A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power

by Jimmy Carter

  14 | “HONOR” KILLINGS

  Although widely condemned in the modern world, the terrible custom of “honor” killings is either legal or not prosecuted in some countries. It has a justification in the ancient Holy Scriptures of Jews and Christians. I remember when, during my first year in the White House, a Saudi couple who were living together were executed publicly; their desire to be married was rejected by her father. A British journalist researched the story and developed it into a film entitled Death of a Princess. Saudi government officials complained strenuously when the dramatized documentary was shown in Great Britain and were unable to prevent its showing by the Public Broadcasting System in the United States despite pressure from an oil company that was a major PBS sponsor.

  This was the first time I became aware of the special laws and customs relating to the extreme consequences of a woman having sex outside of an approved marriage, but I was aware of a passage in the Holy Bible that espoused this ultimate punishment. In Deuteronomy 22:13–14, 20–21 we read, “If a man takes a wife and after lying with her dislikes her, and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman, but when I approached her I did not find proof of her virginity,’ . . . if the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. . . . You must purge the evil from among you.”

  It is hard to believe that there is still a prevailing custom in many communities to murder a woman who has been raped, refuses to accept an assigned husband, has an extramarital affair, or even wears inappropriate clothing. This is done in order to salvage the honor of the besmirched family. It is difficult to obtain accurate data on how widespread this practice may be, because many of the killings are reported as suicides. They occur most frequently in the Middle East and South Asia, but also in other regions of the world. In 2010 the police reported 2,823 honor attacks in the United Kingdom. A BBC report estimates that globally more than twenty thousand women are victims of honor killings each year. There was a highly publicized case in Pakistan in 1999 of a mentally retarded girl whose rapist was identified and arrested. She was killed by a group of her tribesmen who claimed she had brought shame to the tribe. She was sixteen years old. Such murders are usually carried out by the girl’s father, uncle, or younger brother.

  The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.

  HINA JILANI, PAKISTANI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND AN ELDER

  Human Rights Watch defines honor killings as “acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by individuals within her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or for allegedly committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that ‘dishonors’ her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.”

  This definition does not include the killing of girls because their dowry is inadequate, but it applies to those who object to marriage because they believe they are too young or prefer a different husband than the one chosen by their parents. It is a custom, all too widely accepted, that derives from the belief that girls and women are the property of the males in their family.

  There are some pressures from the global community to end the custom of honor killing, but these are having mixed results. King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife, Rania, have attempted to end the legal practice, but their best efforts have been thwarted by strong community beliefs. The previous law stated, “He who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds or injures one or both of them, is exempt from any penalty.” Stricter legislation concerning murder has been passed, but courts can commute or reduce sentences in honor killings, particularly if the victim’s family (who are usually the culprits) asks for leniency. In many cases, the custom is to let the crime be committed by a brother who is less than eighteen years old, that is, a juvenile, so that any punishment will be quite minor.

  Just an allegation is often adequate to condemn the girl, without any proof of improper conduct. The director of Jordan’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine has found the hymens intact in a number of postmortem examinations of victims of honor killings. A recent study by researchers from Cambridge University stated, “While stricter legislation has been introduced—despite conservative fears—cultural support for violence against women who are seen as breaking norms has remained widespread.” The university’s Institute of Criminology found that almost 50 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls interviewed in the capital, Amman, believe that killing a daughter, sister, or wife who has “dishonored” or shamed the family is justified.

  Tragically the practice is still all too prevalent in the Islamic world. Egypt’s interior minister reported in 2000 that 16 percent of homicides were family killings to “wipe out shame.” Between 2002 and 2003 the Egyptian Association of Legal Aid for Women reported that perpetrators of violence were husbands, fathers, brothers, and uncles in 75 percent of the cases; women represented the other 25 percent. It is almost impossible for a rape victim to prove her innocence, because she must have four adult male Muslim eyewitnesses testify on her behalf. Such killings have also been committed in Hindu and Sikh communities in India, and by Christians within highly patriarchal cultures.

  15 | GENITAL CUTTING

  One of the most serious and least understood examples of abuse of girls is the removal of all or part of their genitalia. Known as female genital cutting or female circumcision, the operation is usually performed without anesthesia, with a knife or razor blade by women who are known as “cutters.” Some cutters use sutures to close the wound, leaving a small hole for the girl to pass urine and menstrual blood. At the time of marriage or childbirth, the hole is enlarged enough to accommodate the husband’s penis or the infant.

