摘要
If women ＂violate＂ the unwritten laws and codes of honor, which are supposed to ＂damage＂ the social reputation of the family in the community, they are killed in the name of honor, in order to restore the perceived ＂lost honor＂. This paper explores the phenomenon of honor killings by examining the general discourses and scholarly critiques, regarding the implications for associating honor crimes with Islam and restricted to the Muslim-dominant societies, which of course create a binary between ＂superior＂ West and ＂backward＂ East. Scholarly research on honor crimes pinpoints the great debate on associating such crimes to culture and especially to Muslim culture. The current study attempts to identify the implications of essentialist approach of honor killings that portraits women as ＂helpless＂ and ＂passive＂ victims and men as ＂powerful＂ and ＂dominant＂ perpetrators. This paper discusses as well how cultural relativism is used to blame Muslim immigrants as responsible for honor crimes. In conclusion, the researcher argues that by holding such a view has its implication since it portraits ＂East＂ as an oppressive culture where the brutality of such crimes is justified by tradition, religion, cultural and customary norms and laws. Therefore, in order to avoid these implications, the paper discusses another approach that considers honor killings as gendered violence, perpetuated by the kinship and marriage structures of patriarchal societies.
