Namus
Encyclopedia
Namus is the Arabic word (Hebrew "nmūs", Greek
"νόμος") of a concept of an ethical category, a virtue
, in Middle East
ern patriarchal character. Literally translated as 'virtue', it is now more popularly used in a strong gender
-specific context of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention
, respect
/respectability, and modesty
.
It is important to note that the concept of Namus in respect to sexual integrity of family members is an ancient exclusively cultural concept which predates Islam
, Judaism
and Christianity
. It is claimed that religious alignment with Namus does not exist in any of the holy scriptures of these religions.
word "nómos" (νόμος) means "law, custom".
and his family, namus, among other things, may mean sexual integrity of women in the family, their chastity
in particular. On the other hand, the man has to provide for his family and to defend the namus of his house, his women in particular, against the threats (physical and verbal) to members of his extended family
from the outer world.
Namus of a man is determined by namus of all the women in his family (i.e., mother, wives, sisters, daughters). In some societies, e.g., in Pashtun
tribes of Afghanistan
, namus goes beyond the basic family and is common for a plarina, a unit of the tribe that has a common ancestral father.
For an unmarried woman, the utmost importance is placed on virginity before marriage
, and "proof of virginity" in the form of bloodstains on a bed sheet is required in some cultures to proudly demonstrate after the wedding
night. Professor of sociology Dilek Cindoğlu writes: "The virginity of the women is not a personal matter, but a social phenomenon".
In the Middle East, for a woman, namus is in obedience, faithfulness, modesty (in behaviour and in dress), "appropriateness".
Among Pashtuns an encroachment on a man's plot of land also signifies violation of his namus.
In the west, such cases are especially visible in immigrant societies, when a girl faces the conflict between her choice of the culture of the new home society and the traditions of the old home.
In cases of rape
, the woman is not seen as a victim. Instead, it is considered that the namus of the whole family was violated, and to restore it, an honour killing of the raped woman may happen (estimated 5,000 victims yearly and on the rise worldwide). The raped woman may also commit forced suicide
. In Pakistan acid is often thrown on the victim's face to disfigure them rather than them being murdered.
In the British Bangladeshi immigrant culture and in the Anatolian Turkish culture the violation of namus can result in the murder of the male involved with the female family member.
Meanwhile, in cases of namus loss due to the arrival of a female child into the family, infanticide
or sex-selective abortion
may occur.
In 2000 Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu
(nicknamed Jassi), a Canadian Punjab who married rickshaw driver Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu (nicknamed Mithu) against her family's wishes, was brutally murdered in India
following orders from her mother and uncle in Canada so that "the family honor was restored". Her body was found in an irrigation canal while Mithu who was kidnapped, beaten, and left to die, survived.
In 2002 international attention was drawn to the murder of Fadime Sahindal
, of the Kurd
ish minority in Sweden
, who violated namus by suing her father and brother for threats and then rejecting the marriage arranged for her.
In 2005, 22-year-old Faten Habash, a Christian from West Bank
dishonored her family by falling for a young Muslim man, Samer. Following their thwarted attempts to elope to Jordan, she suffered her relative's wrath after rejecting the options of either marrying her cousin or become a nun in Rome. She had spent a period of time in hospital recovering from an earlier beating by her father and other family members resulting in a broken pelvis and various other injuries. Still fearing her family after her release from hospital, she then approached a powerful Bedouin
tribe who took her under their care. Her father then wept and gave his word that he would not harm her and she returned to him, only to be bludgeoned to death with an iron bar days later.
In 2007, 17-year-old Du'a Khalil Aswad of the Yazidi
faith was stoned to death in Iraq for having a relationship with a Sunni Muslim. A video of the brutal incident made it to the internet. According to the crowd she had "shamed herself and her family" for failing to return home one night and there were suspicions of her converting to Islam to marry her boyfriend, who was in hiding in fear of his own safety.
To regain sharaf 'ird must be cleansed.
Murder
, marriage to the person that violated the woman's honor, or marriage to another man will all restore 'ird.
Support and opposition
Some Jordanian Islamic groups say that punishment of adulterous wives should be left to the state, while others say Islam advocates that male relatives should carry out the punishment. Yotam Feldner writes, "if honour killing originated in pre-Islamic Arab tribalism, it has long since been incorporated into Islamic society and thereby become common throughout the Muslim world, ..." However, "'Izzat Muhaysin, a psychiatrist at the Gaza Program for Mental Health, says that the culture of the society that perceives one who refrains from "washing shame with blood" as "a coward who is not worthy of living."
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family 'honor'."
. National law can be promoted ahead of the right of families to protect namus. Elements of namus are considered by some to be remnants of archaic patriarchal prejudice
.