  FGC can result in lifelong health consequences, including chronic infection; severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth; and psychological trauma. Some girls die from the cutting, usually as a result of bleeding or infection.

  The World Health Organization estimates that about 125 million women and girls have undergone FGC, ostensibly to “purify” them by reducing their enjoyment of or desire for sex. Some practitioners claim that female genitalia are dirty and should be made flat, rigid, and dry. In many communities the operation is considered to be the passage of girls into womanhood, although it is most often performed at a very young age. Some believe that it helps to enhance men’s enjoyment of the sex act. There are no Holy Scriptures that mandate the practice, but some Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, and nature worshipers have adopted FGC as part of their local religious teaching.

  The subject of female genital cutting was discussed at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and declared to be a serious abuse of small girls. Since then almost all countries have passed laws that forbid or restrict the practice, and in December 2012 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice. However, these international and national resolutions and laws have had practically no effect in restricting the abuse, and legal punishment is almost nonexistent.

  The resistance to outside interference and the need for local people to make their own decisions have been most vividly demonstrated in Senegal by the work of Tostan, founded by Molly Melching, who was a student at the University of Dakar in 1974 and later an exchange student and a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer. She settled in a village of three hundred people in the eastern region of the country and became assimilated into the local society. She used her good education to teach the women how to read and write, about the outside world, and how to care for themselves and their family’s health. Perhaps more i
mportant, she taught women that they had basic human rights, of which they had previously been unaware. Molly recognized that the Senegalese women, and not outsiders, had to be the ones to make decisions about their own lives, and she developed a system of community empowerment that later adopted the name Tostan, or “empowerment.” Molly emphasizes that 99 percent of the Tostan staff are Senegalese.

  The practice of female genital cutting was accepted without question in many Senegalese villages, along with the assumption that the status of women was inherently inferior to that of men. In 1997 one group of women decided to abandon the practice in their community, based on the new understanding that it was harmful to their health and a violation of their human rights. They also learned from the words of respected Muslim leaders that it had no basis in the teachings of the Koran. Village by village, this awareness has spread throughout many Senegalese regions where the practice is traditional, and as of 2013 women in more than 6,400 villages, primarily in Senegal but also in Guinea, The Gambia, Mauritania, Djibouti, and Somalia, have decided to abandon the practice of genital cutting and also the forced marriage of children. Molly states that the key factor in this achievement by African women was informing them about the universal agreements concerning the rights of women and then letting them make the decision for themselves.

  A report issued by UNICEF in July 2013 showed a very gradual reduction in genital cutting but emphasized that it was still overwhelmingly prevalent in some countries, especially those in Africa where the Islamic faith prevails. UNICEF estimates that 91 percent of women in Egypt, 98 percent in Somalia, 96 percent in Guinea, 93 percent in Djibouti, 89 percent in Eritrea, 89 percent in Mali, 88 percent in Sierra Leone, and 88 percent in Sudan have undergone some form of genital cutting, and more than 50 percent of the women in Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Kenya have also been cut.

  There have been surprising reductions in Kenya and Central African Republic. It is not clear why this is so, but it seems obvious that outside pressure has had little effect except in encouraging the education of young women. For instance a 2008 report in Egypt showed that although 81 percent of fifteen- to nineteen-year-old women had been cut, 96 percent of women in their late forties had been subjected to the procedure—evidence of a slight but significant reduction among the younger generation. A public opinion poll that same year revealed that only a third of the younger women wanted to see the practice continue, while two-thirds of the older women supported its continuation. Because the decision to perform FGC is made almost exclusively by mothers, without consulting their husbands, these numbers give hope that the next generation of daughters might be spared. Another hopeful trend observed in several countries was that the more severe forms of genital cutting were less prevalent among younger women.

  Although UNICEF found little evidence of progress in Senegal, the researchers explained that their survey did not include the area where Tostan has been most active; in addition, they surveyed women age fifteen to nineteen, while in Senegal 75 percent of girls are cut between birth and age four. In fact, UNICEF was confident that the Tostan effect would prevail in the future.

  This is an extremely sensitive subject, especially when criticism of the practice comes from “outsiders” who are suspected of wanting to change the cultural, religious, and sometimes political heritage of the local people. Nevertheless, this abuse of girls is too serious and too important to be ignored or accepted by national governments where it exists or by the UN and other international organizations. Local efforts like Tostan should be supported and replicated to ensure sustained eradication of such harmful practices.

