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Honor, Face, and Violence. Mine Krause
Читать онлайн.Название Honor, Face, and Violence
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9783631789537
Автор произведения Mine Krause
Жанр Учебная литература
Серия Cross Cultural Communication
Издательство Ingram
Especially Bilqiss’s act of not entirely covering her head and behaving in a provocative way is a recurring topic that leads to arguments between her and the judge Hasan in her prison cell. In the second part of the novel, in which the judge becomes the narrator and protagonist, this issue is explained from his male perspective, underlining the protective aspect of the veil. Like Rasheed in Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hasan explains to his wife Nafisa, who does not want to cover her head, the protective function of the veil: “C’est pour vous protéger, vous, les femmes, que nous faisons cela” (71). We also come across another observation in the same spirit, making it clear that women should, among other behavioral guidelines, never question the necessity of the headscarf: “Ce sont des choses qu’il ne faut jamais remettre en question. Le voile, c’est la protection de la femme” (56). A different approach is presented in Azzeddine’s novel, when the American-Jewish journalist Leandra Hersham is introduced as a representative of a dignity culture. She is investigating Bilqiss’s case, and highlights the aesthetic aspect of covering garments like headscarves, hijabs or burqas, which she herself enjoys putting on because of their exotic touch.
Being the novel’s third narrator and protagonist, Leandra adds a detached and more superficial perspective to the interpretation of the veil. In this intercultural clash between dignity cultures and honor cultures, there is a focus on Western ignorance concerning honor-related codes, reducing the situation ad absurdum with Leandra’s shallow statements like “je trouvais cela magnifique. Je n’avais à vrai dire rien vu d’aussi beau depuis longtemps” (107) when she sees a woman in a burqa, or “Cela me donnait très envie d’en porter un moi aussi” (109), while at the same time she reminds herself of “cette pauvre femme musulmane opprimée.” Bilqiss shares with the reader her critical thoughts on Leandra’s enthusiasm, finding it ridiculous to see her wear a burqa when in her case a simple headscarf ←69 | 70→would have sufficed: “Leandra portait la sienne comme un déguisement, alors que, pour nous, c’était une seconde peau” (153). She stresses the fundamental difference between those Western women who are free to wear what they want and those who have no choice and for whom these garments have become part of their skin, necessary in order for them to stay alive.
The honor-related codes that reflect the power of a patriarchal system again become obvious when the judge’s wife Seniz, in the role of a perfectly virtuous woman, comes to visit Bilqiss in her prison cell. Seniz describes her own line of moral conduct as eat well, satisfy all senses, and do your duty: “Bien manger, satisfaire tous les sens et faire son devoir, c’est ma ligne de conduit morale” (177). She is everything the rebellious Bilqiss does not want to be but should have been in order to live in peace. In the same prison cell, another contrast is created with Leandra, whom Bilqiss constantly provokes with her criticism concerning the Western vision of Muslim women, claiming “Vous avez vu trois ou quatre vidéos, elles vous ont émue et vous avez immédiatement pris le parti de cette pauvre femme voilée car elles vous font de la peine, les femmes voiles” (113). Leandra herself admits that she is not familiar with these cultural rules, for example when she says: “je débarque ici sans connaître vos codes” (135). This unfamiliarity with honor-related norms can lead to problems when the value systems of dignity cultures and honor cultures clash, together with the existing stereotypes on both sides. The reader is provided with Leandra’s biased perception and lack of understanding of female honor as a general concept, explaining (even though in a slightly exaggerated way) how cultural misunderstandings make problematic situations even worse.92 It seems as if men’s way of manipulating women into certain behavioral patterns, including the honor-related rule that dictates them to cover their hair and bodies while their male (and sometimes even female) relatives convince them of the advantages these garments offer them, is not discussed as explicitly in the social sciences as it is in literary works.
The question of which kind of behavior is appropriate for a woman under which cultural circumstances also becomes relevant in Robin Yassin-Kassab’s novel The Road from Damascus, which focuses on general problems of integration and a clinging to one’s own culture of origin that comes with living abroad. Here the women who wish to wear a hijab in their immigrant community in England seem to be in the majority. Again, the “principle of modesty” (98) reflected by ←70 | 71→these dress codes is pointed out, among others by the protagonist Sami’s brother-in-law Ammar, who congratulates him on his wife Muntaha’s moral conduct: “Yeah, you should be proud. It’s a rare thing in this country, a modest woman. A woman with religion. A very rare thing. These Englishmen don’t care if their women walk around topless. These women, anyone can have them. Even our women in this country, they got the sickness too. That’s the tragedy” (118). Westernized conduct is troped as disease, presumably contagious, thus naturalizing a cultural code (see also Fairclough) and apparently making women from honor cultures want to rely even more on their own value system in order to protect their reputation in their community.93 The women depicted in this novel do not take off their hijab in the presence of other men, even male relatives, be it in their homeland or abroad. Among them are aunt Fadya and aunt Hasna, the former wearing a “white scarf which she didn’t remove, despite her blood relationship to Sami, even after the door was shut” (3), the latter keeping her hijab on, “for she wasn’t Muntaha’s mother and so theoretically, very theoretically, Sami could marry her. She could be halal for him, according to sharia, and so he was haram for her” (111).94
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