Honor as property.

AuthorBond, Johanna
PositionI. Honor Defined D. The Economy of Honor 2. Honor and Cost-Benefit Assessments through Conclusion, with footnotes, p. 229-256
  1. Honor and Cost-Benefit Assessments

    Violence against women occurs in all communities and across all socio-economic strata. (173) However, studies suggest that honor crimes are more prevalent in "economically disenfranchised, poverty-stricken areas." (174) In a study conducted to determine whether there was a significant correlation between honor crimes and communities living in poverty, Jordanian economist Dr. Yusuf Mansur developed a cost-benefit model to explain the economic aspects of honor crimes:

    The supply of crime is modeled as a choice between legitimate activities such as work on the one hand and criminal activities such as killing a female for breaking the honor code of the community, on the other. The choice depends on the net payoff of the ... criminal activity itself--which may include increased inheritance to the perpetrator, job gain and positive reputation in the community--above all other costs associated with the crime. (175) Under Mansur's model, the cost side of the calculus includes the lost wages from employment that result from incarceration, direct costs such as the cost of a gun, and the cost of government-imposed penalties in the form of fines or incarceration. (176) Indeed, "[i]n societies where no punishment is handed out for committing 'honor' crimes and where the perpetrator is rewarded in terms of social standing and job opportunities or commercial relationships, [honor crimes] tend[] to have a higher propensity." (177)

    This kind of cost-benefit analysis suggests that increasing the costs or decreasing the benefits of honor crimes will help to combat them. On the cost side, increased legal penalties (if such penalties were actually enforced by the state) could lead to fewer honor crimes. (178) Another important cost calculation is the value of women's lives within families and communities. Increasing women's economic value to the family would theoretically increase the cost of honor killings. Economic empowerment for women then becomes an important strategy to increase the financial cost to families who sacrifice mothers, daughters, and sisters in the name of reclaiming honor property.

    Honor-related violence occurs across socio-economic groups in many communities. (179) In fact, one of the most notorious cases in Jordan involved Samia Sawar, the daughter of "one of the most successful businessmen in Peshawar," the capital of a province in Pakistan, whose husband was abusive. (180) Though her parents allowed her to return home to escape the abuse, they refused to allow her to get a divorce because a divorce would damage the family honor. (181) When she pursued a divorce despite her parents' demand, she was met at her lawyer's office by her mother and a man who was introduced as her mother's driver. (182) Immediately upon entering the lawyer's office, the "driver" drew a gun and shot Samia in the head. (183)

    Sociological research, however, suggests that the incidence of honor-related violence is higher in economically disadvantaged communities. (184) Despite the potential misuse of such data to reinforce the class bias of elites, the data is relevant when considering the economic, property-based incentives at play in the context of honor-related violence. More research is needed to fully explore the potential links between structural poverty and honor-related violence.

  2. Honor-Related Violence as Cover

    Because in some countries the penalties for honor-related violence are considerably more lenient than those for comparable crimes, perpetrators sometimes disguise other forms of violence as honor crimes. (185) In some cases, a male family member may seek to extort money from an unrelated male by claiming that the non-family member has shamed the family by engaging in sexual contact with a woman in the family. (186) The accused man, although not the female family member, may escape with his life if he is willing to pay compensation for the alleged loss of honor. (187) This extortion scheme often involves murdering a female relative to reclaim honor lost as a result of the fictional affair. (188) In this scenario, the male family member manipulates honor property and sacrifices a sister or daughter for economic gain.

    Male family members also kill female family members in an effort to secure an increased share of inheritance. (189) Fadia Faquir notes, "a number of honour killings are in fact economic crimes, committed against female family members with whom there is a dispute about inheritance." (190) Honor thus becomes a proxy for other motivations.

    In some communities, dishonor results from a woman who refuses to marry the man her family has selected as her prospective husband. (191) Jagmati Sangwan, president of the Haryana All India Democratic Women's Association, suggests that the issue of marital choice for women is "deeply threatening to the panchayats[,]" or local councils, some of which have been accused of encouraging or ordering honor crimes. (192) According to Sangwan, the issue of marital choice as a trigger for honor crimes is "a question of property rights." (193) Families often insist that daughters and sisters "marry outside their villages, on the assumption that a woman who moves away can lay less claim to her paternal inheritance." (194) A woman who refuses to accept her family's economically motivated spousal choice may, therefore, be seen to have dishonored her family. (195) As a result, she may be vulnerable to honor-related violence or to other forms of economically motivated violence masquerading as honor-related violence.

    My normative claim is that the notion of honor as property must be altered to include women as potential honor property holders and redefined so that its accretion in value is no longer contingent on women's behavior. This approach is consistent with an understanding of honor as valuable social currency which should be available to women on equal terms with men. Women do, at times, control honor property and accumulate honor in their own right. Too often, however, women's roles in the familial accumulation of honor property are limited to value preservation through virginity and chastity. The normative claim that honor must be disassociated from the strict policing of women's sexuality reflects the pragmatic conclusion that honor, defined with or without reference to women's sexuality, will continue to be culturally salient within many communities for some time.

    1. Viewing Honor Through the Lens of Property

    In order to explore honor concepts through the lens of property, (196) let us conceive of honor as an intangible form of property. (197) Honor property is "owned" by male family members. (198) Honor property is located in the bodies of the sisters, daughters, mothers, and wives of these male property holders. (199) I do not claim that women themselves are the property of men in the family. The assertion that women are themselves property ignores women's agency and fails to recognize the many ways in which women resist categorical victimhood. Rather, my claim is that the legal system has implicitly treated honor as a form of property that is owned by men. The value of honor property fluctuates according to the behavior of female family members. (200) Honor property is derived from socially respectable behavior of female relatives. (201) When female family members act "honorably," the value of honor property increases for the family as a whole. (202) When female family members act "dishonorably," or are merely perceived to have acted "dishonorably," the value of honor property decreases--sometimes significantly. (203)

    As noted above, there are real economic costs associated with a decrease in the value of honor property. The community may ostracize all family members, community members may refuse to patronize the family business, or the daughters in the family may be unable to marry, (204) increasing costs for the natal family that must continue to support them. Within many communities, there is a widespread belief that the only way to restore value to honor property is by killing the female family member who allegedly engaged in "dishonorable" behavior. (205) In many countries, the law makes allowances for those who act to reclaim their honor property--even when such acts involve extreme forms of violence against a family member.

    Property theory may shed some light on the ways in which law has implicitly treated honor as a form of property held by men, with unfortunate consequences for women in those communities. Although this section focuses on property theory principles as they have evolved in the United States, the principles, broadly defined, are replicated in some form in many formerly colonial states. (206) My intent here is not to argue that the theories themselves drive interpretation in any particular national courts. Rather, I argue that understanding the underlying property theories, many of which surface in vaguely similar forms in various parts of the world as a result of colonialism, (207) will help us to critique and fine-tune the application of property principles to the honor context.

    Property is not easily defined in the law. As a result, there are multiple theories that attempt to classify property and to determine what counts as property under the law. (208) Many of the underlying theoretical principles help to explain why legal systems might implicitly treat honor as a form of property. (209) As I demonstrate, a number of property law concepts are particularly salient in recognizing the ways in which law has treated honor as property. The relevant property concepts fall roughly into two conceptual categories: property as power and property as communication. Although these principles offer analytical insight into the law's implicit treatment of honor as a form of property, I argue in Part III that, as a normative matter, we must refine the understanding of honor as property to include women as rights...

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