Is There Honor In Killing?

 

                                                                      'The Sacrifice Of Jeptha's Daughter' by Jan Christiaansz Micker, Dutch 1640

Honor killing. The term itself seems to be an oxymoron. Is there honor in killing another, living human being? Most often, the act applies to a member of one's household or family, revealing the fact that the victim was loved and cared for by the killer. Human beings are indeed a strange breed.

The murder of family members does occur in our own time among what we might label as traditional societies. It is an ancient custom that hails back in time to the most ancient days, as it is found among tribal peoples as well as those who hail from the legacy of great civilizations. Honor killings, like warfare, are part of the human experience. Nobody approves of war yet humans are still engaged in the mass slaughter of neighboring nations. I doubt that anyone really approves of murdering their son or daughter yet the tradition is common enough among certain groups of people who, rather than speak out against the custom silently condone the murder. Why?

When humans were in the hunter gatherer stage of culture, the members of a family or tribe had to depend on one another for survival. Everyone had their tasks to perform, and the tribe worked as a cohesive unit to insure that food would be procured so none would starve. Shelter was erected to protect the members from the elements. The tribe would band together to stave off potential enemies be they human or animal. Deeds of hard work or bravery were celebrated, and from such deeds we learn of the very earliest evidence of mythology, the tales and legends of extraordinary events where some tribal members went a few steps further than others to save the day, as it were. In this time, both men and women, young and old could exhibit such bravery and exceptional behavior, and would be honored for it. A household or family might become renown for some act or for their commitment to the tribe and thus be honored for it. Pride became the element by which a family might become known, and a reputation was established. This gave the family status and power in the tribe, and they were now expected to uphold that honor and dignity. A family member who dishonored the family name could be punished by being exiled or, depending on the seriousness of the offense, be killed. This mentality went with the human hunter gatherers when they decided to settle down and create cities, thus what we call civilization. The need for survival is with us even today, and the outlook and methods have changed little since the most ancient days.

Women played an important role in the founding of civilization, for it is said that it was they who created agriculture which is a cornerstone of the earliest civilizations. A gathering of disparate tribes that came together in unity were stronger. To exist together the new concept of the city-state had to have laws, and a common identity that unified the various members of that state. This identity required a narrative, drawing on ancient mythologies which often developed into the religion of the city-state. In the ancient mythologies we read about how women were effective members of society, powerful, influential and were honored for their roles. The ancient goddesses were viewed as protectors (Inanna, Athena, Bellum, Durga etc) and were invoked when danger threatened. Ancient heroines and champions are mentioned in a multitude of texts. These texts became the source of the society's moral structure and guidance, and mothers were encouraged to raise their children with the virtues of such heroes. However, as a society became more settled into the ways of civilization, as a rule these societies became more and more patriarchal and women were slowly relegated to the family kitchen. Women, viewed in the ancient myths and narratives as strong and brave were now something to be protected and honored, and in turn women wore the cloak of honor for the family they represented. In this patriarchal mindset a son might commit an offense and be forgiven for it, but for a daughter to display dishonor was considered unforgivable. 

In ancient Greece and Rome a father was the head of the household. It was Greek civilization that insisted on the uniqueness of the individual, the human being at the very center of the Cosmos. From this developed all the ancient philosophers and their philosophies contemplating human existence. Greece had its religion but it was personal, and there were many who openly denied the existence of any deity. Yet women were excluded from this debate, as they were considered lower in status than the family cow. Their duty was to the family and by encouraging the children in morality and virtue, they contributed to society. The passions of the fathers were taught to the children via the mother and the sister, who could never imagine that they could follow the lead of a life that remotely resembled, for example, Penthesilea and the Amazons of Greek myth who fought in battles and led armies. The neighboring Illyrians and Thracians who lived just to the north of the Greeks did not develop the highly sophisticated civilization of the Aegean as the Hellenes did, but their women also did maintain their place in society with many of their princesses were renown as warriors. The Romans inherited much from the Greeks and their own position on women wasn't much better. The father of the family was known as the god of the house, and he held the power of life and death over all the members of his family. Shame could be punishable by death, and few would even would blink an eye. This mentality continued in Italy and much of the Mediterranean even unto the 20th century. Dishonoring the family name meant certain death, plain and simple. Until the 1990's there were laws in the books of Italian law in the rural and impoverished south where tradition was strong that a man who happened to come home and stumbled upon his wife engaging in the act of sex with a stranger had the right to murder the pair on the spot, considered an understandable act of passion. In the Balkans, Serbian fathers murdered daughters who married Muslims, Croatian fathers murdered daughters who ran off with Orthodox Serbian men, and almost every ethnicity threatened their daughters who fell in love with Roma, formally known as Gypsies. Kurds, Turks and Afghans all engaged in honor killings if their daughters dishonored their family names. Among the Albanians of the mountains, it was customary for the family to include in the large 'arka' or wooden chest which held a bride's dowery a bullet. This symbolized that if the daughter dishonored the family, she should seek to shoot herself rather than come back home. Of course in the history of past blood feuding, opinions and family honored mattered and often a war developed between the two one time in laws. We look at such examples as virtually chaotic and barbaric but for the people of the time and according to their mentality, this was all considered perfectly normal. 