  16 | CHILD MARRIAGE AND DOWRY DEATHS

  Another serious and pervasive example of gender abuse is the marriage of young girls, often without their consent and contrary to their best interests. There are an estimated 14 million girls married every year before they reach the age of eighteen, and 1 in 9 of these are younger than fifteen. This includes 48 percent of young brides in South Asia; 42 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa; 29 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean; and 18 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Girls from poor families are nearly twice as likely to be married at an early age as girls from wealthier families. This is a traditional practice in many societies, primarily because girls are not considered equal in value to boys and are often believed to be a burden to their family. When poverty is a factor, marrying off a daughter is a convenient way to eliminate the need to feed her. Another financial incentive is the “bride price” paid to the girl’s family.

  A traditional practice that has become subject to serious abuse is the payment of a dowry by the bride’s family. Especially in India and Pakistan and their neighbors it has become more prevalent in recent years, and the amount paid has also increased. Recognizing this burden, especially on poor families, India and other countries have outlawed the practice, but the law is widely ignored, even among the more affluent families. Since girls are considered to be a burden on the family and unmarried ones an embarrassment, many families are willing to go bankrupt to get them married. As a result, thousands of young women suffer. In January 2012, the Times of India reported an increase in the killing of brides by greedy husbands and in-laws when they don’t receive enough money and jewelry from the bride’s parents, or in lieu of returning unsatisfactory brides (along with the dowry) to their parents. This terrible crime is called “dowry death,” and women’s organizations in India have increased pressure for more stringent laws against it. In 1986 a law was passed against murder resulting from harassment for dowry, with a section added later to define more specifically the crimes of harassment and cruelty by the husbands and their families. However, these stricter laws have had little effect: when cases are actually brought to trial, conviction rates have dropped. In 2000, 6,995 dowry deaths were reported under these new laws; in 2010, 94,000 cases were reported, with a conviction rate of just 19 percent; in 2012 the number of cases fell to 8,233. There is no data yet available for the conviction rate.

  There are proven disadvantages for child brides concerning their health, education, safety, and loss of the basic human right of making decisions about their own lives. Young brides under fifteen are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties, and when a woman is under eighteen her baby is 60 percent more likely to die in its first year of life than a baby born to a woman just two years older. Few child brides are permitted to remain in school, which deprives them of the ability to support themselves or a family. In addition, they are more likely to suffer domestic violence and sexual abuse. All these statistics are derived from publications of United Nations agencies. This mistreatment contravenes both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

  If the abuses of child marriage continue at the present rate, then about 15 million girls will be added each year to the list of victims. This terrible situation has been ignored by most of the international community, largely because the young girls are inarticulate, their families have a selfish financial interest, and political leaders consider the prohibition of forced child marriage a taboo issue since it is supported by traditional and religious culture.

  I am a member of The Elders, a group of former political leaders, peace activists, and human rights advocates who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. The goal Mandela set for us was to use our “almost 1,000 years of collective experience” to work on solutions for problems involving peace, human rights, climate change, and disease. One of the criteria we adopted is to be free of political pressures by not holding public office, but all of us have had experience in high positions.I

  The Elders have been active in attempts to promote peace and human rights in the Middle East, Sudan and South Sudan, North and South Korea, Zimbabwe, Cyprus, Kenya, Egypt, and Myanmar and in addressing the impending disaster of global warming. But one of our most challenging and exciting commitments h
as been to promote equality for women and girls.

  We had an extensive debate when I presented my concerns about the adverse impact of religious beliefs on women’s rights to this group of fellow leaders and advisors in 2008, because they represent practicing Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, and their faiths have different policies about the status of women. We finally decided to draw particular attention to the role of religious and traditional leaders in obstructing the campaign for equality and human rights and promulgated the following statement: “The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable. Having served as local, state, national, and world leaders, we understand why many public officials can be reluctant to question ancient religious and traditional premises—an arena of great power and sensitivity. We are calling on all those with influence to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices—in religious and secular life—that justify discrimination against women, and to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of equality and human dignity.”

  After The Elders agreed to adopt the eradication of gender abuse as a priority project in 2008, it soon became obvious that the greatest opportunity for our group to make a direct and immediate contribution was by concentrating on child marriage. The Elders formed a global partnership with about three hundred nongovernmental organizations from more than fifty countries that share the commitment to end child marriage. We named this coalition Girls Not Brides, and it grew to such an extent that it was separated into an independent organization in 2013, with The Elders still fully supportive of its goals. All the NGO partners are continuing work in their own areas, and substantial progress is being made in raising international concern about the issue. Plans have been announced to raise the subject with the UN Human Rights Council, with the hope of reaching a General Assembly resolution condemning the practice.