Blood for Honor

What does one have to do for the price of honor? A duel to the death? Suicide? Or would one have to kill somebody to spare their honor? In Clayton, Georgia, a fifty-four year old man choked his twenty-five year old daughter to death to spare the family’s honor. What was the reason? The daughter wanted a divorce from her arranged marriage. (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/clayton/stories/2008/07/06/claymurder_0707_web1.html) To the outsider, this is a brutal scream (wrong word) for a crime. But to the people of Pakistan, it is deviance to dishonor the family in general. But what is a crime? What is considered deviant? There is no real solid answer to this question. Different countries have different ideas of crime and deviance. But how can one determine what is a crime or deviant? To answer that question, one has to look at culture, crime, and deviance in other countries.

In Clayton, Georgia, fifty-four year old Chaudhry Rashad strangled his twenty-five year old daughter, Sandela Kanwal, to death during a heated argument over Kanwal wanting to end her arranged marriage. There had been some friction between them leading up to her death. Kanwal wedded her husband in Pakistan. She had not seen her husband in months while he lived in Chicago. To Americans, the whole ordeal just seems barbaric. But, who is anyone to judge the actions of another culture? To answer that, one has to look into Pakistani culture. For starters, Islam is the major religion in Pakistan. It controls every part of the people’s lives, including family and their personal lives. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all stem from the same origins. Just like most other religions, Islam has a few differences to it. Jesus is a prophet is one example. The Quran also has rules on marriage and divorce. For one instance, a couple has to decide on it mutually. The families can also decide if divorce is the best choice for the separated couple. (http://www.submission.org/women/divorce.html) Apparently, the father did not think that divorce was the best option for his daughter. The divorce was the main reason for their disagreement. In Rashad’s point of view, Kanwal had disgraced the family by wanting to seek a divorce. So what better way to save face than to kill her?

To the outsider, Rashad’s actions are just cold-blooded. But were they really? Americans and the Western world have always been raised to believe that divorce is okay and murder is wrong. Over the years, the East has been adopting some of the West’s beliefs. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all against murder. Both religion and modern culture all say murder is bad. However, the reasons all vary depending on what the situation is. Killing out of self-defense is forgivable. Murder by accident is punished like a slap on the wrist. Murder out of insanity is a tough case. The person has to prove that they were mentally-ill at the time of the murder. It is hit or miss in that case. Murder for any other reason is wrong and calls for the worst punishment possible. However, culture comes into play in this case once again. As Weasel Zippers quotes, “He should have waited until they visited Pakistan, then he would have gotten off without so much as a warning.....” (http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2008/07/honor-killing-in-georgia-pakistani-man-kills-daughter-for-leaving-arranged-marriage.html) That sentence, joke or not, says so much about how the Eastern World views family honor. How can someone kill somebody out of honor? How can someone be driven to kill their own child because of it? The answer is all in the traditions and culture. It will be interesting to see how Rashad’s trial turns out here in the states.

Works Cited

Jeffcoats, Kathy. “Police: Arranged marriage led father to kill daughter” Atlanta Journal-Constitution July 06, 2008

Unknown. “Divorce according to the Quran” Women in Islam 1997-2008

Zip. “Honor Killing in Georgia: Pakistani Man Kills Daughter for Leaving Arranged Marriage....” Weasel Zippers July 06, 2008