Sex, Honor, Murder: A Psychology of “Honor killing”

ABSTRACT

The existing psychological explanation of “honor killing” (HK) is inadequate. This paper aims to provide a more adequate psychological explanation of it. It does this by depicting the adaptive nature of it in patriarchal contexts. More precisely, it argues that HK is fueled by the emotional need to protect one’s honor, which allows the perpetrator to prove his/her allegiance to a key communal value and (thereby) avert community’s punitive measures. In making my argument I will provide successive discussions of: (a) factors causing the gradual enragement of an “honor killer”, (b) the connection between emotions of “honor” and “shame”, (c) the punitive consequences of shame, and (d) the connection between HK and mental and personality disorders.

Notes

¹ For the sake of convenience in the rest of this paper I will use HK for “honor killing” (HKs when plural), and HKr for “honor killer” (HKrs when plural).

² I use the term HK in the narrow sense just mentioned. I ignore many other forms of it such as ancient types of suicides reserved for dishonored or defeated nobilities such as Seppuku (or Harakiri) by Japanese samurais or the ancient practice of falling on a sword by Roman generals. Another type was the ancient ritual of “honor sacrifice” to gods where the sacrifices were human beings (see Ball 2016).

³ For example, see Polk (1999)..

⁴ GLOBAL STUDY ON HOMICIDE: Gender-related killing of women and girls (2018), P. 31, https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/GSH2018/GSH18_Gender-related_killing_of_women_and_girls.pdf. Accessed May 21, 2019.

⁵ See Alsabti (2017) on this point.

⁶ Also see “Preliminary Examination of so-called ‘Honour Killings’ in Canada”, Department of Justice, Canada, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html. Accessed May 1, 2019.

⁷ This is despite the fact that Pakistan criminalized HK in 2004. This complexity has to do with the nature of Pakistan’s legal system, which is based on secular and Islamic principles. In fact, such complexities have made HK a complicated matter to deal with in many countries (see Annavarapu 2013; Cheema 2008; Khalil 2010; Wasti 2010).

⁸ See DoğanDoğan (2013a) for a short account of some of these standards and penalties in Islamic tradition.

⁹ Research by Shakeriana et al. (2014) indicates that engagement in premarital sex (by female university student in a city in Iran) is either due to extroversion or neuroticism. The former is characterized by sociability, impulsivity, aggressiveness, instability, excitability, and proneness to drug-use. The latter is characterized by depression, irrationality, impulsiveness, instability, need for dependence on others, and a list of negative emotions such as ‘fear, sorrow, anger, and arousal’ (Shakeriana et al. 2014: 343). Research by Ghani et al. (2014: 621) attributes premarital sex by adolescent girls in Malaysia, another Muslim country, to a ‘lack of moral consciousness and coping strategies’. Whether or not these researches were impacted by political and/or religious considerations I am unable to say. It should be mentioned that premarital sex is forbidden in Islam. However, detection of premarital sex by family members does not necessarily result in HK. This has been due to cultural change in some Muslim countries. In some cases, hymenorrhaphy (hymen reconstruction surgery) is performed.

¹⁰ As is commonly known, homosexuality, prostitution, and masturbation, were until quite recently deemed by Western psychologists to be types of abnormal behavior caused by mental diseases.

¹¹ I am unaware of any research in this regard. We should be also mindful of the non-honor-related psychological motivations for familial homicide. The classic example was proposed by Freud’s Oedipal theory, which pointed to the murderous urges of sons toward their fathers. Dorothy Block (1978) also maintained that central fear of childhood was that of death at the hand of parents. However, I am unaware of any research that uses such explanations for HK. It must also be noted that my speculation is in line with the spirit of scientific inquiry.

¹² These feelings are common among, for example, victims of rape and torture. A key tendency of an individual suffering from these feelings is to engage in acts of self-punishment and self-mortification. The main personality disorder associated with these feelings is Obsessive-Compulsive personality (Martinez-Pilkington 2007). Borderline personality disorder is another possibility (Rüsch et al. 2007).

¹³ Pastoral psychologists argue that Cain’s psychological motives for killing his brother Abel were shame and jealousy (Nauta 2009). They view bible stories to be timeless exemplars of universal human emotions and related behaviors.

¹⁴ Biblical references are from King James Version, online, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/.

¹⁵ Hamlet is the classic literary embodiment of such childhood trauma. He is tormented by shame, anger, hatred, and confusion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reza Barmaki

Dr. Reza Barmaki teaches criminology at Center for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada).