>> Fighting the scourge of honour killing is a constant political struggle against the patriarchal set-up which we (the people of South Asia) inherited from history, said veteran Indian journalist and human rights activist Jatin Desai on Sunday.
He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the book ‘Honour’ and Women’s Rights – South Asian Perspectives’, which was held at the Karachi Press Club.The book is a compilation of 15 research papers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the South Asian Diasporas living in the UK, US and Canada.
It explores the various dimensions of
the centuries-old tradition that considers women as symbols of honour and a “bargaining chip” to settle disputes among clans and tribes and is prevalent to this today [sic]
, notwithstanding the fact that “some major women-friendly bills have been passed at least in Pakistan in the past six years,” said Anis Haroon, chairperson of National Commission on the Status of Women in Pakistan, who was the guest of honour on the occasion.
.... Gupte claimed that South Asian immigrants living in the West today are increasingly reluctant to use the tag of “honour killing” in cases where a girl is murdered by a next-to-kin when she gathers the courage to transgress the “honour code”.
This is because after 9/11 the term has acquired an “oriental and exotic” colour, which is
seen from the distorted lens of Islamphobia, whereas the practice is more of a cultural plague that pervades more or less all the communities of this region, irrespective of faith, Gupte said.
“[In the West] if a local kills a woman in the name of honour, it is
murder of passion or domestic violence as opposed to honour killing which is almost exclusively used for people from South Asia,” said Gupte who founded MASUM, a centre for women development in Pune in the year 1987 and is also one of the publishers of the compilation with the IDRC.
The practice stems from the feudal-patriarchal mindset, which is very much a part of the social fabric of South Asia to this day, << ---
'Patriarchal Mindset' is To Blame for Honour Killings
BS sorta-------honor killing is not specifically a SOUTH ASIA thing-----like FGM ---it followed islam wherever islam went. Of course FGM is also not entirely a muslim thing (only something like 98% today)-----but it follows islam wherever islam goes. It seems to me that these specific primitive customs get intertwined into religion ---specifically amongst muslims-----so they STICK as long as muslims remain in
their own communities and the practices got tied up in "shariah"---which-----btw------honor killing-----did
DUH. I've never said it was exclusively South Asian -- on the contrary I've been pointing out examples in Europe, the Americas (North and South), and just now, ******* Liberia.
Is Liberia in "South Asia" now????
The passage above once AGAIN supports my characterization of HBV as a cultural, and not a religious, rite. Can no one here follow a simple coherent thought?
And you're dead wrong on FGM. That too is an ancient cultural tradition known in some places and not others. It developed in the same times and for the same reasons ---
control of women. Whatever religion eventually took over influence on those places, and there are many, is IRRELEVANT -- since the practice already existed before anybody invented Islam, Christianism, or anything else.
In some parts of Africa FGM still goes on, whether those parts are influenced by Islam or not. In Mecca it's considered pagan and barbaric. Once AGAIN it's got jack shit to do with "Islam" or any other religion. It's a SOCIAL practice --- not a religious practice.
We did this before too.
try again---there is no question that FGM pre-existed islam and there is no question that TODAY it is OVERWHELMINGLY a muslim issue----AND it has traveled WITH ISLAM wherever islam went---including to south east asia--------generally it is believed to have started in pre Islamic Egypt-----but was done in Arabia before the inception of islam. No matter how much you search ----you are not going to find it amongst the catholics of Ireland----but if there are muslims over there----you might very well. Hindus of india do not so
engage-----but it is certainly not unknown amongst muslims------just keep lying about it if it makes you feel better
There is nothing "Muslim" about FGM. There's FGM going on where there is Islam; there's FGM going on where there isn't Islam. There's Islam going on where there's FGM; and there's Islam going on where there's no FGM.
You just admitted it PREDATES the religion. It predates ALL current religions.
"Lying"? Go forth and verily **** yourself.
>> Gynaecologists in 19th-century Europe and the United States removed the clitoris to treat insanity and masturbation.
[161] British doctor Robert Thomas suggested clitoridectomy as a cure for nymphomania in 1813.
[162] The first reported clitoridectomy in the West, described in
The Lancet in 1825, was performed in 1822 in Berlin by
Karl Ferdinand von Graefe, on a 15-year-old girl who was masturbating excessively.
