An alienated man 'driven too far' murders his wife for perceived wrongs.
I'm not referring to Muzzammil Hassan, but to Rowan Baxter who also killed his three children and himself.
While there is reason to differentiate between honour killings and domestic violence, is it useful to frame domestic violence as an honour killing?
This is best articulated in Ruby Hamad's article. My highlights:
and
Rowan Baxter, caucasian NRL star, fitness guru, success story, was a paragon of Australasian culture.
By framing his crime as an honour killing, we can move beyond dismissing him as a rogue sicko driven to murder, and zoom out to critique our supposedly enlightened civilisation with the sneers we reserve for other cultures' notions of 'honour'.
It would be unfair to blame the game and not the player were it not for the fact that women continue to be harmed in Western culture. Otherwise Ms Hamad would have had the last word when she wrote the above in 2015.
As to whether shame is unproductive, well shame can kill. Perhaps it can also save.
I'm not referring to Muzzammil Hassan, but to Rowan Baxter who also killed his three children and himself.
While there is reason to differentiate between honour killings and domestic violence, is it useful to frame domestic violence as an honour killing?
This is best articulated in Ruby Hamad's article. My highlights:
The existence of honour crimes (essentially violence based on the notion that women deserve to be killed or harmed as punishment for bringing shame onto the family) is one of the ways the West reaffirms its difference and superiority over other cultures.
and
While we clearly see honour-based killings as a product of society and culture –which they are– we refuse to do the same for our own epidemic of violence against women, choosing instead to normalise it even as we demonise other cultures for what amounts to the same crime.
Rowan Baxter, caucasian NRL star, fitness guru, success story, was a paragon of Australasian culture.
By framing his crime as an honour killing, we can move beyond dismissing him as a rogue sicko driven to murder, and zoom out to critique our supposedly enlightened civilisation with the sneers we reserve for other cultures' notions of 'honour'.
It would be unfair to blame the game and not the player were it not for the fact that women continue to be harmed in Western culture. Otherwise Ms Hamad would have had the last word when she wrote the above in 2015.
As to whether shame is unproductive, well shame can kill. Perhaps it can also save.
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