5 ‘Just as the constructionof gender differs across cultures, genderviolence takes many cultural forms: ten centuries offoot binding in China… andbride burning in contemporaryIndia.’ 6 Thereis evidencethat most manifestations ofviolence can befound in Arabcountries, with fewexceptions. However, most Anglo-Saxon studies ofviolence against womenignore the experiencesof Arab women. For example,the extensive table providedby Margaret Schulerdoes not include ‘honourcrimes’ as atypeof intrafamily femicide in the contemporaryArab world.7 Violence againstwomen in Jordan:facts and gures? Most violenceagainst womenin general,and in Jordanin particular, takes place in the home,and is carried outby perpetrators whoare directly related to the victims, makingthe home‘ oneof the most dangerousplaces forwomen’ . 8 Accordingto aLabourand Unemployment Survey conducted in 1988,22% of womenin Jordanare students, 2%are otherand no fewer than 76% are housewives. 9 Outof Jordan’ s 4.7million populationwomen constitute fewerthan half at 2.2 million.10 Althougha fewyears agothe averageof school enrolment was 26.6% formales andf orfemales was 23.1%,the percentageof women who nish their secondaryeducation averaged 33 %ofthose enrolledin 1994,which is consider- ablylower than the completionrate amongmen. 11 Additionally,the percentage ofilliteracy amongrural womenwas 33.6%in 1994compared with 17.5%for men,and among urban women 17.3 %forwomen compared with 9.9%f ormen forthe same year. 12 Arecent studysponsored by the Womenin DevelopmentTechnical Assist- anceProject ( WIDtech) and USAID,interviewing5 445women, over the ageof 1 4 concludedthat roughly1 2.5%of Jordanian women aged 15 and older currently workin short-term/seasonal activities, micro enterprise, agriculture,or salaried employment. 13 Further,employment is notnecessarily related to their level of education:about 4 0%ofwomen in agriculture,for example, have no school- ing.14 Themajority ofadult Jordanianwomen live with either their husband’s or their parental families, abouttwo-thirds donot nish their secondaryeducation, the majority get married at ayoungage and, above all, the vast majority of Jordanianwomen are economicallydependent on male members oftheir families. This leaves them morevulnerable to potential violencewithin the home. Available statistics showthat violenceagainst womenin Jordanappears in different forms,ranging f romwife abuseto incest, sexual harassment andrape. This article, however,will focuson the most extreme typeof violence against womenin Jordan,namely honour killings— the killing ofwomen for suspected 66 INTRAFAMILY FEMICIDE INDEFENCE OFHONOUR deviationfrom sexual normsimposed by society. Aprimaryobstacle facedby anyresearcher ofthis subject, however,is the inadequatedocumentation of such practices within the conservativeneopatriarchal Jordanian society, wheregender, class, clan,ethnicity andpower are keydeterminants ofprivilege andstatus. The unreliability ofdata Reliance onavailable data is difcult fora numberof reasons. First is the problemof bias in publicrecords. Recent feminist research ‘challenges tra- ditional views ofwhat counts as knowledge,raising complexdiscussions of epistemologyincluding the questions of“ howwe know”and “ whodecides what we know”.’15 Most, ifnotall, statistics onviolence and crime in Jordanare recordedby menwho have never been trained to begender-sensitive,and whose prejudices inuence the wayeach case is perceivedand recorded. The statistics ofthe Public Security Directorate, forexample, are notspeci c ordisaggregated bysex.The only category which shows the genderof the victim is ‘housewives’; forother professions, the masculine is used,such as ‘male teachers’. 16 It is difcult, therefore,to rely onthese statistics. Equally,an alternative sourceof informationto quantifythe problemof violence against womenin Jordanis difcult to nd. Secondis the problemof under-reporting by victims ofviolence. As in countries like Britain andthe USA,most domestic violenceagainst womenin Jordanremains unreported.‘ Thebulk of violence to women,that whichoccurs in private,rarely comes to publicattention andis scornedby the police,and the womenwho ask forpolice interventionare leftneglectedand often abused by the verysystem nancedby the state to protect them.’17 Thefear ofretaliation andneglect discourageswomen from reporting abuse and harm. Jordanian women’s rights activists arguethat law-enforcementauthorities compoundlegal bias with inadequateinvestigations andlenient sentences. Police ofcers, for example,do not normally conduct serious investigations orcollect evidence fromand pertaining to all parties involvedin the crime orkilling. 18 Neopatriarchyand gender violence in Jordan Despite the fact that the documentationof violence is notgender-speci c, violence‘ usedand acted outin relationships, encountersand institutions is specically genderedand constructed by, as well as areection of,the power relations whichconstitute hetero-patriarchy’. 19 Arabsociety in general,and Jordaniansociety in particular, canbe classi ed as ‘neo-patriarchal’, where powerrelationships are notonly in uenced by gender,but also byclass, clan and proximityto the regime.Such relations are basedon the subordinationof the disadvantagedand the disfranchised. 20 ‘Sexualviolence is usedby menas away ofsecuring and maintaining the relations ofmale dominanceand female subordination,which are central to the patriarchal social order.’21 Different types ofabuse of the disadvantaged,including women, can be found in most Arab countries. Preliminary data suggest that wife beatingis awidespreadphenomenon in 67 FADIA FAQIR Jordanand cuts across the boundariesof age, education, class andreligion. The statistics ofthe Public Security Directorate’s Family Protection Unit ( FPU), which was established in February1998 in the western side ofthe capital Amman,used to havea separate headingfor domestic violence.Although 2 3cases weredealt with within the rst 10months of its establishment, the FPU decidedto stop dealingwith domestic violence. 22 Apparently,the FPU has haddif culty in handlingthis issue formany reasons, including the lack ofclarity ofArticle 334 ofthe JordanianPenal Code,which makes it difcult to penalise the perpetrator withoutevidence of grievous bodily harm, resulting in the withdrawalof charges beforethe case gets to court.The FPU decidedto stop dealingwith domestic violencecases astheywere draining its limited resources.Statistics ondomestic violencecannot be foundin anyof the FPU’s1999reports. In addition, no gures ondomestic violencecould be found in the ofcial statistical reports ofthe Public Security Directorate. Thehead of the FPU said that the unit was dealing with around60 cases eachmonth involving abused children and women. He specied three types ofviolence: physical,sexual andemotional.