Epic Woman Stepping into Reality: Depiction of Draupadi with a Feminist Lens with Reference to Three Indian Novels

Lower status of women is a stain on any society. The problem is becoming glaring in India in the wake of atrocities caused against women ‘from womb to tomb’. Even in this twenty first century, the impact of manuvadi ideology is getting evidently felt. ‘A thinking woman spoils everything’ is still the mindset. Maladies like honour killing, bride burning are still gloating over the security of women in the wake of the internalized mindset of patriarchal dictum, viz. ‘A woman does not deserve any freedom’ (Na stri swatantryam arhati). Since time immemorial, she was always taken for granted though she had never remained silent. The depiction of Draupadi in various writings underscores woman’s protest against male dichotomy and her refusal to live by disabling definitions that mark women as inferior.

Revising Trauma Theory: Trauma as Identity Construction and the Discontented Self in Fadia Faqir’s My Name is Salma (2007)

This essay will examine the concept of traumatic identity in My Name is Salma, exploring theories of traumatic identity and their relationship to the self in Arab Literature, the social context of the text and its historical resonance, and representation and identity via the female traumatic experience. The analysis will seek to reflect upon the impact and convergence of feminism, trauma and post colonialism within issues like the construction of the self, belonging, and the juxtaposition of homeland and exile. This essay argues, in part, that Arab women writers embrace trauma in their texts, while simultaneously critiquing the effects of trauma on the construction of personal identity. In particular, the work of Jordanian author, Fadia Faqir, in her novel, My Name is Salma (2007), provides a first-person narrative of the narrator and protagonist, Salma, who defines her personal identity as constructed from trauma, yet who is unable to process, mediate, or overcome her traumatic past. As she nevertheless attempts to construct a coherent narrative of self, the character of Salma allows readers insights into her thoughts, actions, and the way she views herself. This essay asserts further that the types of trauma that inform Salma’s narrative of self also speak to the experiences of many women in Arab states, such as the social stigmatization of so-called illegitimate birth, the violence of honour killing, racial abuse, Othering, and the dire circumstances and suffering inherent in life as a refugee.

Bold Women, Bad Assets: Honour, Property and Techno-Promiscuities

In June 2016, Qandeel Baloch, a 26-year-old Pakistani social media star, was murdered. Her death sparked both public outrage and a policy debate around ‘honour killing’, digital rights and sex-positive sexuality across Pakistan and its diasporas. Qandeel challenged what constitutes a proper Pakistani woman, an authentic Baloch and a respectable digital citizen. As a national sex symbol, she failed at the gendered workings of respectable heterosexuality, and during her short lifetime she optimised this failure and public fetish as a technologically mediated social currency (clicks, hashtags, comments, likes, reposts) to build a transnational celebrity brand. I centre Qandeel Baloch’s life and afterlives to think through the economic entanglements of honour, racialised ethnicity, coloniality, sexual violence and social media at the intersections of globalised anti-Blackness and honourable brownness as a matter of global capital. Within these complex registers of coloniality, Qandeel’s life and brutal murder necessitate a rethinking of categories of racialised ethnicity (Baloch), sexual labour (racial capital) and social media (digitality) as vectors of value for capitalism and nationalism. By centring Qandeel, I define honour as a form of racialised property relations. This rereading of honour, as an economic metric of heteropatriarchy, shifts my lens of honour killing from a crime of culture to a crime of property. Women’s honour functions as a necrocapitalist technology that constructs female and feminine bodies as the debris of heterosexual empire through racialised, gendered and sexualised property relations. These relations and registers of honour get further complicated by social media currency and discussions around digital rights, privacy and freedom of expression. Honour is, therefore, the economic management of sexual morality produced through race, religion and imperialism.

http://habibiaislamicus.com/index.php/hirj/article/view/201

The honour based violence comprises homicide as well as assault, rape, confinement, acid attacks, forced marriage, and female infanticide. The causal effect to maintain honour is attached to behavior of women that triggers perturbation in existing norms of a society. Therefore, it becomes a subject of domestic domain rather than state quarters, and it is not specific to certain societies. The word ‘honour’ stemmed out from the Latin word ‘honos’, which means worthiness of a person or a group in a society. Later on, it implied adverse assumption of maintaining it through women’s behaviors. The killings are carried out due to eloping and court marriage, rape, premarital sex, sexual association, and adultery etc. The contributing factors of honour killing are attached to social dynamics of a society and significance arises to explore relating key features in the light of Islamic injunctions and global legislations. Such features have been more explicitly addressed by private sector as compared to public sector. The United Nations emphasized upon consideration of honour killing issues under the public sphere for tangible outcomes. In Pakistan, the governmental sectors include Ministry of Women, Ministry of Law, Council of Islamic Ideology, and Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan, while private sectors include NGOs, women right activists, civil societies, media, and public at large. As such, it is outcome of joint efforts that now, there exist innovative laws promulgated in Pakistan, which address honour killing as exclusively punishable phenomenon. The honour killing takes place with regard to three dimensions including honour killing on the pretext of illicit relations, honour killing as punishment for seeking divorce, and honour killing as a result of rape. These dimensions define various parameters causing honour killing depending upon intensity of parameters to account for levels of provocation and accusations.

