Women have the right to live their own life the way that they please. Women are not properties, nor are they incompetent. Women have the same opportunities to thrive in society as does any male, but some customs and traditions of some cultures prevent women from soaring to such heights. Culturally traditional men want complete dominion over their women. But who can blame them, it’s how they were raised and these things have been rooted in them since they were young children. When one thinks of a culture’s virtue, they automatically think of women’s behavior within her family context. A woman is gold in any society but yet is treated as properties. It is safe to say that one’s honor depend on a woman.
“The United Nations estimates that as many as 5,000 women and girls worldwide were killed last year by family members” (Autumn, 2001). Crimes of ‘honor’ are acts of violence perpetuated typically against women who violate broader cultural standards against sexuality and marriage. When a woman violates the sexual or marital standards within a culture, her actions bring shame and dishonor and in order to eliminate the dishonor within the family, killing is the only way. “Honor killings focus on maintaining the sexual exclusiveness of women” (Barker et al, 1999). In most of the cases, honor killings are mostly present in cultures of the South Asian and Middle Eastern Islamic areas. Sadly, this culture is prevalent in some parts of the Indian society as well. “Offenses leading to ‘honor’ killings include leaving home without permission, rumors about premarital loss of virginity, accusations of flirting, and illegitimate sexual contact. These accusations also do not require the consent of the female in the act. Rape victims, for instance,...
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...ishonor can be brought about in the family. “Women who pursue their claims in court frequently lose because of the inherently male-biased judicial system. Victims of domestic violence are frequently told they will bring dishonor to their families by reporting such crimes and are discouraged from contacting the police” (Lasson, 2009).
If these happen in western countries, the perpetrator tries to claim cultural defense. Cultural defense is a defense to the prosecution for a criminal act which, according to the defendant, results from his/her cultural background. This defense can be used in cases concerning female genital mutilation, domestic violence, acid throwing, and honor crimes. “The idea of cultural defense violates principles of equal protection and the fundamental principle that society has a right to govern protection against crimes” (Morgan, Parker, 2009).
Often times, women are treated poorly or unequally. She brings up the issue of interfering with other cultures when we disagree with how they are being treated; it is difficult to interfere because we don’t want to “impose our will”.
... I think that women are the best at uprising children; especially a women elevated me. I think that women are very vital and are identical to men in many characteristics. Would women be clever to decide what they lack in vivacity? Yes definitely, because of equivalence. Would every women feel the need to practice to exist in an influential profession or place in society? To me I think if they need to, that is their worthy. The circumstance is that several women enjoy to yield on the usual masculinity responsibility. Is that an immoral entity? I don’t believe so, since overdue all perfect thoughts, there are influencers that target in manipulating their situation sanctioning them to triumph significance. So alongside that, women in both esteems, unceremoniously what responsibility they show in humanity, functions a vivacious segment in civilization and always will.
Gender has played specific roles in societies all over the place. Men are usually seen as the dominant gender and therefore appear to be more important to society but women still have an important role. It was not that long ago that women did not have many rights or play an important role at all. In America, laws were put in place to make men and women equal and today many women have filled jobs thought of as a man’s job but there is still a common thought of women being less important in society than men. Before deciding if a woman’s role in society is complimentary or not, the role of all humans must be examined. A woman could appear to have a terrible role but maybe that’s because everybody has a terrible role in that type of society. Same
Honor killings are acts of retribution, frequently causing death. These acts are often committed by the male family members against female family members. Victims of honour killings are believed to have brought dishonor or shame upon the family. In 2007, a study by Dr. Amin Muhammad and his colleague, Dr. Sujay Patel of Memorial University, Canada, researched how the tradition of honor killings was brought to Canada The report highlighted that ‘’When people come and settle in Canada they can bring their traditions and forcefully follow them. In some cultures, people feel some boundaries are never to be crossed, and if someone would violate those practices or go against it, then killing is justified to them’’ (Leaders-Post, 2007). The Shafia family homicide is a perfect example of culture crisis leading to crime. The tragic murders really emphasize all the key aspects of how two cultures
Woman used to live in a time era, where women didn 't have the voice or privilege to speak for themselves. Men were superior and predominant, a woman was forced to obey the guidelines of society 's views of how a woman should be. Being a shrew was not acceptable, don’t tease or tempt a man and that a good women depends on four characteristics. But as time progressed slowly women have been fighting for their voice; changing the views and perspectives society onces used to have on the “ideal” women and giving it a whole new concept and ideology.
