Honour and Shame Honour and Shame Honour absence
Honour and Shame
Honour and Shame • Honour = absence of shame • Fear closely bound up with shame • Creates and internal morality system
View of sin important • Muslim view of sin – Minor or unwilled offences – Mahor sins • Adam and Eve – forgetfulness brought about disobedience • Consequences not important – When they tasted their shame was manifest to them
Shame • Means of social control • Morality depends on the pressure of the audience
Arabic literature • He who has no honour has no religion (proverb) • Blackening blotches the whole blood revenge group (Honour collective as well as individual) • He who has not shame does as he please (shame a means of social control)
Shame in Qur’an • Honour an attribute of God – Several of names of God refer to God’s honour • • • The Eminent The Majestic The Exalter The Hnourer The exalted The Lord of Majesty and Bounty
• God possesses honour in himself, he is ‘Supreme in Honour (27: 40). • All honour is with God who bestows honour on those he chooses. • Those who believe and persevere will gain honour. (8: 74) • The commanded to honour God and his prophet. (7: 157)
Purity • Honour and shame have a lot to do with being in a state of defilement/impurity • Ceremonial purity extremely important • Little sins are less important – lying, cheating etc
Honour, Shame and Women • 7 patterns discerned in one area of research – The value of honour – The need to belong – Obsession with correct behaviour – Longing for affirmation in in their identity as women – Need for logical consistency, rightness and meaning in religion – Sense of vulnerabilty and need for security
Muslims –custodians of God’s honour • Dishonouring or questioning Islam = dishonouring/questioning God • Questioning Islam = attack on God and against them personally • Approval in community = God’s approval • Tension between cultural value of honour and spiritual pride
Fear and correct behaviour • Women preoccupied with doing right thing • Correct behaviour only hope of pleasing God • Many women believe people determine God’s attitude to them
Religion defined by code of behaviour • Worldview where every behaviour is prescribed • Repetition of ritual and detailed code of Shari’a means don’t have to make hard moral choices • Conformity rewarded with social reinforcement by community • Social expectations replace conscience and spiritual sensitivity • Women may respond to sense of shame with increased submissiveness
Women • Preoccupied with rules, merits, demerits • Don’t expect closeness with the Almighty • Feel some sort of awareness of God’s alleged nearness and approval • Connection between gaining God’s approval and being near him
• Muslim women live with constant judgment of society on their behaviour so we need to learn to be affirmers
• Sanctions that accompany loss of behaviour affect how woman behaves • Need to know not only rules but how they are implemented • Codes of honour construct what it means to be a woman • Punjabi proverb: one does not share the bread but one shares the shame
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