Selected Aspects of Human Life in Civil and Criminal Law

The scientific monograph 'Selected aspects of human life in civil and criminal law' comprises ten contributions. The authors analyse various aspects of the meaning of human life in the light of selected topics in civil and criminal law. The Slovenian and Turkish authors, aware of the importance and sensitivity of the overarching theme of the scientific monograph, provide an analysis of selected pressing topics (e.g. honour killing, disinheritance, crimes against life and limb, vulnerability of certain social groups (elder persons)) in the light of both national, as well as of international regulation and relevant case-law. The scientific monograph thus provides the reader with an insight into historical, current and future aspects of human life.

Bloodlines : honour killings in the post-migration context

Honour killing is an extreme form of violence in the family. This paper seeks to understand the reasons behind the honour killings. Since 2002, there have been 13 reported honour killings in Canada. A media analysis was conducted of 8 articles from the Toronto Star and the National Post to demonstrate how the media portrayed issues related to the murder of Aqsa Parvez, a 16 year old Muslim girl. Policy recommendations are offered as to how honour killings can be prevented from happening in Canada. Keywords: honour killings, Canada, South Asian families, intergenerational conflict, media analysis.

Bloodlines : honour killings in the post-migration context

Honour killing is an extreme form of violence in the family. This paper seeks to understand the reasons behind the honour killings. Since 2002, there have been 13 reported honour killings in Canada. A media analysis was conducted of 8 articles from the Toronto Star and the National Post to demonstrate how the media portrayed issues related to the murder of Aqsa Parvez, a 16 year old Muslim girl. Policy recommendations are offered as to how honour killings can be prevented from happening in Canada. Keywords: honour killings, Canada, South Asian families, intergenerational conflict, media analysis.

How the Canadian academic literature and Canadian newspapers discuss “honour killing”.

Literature revealed limited empirical studies on honour killing in Canada. The recent cases drew attention from the media, and the public but less from the academic. Discussion on this issue revolved around immigration, multiculturalism, and violence against immigrant women. Also, it is a manifestation of patriarchy common in most societies, and a form of violence against women not exclusive to one culture but deeply rooted in culture and religion. It is not always the sexual behaviour of the victim that define the 'family honour ‘. Murder, sometimes, is a result of women not following the social rules or the gender norms in the family and the men act to preserve their reputation. To understand honour killing, we need to consider the multiple ources of oppression and think of their intersections and how they affect each other and are intertwined. Keywords: honour, honour killing, Newspapers, violence against immigrant women, culture, Islam, Muslim

How the Canadian academic literature and Canadian newspapers discuss “honour killing”.

Literature revealed limited empirical studies on honour killing in Canada. The recent cases drew attention from the media, and the public but less from the academic. Discussion on this issue revolved around immigration, multiculturalism, and violence against immigrant women. Also, it is a manifestation of patriarchy common in most societies, and a form of violence against women not exclusive to one culture but deeply rooted in culture and religion. It is not always the sexual behaviour of the victim that define the 'family honour ‘. Murder, sometimes, is a result of women not following the social rules or the gender norms in the family and the men act to preserve their reputation. To understand honour killing, we need to consider the multiple ources of oppression and think of their intersections and how they affect each other and are intertwined. Keywords: honour, honour killing, Newspapers, violence against immigrant women, culture, Islam, Muslim

Socio-Cultural Causes of Kala Kali (Honour Killing): A Case of Tehsil Jam Pur

Pakistani rural people have to face many problems under the umbrella of tribal laws and customs. These cultural norms and tribal laws compel the people to kill their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters in the name of so-called "honour". The major objectives of the study were to explore the socio-cultural causes of kali kali (honor killing) and to see the impacts of kala kali on victim's family. The cases of fourteen victims were studied where the members of victim's family were informants as victims themselves were not available. The result of the present study shows that the lust for money, feudalism, illiteracy and lack of awareness about human rights are the causes of kala kali. It can be reduced by increasing awareness and education. Government should launch some policies like a comprehensive legal awareness program to make people aware of their legal rights.