[163]
Isaac Baker Brown, an English gynaecologist, president of the
Medical Society of London, and co-founder in 1845 of
St. Mary's Hospital in London, believed that masturbation, or "unnatural irritation" of the clitoris, caused peripheral excitement of the pubic nerve, which led to
hysteria, spinal irritation, fits, idiocy, mania and death.
[164] He therefore "set to work to remove the clitoris whenever he had the opportunity of doing so," according to his obituary in the
Medical Times and Gazette in 1873.
[165] Brown performed several clitoridectomies between 1859 and 1866. When he published his views in
On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females (1866), doctors in London accused him of quackery and expelled him from the
Obstetrical Society.
[166]
In the United States
J. Marion Sims followed Brown's work, and in 1862 slit the neck of a woman's uterus and amputated her clitoris, "for the relief of the nervous or hysterical condition as recommended by Baker Brown," after the patient complained of menstrual pain, convulsions and bladder problems.
[167] A. J. Bloch, a surgeon in New Orleans, removed the clitoris of a two-year-old girl who was reportedly masturbating.
[168] According to a 1985 paper in the
Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, clitoridectomy was performed in the US into the 1960s to treat hysteria, erotomania and lesbianism.
[169] << (Wiki)
The origins of female circumcision is [sic] rooted too distantly in human history to be fruitfully traced. The ritual has always been so widespread that it cannot have arisen from a single origin. Although always entangled in beliefs and superstitions with a mystical or religious background, the various peoples practicing it do not conform to a common racial, social or religious pattern. As a matter of fact no continent in the world has been exempt.
Like male circumcision, the female operation has been widely practiced by Semitic peoples. Many Moslem peoples and Egyptians still practice this rite. It is believed that the Israelites at one time also circumcised their female children.2 This is significant, for our current medical fad of infant male circumcision has come about partially as a result of Jewish influence. If the Jews still circumcised their female infants, perhaps we too would be circumcising our baby girls.
The practice of female genital mutilation has been widespread throughout many parts of the world, although it has not been practiced nearly to the extent of male circumcision.
In Africa, the ancient Egyptians, the Mohammedans, the Gallas, the Abyssinians, the Bantu tribes of Kenya and many other African tribes;. In Asia the ancient and modern Arabs and the Malays of the East Indian Archipelago;. In Australia by many tribes;. Some Indian tribes in eastern Mexico, Peru, and Western Brazil; and the Skopizy of Russia are listed among the people who have, and in some cases still dopractice the female operation.3 <<
from: "
Circumcision - the Painful Dilemma"
____________________
Cultural, religious and social causes
The causes of female genital mutilation include a mix of cultural, religious and social factors within families and communities.
- Where FGM is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice.
- FGM is often considered a necessary part of raising a girl properly, and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage.
- FGM is often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, linking procedures to premarital virginity and marital fidelity. FGM is in many communities believed to reduce a woman's libido and therefore believed to help her resist "illicit" sexual acts. When a vaginal opening is covered or narrowed (type 3 above), the fear of the pain of opening it, and the fear that this will be found out, is expected to further discourage "illicit" sexual intercourse among women with this type of FGM.
- FGM is associated with cultural ideals of femininity and modesty, which include the notion that girls are “clean” and "beautiful" after removal of body parts that are considered "male" or "unclean".
- Though no religious scripts prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support.
- Religious leaders take varying positions with regard to FGM: some promote it, some consider it irrelevant to religion, and others contribute to its elimination.
- Local structures of power and authority, such as community leaders, religious leaders, circumcisers, and even some medical personnel can contribute to upholding the practice.
- In most societies, FGM is considered a cultural tradition, which is often used as an argument for its continuation.
- In some societies, recent adoption of the practice is linked to copying the traditions of neighbouring groups. Sometimes it has started as part of a wider religious or traditional revival movement.
- In some societies, FGM is practised by new groups when they move into areas where the local population practice FGM. --- World Health Organization
___________________________
>> According to Forward, a leading UK charity that campaigns to end FGM, the practice
takes place in many cultures and occurs in several different religious communities. However, mainstream spiritual leaders have denied that the practice stems from religion. Samira believes
the desire to control women's sexuality lies behind it.
"I think women here are scared their daughters will become too westernised and not get married – that they will have boyfriends and go out, and this is why they have it done." << ---
Mothers Need to Say No
"Islamic", my ass.