Fifty years before the murder of Fadime Şahindal, Abdullah Goran (1904–1962), the modern Kurdish poet, condemned honour killing in his poem, Berde-nfsLk "A Tomb-Stone".
s in cases of claimed sexual misconduct do not always protect women from femicide
, since gossip and rumors may take precedence over forensic evidence, especially since the practice of virginity restoration
has become widespread (for women with sufficient money). In France
and in Germany
, where there is a large Middle Eastern Muslim diaspora, the women sometimes may resort to such cosmetic surgery.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
"νόμος") of a concept of an ethical category, a virtue
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
, in Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern patriarchal character. Literally translated as 'virtue', it is now more popularly used in a strong gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
-specific context of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention
Attention
Attention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
, respect
Respect
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
/respectability, and modesty
Modesty
Standards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged....
.
It is important to note that the concept of Namus in respect to sexual integrity of family members is an ancient exclusively cultural concept which predates Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. It is claimed that religious alignment with Namus does not exist in any of the holy scriptures of these religions.
Etymology
The Arabic word "nāmūs" (ناموس) may mean "law", "custom", or "honor". The Hebrew words "nmūs" (נמוס) or "nūmūsā" (נומוסא) again means "law". The Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
word "nómos" (νόμος) means "law, custom".
Context
For a manMan
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...
and his family, namus, among other things, may mean sexual integrity of women in the family, their chastity
Chastity
Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....
in particular. On the other hand, the man has to provide for his family and to defend the namus of his house, his women in particular, against the threats (physical and verbal) to members of his extended family
Extended family
The term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
from the outer world.
Namus of a man is determined by namus of all the women in his family (i.e., mother, wives, sisters, daughters). In some societies, e.g., in Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
tribes of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, namus goes beyond the basic family and is common for a plarina, a unit of the tribe that has a common ancestral father.
For an unmarried woman, the utmost importance is placed on virginity before marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, and "proof of virginity" in the form of bloodstains on a bed sheet is required in some cultures to proudly demonstrate after the wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
night. Professor of sociology Dilek Cindoğlu writes: "The virginity of the women is not a personal matter, but a social phenomenon".
In the Middle East, for a woman, namus is in obedience, faithfulness, modesty (in behaviour and in dress), "appropriateness".
Violations of namus
The namus of a man is violated if, for example, a daughter is born into the family instead of a son, or if an adult daughter is not dressed "appropriately", or if he tolerates an offense without reaction.Among Pashtuns an encroachment on a man's plot of land also signifies violation of his namus.
Restoration of namus
According to those adherent to this concept, a man is supposed to control the women in his family, and if he loses control of them (his wife, sisters, daughters), his namus is lost in the eyes of the community, and he has to clean his (and his family's) honor. This is often done by abortion, murder or forced suicide.In the west, such cases are especially visible in immigrant societies, when a girl faces the conflict between her choice of the culture of the new home society and the traditions of the old home.
In cases of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, the woman is not seen as a victim. Instead, it is considered that the namus of the whole family was violated, and to restore it, an honour killing of the raped woman may happen (estimated 5,000 victims yearly and on the rise worldwide). The raped woman may also commit forced suicide
Forced suicide
Forced suicide is a method of execution where the victim is coerced into committing suicide to avoid facing an alternative option they perceive as much worse, such as suffering torture or having friends or family members imprisoned, tortured, or killed...
. In Pakistan acid is often thrown on the victim's face to disfigure them rather than them being murdered.
In the British Bangladeshi immigrant culture and in the Anatolian Turkish culture the violation of namus can result in the murder of the male involved with the female family member.
Meanwhile, in cases of namus loss due to the arrival of a female child into the family, infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
or sex-selective abortion
Sex-selective abortion
Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based upon the predicted sex of the baby. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children, especially in parts of People's Republic of China, India,...
may occur.
Namus around the world
Afghanistan, Iran, Great Britain, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Morocco, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Uganda are countries in which "honor killings", a largely geographical culture, occur amongst the holders of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and many other faiths, for despite the prohibition of such acts in the teachings of those faiths, Namus is still an active cultural force in rural societies.In 2000 Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu
Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu
Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, also known as Jassi was a Sikh beautician in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, who was the victim of an honor killing...
(nicknamed Jassi), a Canadian Punjab who married rickshaw driver Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu (nicknamed Mithu) against her family's wishes, was brutally murdered in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
following orders from her mother and uncle in Canada so that "the family honor was restored". Her body was found in an irrigation canal while Mithu who was kidnapped, beaten, and left to die, survived.
In 2002 international attention was drawn to the murder of Fadime Sahindal
Fadime Sahindal
Fadime Şahindal was a Kurdish immigrant who moved to Sweden from Turkey at the age of seven. She was murdered by her father, Rahmi, in January 2002 in an "honor killing".-Life:...
, of the Kurd
Kürd
Kürd or Kyurd or Kyurt may refer to:*Kürd Eldarbəyli, Azerbaijan*Kürd Mahrızlı, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Goychay, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Jalilabad, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Qabala, Azerbaijan*Qurdbayram, Azerbaijan...
ish minority in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, who violated namus by suing her father and brother for threats and then rejecting the marriage arranged for her.
