Feminist Peace Network

Talk about urban legends. Here I’d been under the impression that the root cause of honor killings had to do with patriarchal misogynist violence. Imagine my surprise that we can just blame it on cell phones, no need for any in-depth analysis of socio-political structures…nice try, no dice–read on:
In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the number of honor killings has risen dramatically. The root cause of these killings is no different than the routine killing and maiming of women that so often comes in the aftermath of conflict. Or we could just blame it on cell phones. No, I’m not making this up. According to Patrick Cockburn, writing in The Independent (UK),

“The murder of women who are deemed to have disobeyed traditional codes of morality is even more common in the rest of Iraq where government authority has broken down since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A surprising reason explaining the massive increase in the number of honor killings is the availability of cheap mobile phones able to take pictures. Men photograph themselves making love to their girlfriends and pass the pictures to their friends. This often turns out to be a lethal act of bravado in a society where premarital or extra-marital sex justifies killing.

The first known case of sex recorded on a mobile leading to murder was in 2004. Film of a boy making love with a 17-year-old girl circulated in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Two days later she was killed by her family and a week later he was murdered by his.

Since then there has been a sharp increase in the number of women suffering violence - it is almost always the women rather than the men who suffer retribution - as a result of some aspect of their love life being pictured on mobile phones.”

Oh what is wrong with this, let me count the ways…actually, that is hard to do while foaming at the mouth, so I asked Jennifer Drew to take a shot at it, and this is her response:

“There are so many issues with this ill-conceived piece, one almost does not know where to begin. Claiming the systematic male perpetrated mass genocide of Iraqi women is being fueled by ‘picture phones’ is almost unbelievable. Sex and violence always sells papers or more specifically, salacious representation of non-western women as sexualised ‘others’ supposedly engaging in ’sexual immorality’ is certain to attract western readers’ attention. But now we have a pornographic aspect as well. Apparently it is ‘normal male behaviour’ for men to film themselves ‘doing sex to female partners’ so they can then either pass on or sell these pornographic images to other men. Pornography has indeed become global and the sexual exploitation of women now passes unnoticed and without any comment or criticism. No need to ask why so many men believe they have to take pictures of themselves ‘doing sex to women.’ Central to this article is the pornographic lie that non-western women are ‘eroticised sexualised others’ who because they engage in ’sexually immoral acts’ are subsequently murdered in so-called ‘Honor Killings.’ But this is not about ‘Honor’ it is the systematic enforcement of male control and domination over women.

‘Honor killings’ conveniently enables western society to feel superior and more civilised compared to supposedly backward non-western societies. Western women are not routinely murdered by husbands/male relatives for supposedly violating male ownership of their bodies and lives. Neither are western women held responsible or blamed when men rape and sexually exploit them. No, this only occurs within non-western societies.

A more nuanced and thoroughly researched article would quickly discover the genocide of Iraqi women by male militias is central to the systematic imposition of an Islamist Fundamentalist society which is being supported by the US government. The Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) which has an easily accessible website provides evidence that Iraqi women are being deliberately targeted by male militias who are intent upon imposing a fundamentalist misogynistic Islamist state.

Women’s social status is being eradicated and southern cities in Iraq have become no-woman zones. Women are no longer allowed to appear in public, even if heavily veiled, instead they are imprisoned in their own homes. But women are not even safe in their own homes because male Islamist extremists will murder them if they do not like a woman’s behaviour or actions. No need to mention how since the invasion of Iraq by US forces in 2003, the US Government has condoned and supported fundamentalist political groups who clearly state they are determined to restrict Iraqi women’s human rights and replace it with a fundamentalist misogynistic constitution.

But ‘picture phones’ are responsible for Iraqi women being murdered and committing suicide, not powerful misogynsts and fundamentalist political organisations who openly condone and promote mass murder of Iraqi women. ‘Picture phones’ not male Islamist activists are responsible for destroying any vestige of women’s rights and imposing total male control and domination over Iraqi women’s lives.”

There is no doubt that the use of cell cameras adds a new layer of misogynist expression to the crime of killing women, but it is dangerously disingenuous  to imply that this is the cause.   The cause is the deep hatred of women that is a manifestation patriarchal domination.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities, U.S. Politics, Misogyny, Gender-Based Violence, Media