Gender-based violence is made possible by the ideology of sexism in Indian traditional culture which argues that women are worth less than men in the sense of having less power, status, privilege, and access to resources that is more prevalent in middle class and low caste families.
National data gives us an indication of the severity of this issue. When 1 in 5-woman report being victims of severe physical violence (NISVS, 2010), we must ask ourselves if enough is being done to prevent this from occurring. From a historical point, there has always almost been a distinction from men on woman violence. Based on the disparity of cases reported, male inflicted violence on females is much higher and prevalent. When the perpetrators of DV, and IPV are predominately males, we can no longer dismissed this issue as a cultural, or
Despite the fact that, everyone is important, still as per the stats given by U.S. government, only 43 out of 148 countries gives equal rights to both men and women. Moreover, gender equality isn’t still achieved because of the fear of the women empowerment. Women empowerment does not means to overload women’s with some extra rights over men or make women dominate the world. It simply means giving women more hold on their personal choices and decision rather than taking permission from men. In sum, gain for women does not imply any losses for men. Men’s are more physically strong and women’s are more emotionally aware. But this is because of our biological origins. If given equal opportunities, who can say which one is better than the other?
There was a time in the world when women were without basic rights and required the power to make decisions about their own lifestyle. They weren’t educated to the same standard as men. They weren’t allowed to work, they weren’t even allowed to inherit property. Everything belonged to their husband or family. There were no women in the police force or government and women weren’t even allowed to vote. Men’s power over women often cost their lives , the physical power is obvious. But there is also emotional power. Yet, after many years, women and men are still not equal. Women and girls should be able to lead a free, equal and self-determining life in every corner of the world just like men do so.
The major difficult of family violence against women and girls is the fact that such actions are culturally sanctioned. This attachment to culture makes it difficult to prevent and control. Attempts to control such practices con be viewed as infringement on cultural norms and even infringe on cultural identity. Are people merely being ethnocentric about such practices, denouncing them because they are not normal by others standards? There is a lot to consider when attempting to control a cultural practice. Consideration for the cultural relevance of the cultural practice is one of them. The World Health Organization (WHO), whom offers data pertaining to gender-ba...
In today’s globalized world, women’s studies is emerging as a fast growing discipline which is not restricted any more to the academia but is significantly capturing the attention of the civil society. The way civil society responded to “Nirbhaya” gang-rape case of December, 2012 in Delhi; the way people came on the streets in protest against this horrific and barbarous crime committed against a 23 year old woman; this people’s movement has undoubtedly engineered the emergence of a new consciousness among us about the need for a realization of women’s honour and dignity in the society. There have been serious debates on the issue of whether more stringent laws (in the line of Shari’a law) be implemented in our Indian society so that such heinous crimes against women can be prevented. However, the aforesaid incident is only one among many hundred other such crimes happening everyday in almost every corner of the globe. Many such incidents of crime are either suppressed or do not come to limelight. The following analysis is a humble attempt to deal with the status of women (especially in Islam) in a globalized world.
...sed to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form. Cultural violence is usually associated with one's country that is economically or socially unstable, like India for example. Dowry is an example of cultural violence. Even though India is prospering, it also has its share of poverty. Indian families arrange the daughter’s marriage to a wealthier family hoping it would get them out of the lower class but it usually makes the bride’s family even poorer. Poverty is usually on of the main causes of cultural violence.
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines gender-based violence (GBV) as, “Any act…that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” It is also broadly defined as any harm to a person due to the power disparities caused by gender inequality. Gender based violence includes childhood sexual abuse, “prenatal sex selection in favor of boys, female infanticide, dowry deaths, honors killings ,female genital mutilation, trafficking and forced prostitution, forced early marriage, sexual assault and intimate partner violence”
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.
Honor killings have become very common in Pakistan especially in Sindh and in tribal areas of Pakistan. In Pakistan hundreds of women are killed every year in the name of honor. Such a cruel custom has existed in our country from so many years. Honor killings are common in all over the country, though in some areas the incidents of honor killings have taken a shockingly high amount of incidents in recent years. In Azad Kashmir a mother helped her husband in killing their 15 year old daughter because they saw her talking to a young man. They killed her by dousing her acid. Her elder sister was not in favor of this custom and she was very anxious about that crime which her parents had committed. She demanded justice and police investigation for her sister but all went in vain because it was done in the name of so called ‘honour’. Our state also goes after the satisfaction of honor in foreign policy. Our society has become so cruel under the involuntarily accepted conduct guideline of the Taliban. The people who are killed in the name of honor are mostly women.