In 2005, 22-year-old Faten Habash, a Christian from West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
dishonored her family by falling for a young Muslim man, Samer. Following their thwarted attempts to elope to Jordan, she suffered her relative's wrath after rejecting the options of either marrying her cousin or become a nun in Rome. She had spent a period of time in hospital recovering from an earlier beating by her father and other family members resulting in a broken pelvis and various other injuries. Still fearing her family after her release from hospital, she then approached a powerful Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
tribe who took her under their care. Her father then wept and gave his word that he would not harm her and she returned to him, only to be bludgeoned to death with an iron bar days later.
In 2007, 17-year-old Du'a Khalil Aswad of the Yazidi
Yazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
faith was stoned to death in Iraq for having a relationship with a Sunni Muslim. A video of the brutal incident made it to the internet. According to the crowd she had "shamed herself and her family" for failing to return home one night and there were suspicions of her converting to Islam to marry her boyfriend, who was in hiding in fear of his own safety.
Jordan
Sharaf is the honor of the family, tribe or person which can increase if the path of moral behavior is followed or decrease if it is left. 'ird is that honor which relates only to the women in family; it can only decrease. Sharaf is outweighed by 'ird.To regain sharaf 'ird must be cleansed.
"A woman is like an olive tree. When its branch catches woodworm, it has to be chopped off so that society stays clean and pure."
Murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, marriage to the person that violated the woman's honor, or marriage to another man will all restore 'ird.
Support and opposition
Some Jordanian Islamic groups say that punishment of adulterous wives should be left to the state, while others say Islam advocates that male relatives should carry out the punishment. Yotam Feldner writes, "if honour killing originated in pre-Islamic Arab tribalism, it has long since been incorporated into Islamic society and thereby become common throughout the Muslim world, ..." However, "'Izzat Muhaysin, a psychiatrist at the Gaza Program for Mental Health, says that the culture of the society that perceives one who refrains from "washing shame with blood" as "a coward who is not worthy of living."
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family 'honor'."
Forces against honor killing
In many societies that had or have "honor killings" contrary social forces are also in action. Feminism and human rights workers seek to stop honor killingHonor killing
An honor killing or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community...
. National law can be promoted ahead of the right of families to protect namus. Elements of namus are considered by some to be remnants of archaic patriarchal prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
.
Fifty years before the murder of Fadime Şahindal, Abdullah Goran (1904–1962), the modern Kurdish poet, condemned honour killing in his poem, Berde-nfsLk "A Tomb-Stone".
In arts
- The 1925 Armenian silent filmCinema of ArmeniaThe cinema of Armenia was born on April 16, 1923, when the Armenian State Committee on Cinema was established by the government decree.In March 1924, the first Armenian film studio: Armenfilm was established in Yerevan, starting with Soviet Armenia the first Armenian documentary film.Namus was...
Namus tells the ill fate of two lovers, who were betrothed by their families to each other since childhood, but because of violations of namus, the girl was marriedForced marriageForced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
by her father to another person. In 2006 it was restored, digitizedTelecineTelecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....
and dubbedDubbing (filmmaking)Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Technology
Even the associated practice of virginity testVirginity test
A virginity test is the practice and process of determining whether a female is a virgin, ie., whether she has engaged in sexual intercourse. The test involves an inspection of a female's hymen, on the assumption that her hymen can only be torn as a result of sexual intercourse.Virginity testing is...
s in cases of claimed sexual misconduct do not always protect women from femicide
Femicide
Femicide was first used in England in 1801 to signify "the killing of a woman." In 1848, this term was published in Wharton's Law Lexicon, suggesting that it had become a prosecutable offense. Another term used is feminicide.-First feminist definition:...
, since gossip and rumors may take precedence over forensic evidence, especially since the practice of virginity restoration
Hymenorrhaphy
Hymenorrhaphy or hymenoplasty or hymen reconstruction surgery is the surgical restoration of the hymen. The term comes from the Greek words hymen meaning membrane, and raphe meaning suture...
has become widespread (for women with sufficient money). In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where there is a large Middle Eastern Muslim diaspora, the women sometimes may resort to such cosmetic surgery.
See also
- History of rapeHistory of rapeThe concept of rape, both as an abduction and in the sexual sense , makes its first historical appearance in early religious texts.-In antiquity and mythology:...
- Honor killingHonor killingAn honor killing or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community...
- Kaithal honour killing caseKaithal honour killing caseThe Manoj-Babli honour killing case was the honour killing of Indian newly-weds Manoj Banwala and Babli in June 2007 and the successive court case which historically convicted defendants for an honor killing...
- Mesopotamian Marriage LawMesopotamian Marriage LawMarriage Law in Ancient Mesopotamia very much resembled property law. As discerned from Hammurabi's Code, wives were bought and sold in a manner very much resembling slavery...
- Southern culture of honorSouthern culture of honorThe prevailing culture of the Southern United States is said to be a "culture of honor", that is a culture where people avoid unintentional offense to others and maintain a reputation for not accepting improper conduct by others....
External links
- International Campaign Against Honor Killings, contains an extensive archive of news reports and photos of victims
- Culture of Honor, Culture of Change: A Feminist Analysis of Honor Killings in Rural Turkey, by Aysan Sev'er in Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, relates namus to "Myths about and fear of women's unchecked sexuality and men's legitimacy to curb that sexuality."