The higher and more sophisticated the culture, the less any power was granted to women. The cultures of the Americas follows this rule. The tribal Natives such as the Iroquois of North America were matriarchal societies, their council headed by women, the older grandmothers being the heads of these councils. In contrast, the Central American civilizations of the Aztecs and the Maya, as well as the Inca of the Andes mountains, were patriarchal. With the coming of early civilization, women were the ones to pay the price. Perhaps this was seen as a necessity. As I mentioned earlier, tribal societies inflicted punishment on female members who dishonored the family name. Maybe this has less to do with civilization than it does with the very nature of the family unit living with other family units, but the idea of a woman maintaining family honor, carrying it as it were on her shoulders like an emblem or badge of respect was carried over into the earliest civilizations. 

This sense of honor is held in high regard among some religious groups as well. The Abrahamic traditions uphold family honor based on the morality these religions teach and preach. These religions, developed during a time when patriarchy was becoming the norm, seem to counter the ancient pagan importance of the female entity. The female pagan goddesses were replaced with holy mother figures and saints who bore little resemblance to the powerful and sometimes warlike figures of mythology. In today's world among the Abrahamic traditions it is Islam that is seen as the greatest perpetrator of physically abusive crimes against women, and the term 'honor killing' is accepted by some as legal and religiously binding. This applies almost exclusively to women or the daughters who are convicted of dishonoring the family name, and buy so doing commit a sin against God. Yet, the sheer irony of this is that the Quran, the religious scripture which Muslims claim is the direct and exact command of Allah, mentions nothing about killing one's children, in fact the act of killing one's offspring is condemned. Yet Islam, developed by a desert people who were feudal tribalists and held to ancient laws of family honor, included the sense of honor in their conversion from tribal custom to monotheism. They conquered an empire and developed a great world civilization, but women were excluded from the greatness. Their duty was to raise good, virtuous Muslims who would go on to become great personalities and cook a pot of lentils in the process, and convey the morality of the menfolk to their offspring. While the custom is rare, honor killings are 'on the books' of Sharia, the codified Islamic schools of law. When flogging doesn't deter a would be female offender, she could be publicly stoned to death or beheaded for her perceived sin. Let us also remember the Witch burnings in 17th century Europe. These acts became famous in the Puritan Massachussetts Colony in the 1600's. English Protestant Puritans, seeking to create a godly kingdom in the New World, put 23 people to death, mostly women, on the charge of witchcraft. While the number seems benign, we should also remember that there were 180 people in the entire colony. Hundreds of thousands of women in Europe were put to death. If we consider the percentage of women burned alive in Salem, imagine if the population was 18 million people. This would mean that the number of people executed would be 1,800,000...surely not a benign number at all. It was in part due to the notorious acts of the Puritan colony that inspired the founding fathers to consider the separation of church and state in American politics. 

India and Hinduism present a special problematic case in point. The Vedic scriptures are replete with the concept of creation as having female origins, the feminine aspect of the universe being the force behind the very act of all coming into being. This feminine spirit, known as Shakti, is even accepted as manifesting itself from time to time among women, as India reveals in her ancient literature more stories of strong and committed women than perhaps any other civilization. It has been the stories of these ancient heroic women such as Chitrangada in the Mahabharata or the goddesses Durga and Kali who continue to inspire young girls to become confident and strong in their will and personality. Hinduism, or Sanatan Dharma as it is known among India's devotees, is the one codified world religion that has been ongoing since the most ancient times. While the texts are full of stories of strong women, India has become a patriarchal society and was so even long ago. It was men who wrote the scriptures and codified the rites, ignoring the fact of the brave and strong female tradition India is heir to. yet every so often when a powerful female individual comes along in India, whether she be Indira Gandhi, the Jhansi of Rani or the bandit queen Phoolan Devi, rest assured they were inspired by the lady champions of the Mahabharata, the Ramayan and other ancient texts. Like the Greeks, the male establishers of Indian civilization had to include the tales of these women but also, perhaps out of fear of the power of Shakti, they felt the need to control them. Hindu women are killed today in India and there have been attacks on women riding buses and trains by youths who are threatened by what they interpret as 'western' liberation and influence, even though few western women ever knew of the independence and liberty these ancient women from Indian legends had. Once again, men rule the day and have had the final word. 

Many young girls from traditional cultures through the ages, having been conditioned by the male patriarchal culture they were raised in, were content to go along with the established customs and and follow the lead set by their parents and society. They watched and saw that their brothers and male cousins could do something considered socially wrong yet be somehow forgiven for that slight they committed, be it a crime or even go so far as having sex with another girl to whom they were not engaged with or married to, a big taboo in such societies. They were scolded to be sure but in many cultures he is forgiven, as the excuse is readily stated that he is a boy and that's what boys do. He will be a man and by nature it is after all, by his right. This is natural, they say. His sexism is fortified and strengthened, and by doing so the sexism of the society is secured. The girl of the family on the other hand, who we must remember wears the cloak of honor on her person, will be reprimanded or punished for a slight as simple as serving cold coffee or tea to guests or not taking care to dress modestly and properly in the presence of her elders or peers. If she exhibits any sign of independence she is scolded and threatened with exile from the family. Often, such young women become rebellious and attempt to live their lives as an independent, treading now in difficult terrain. The family warns her that "she will never find a suitor or a respectable family to marry into" and do what they can to keep her out of the community eye. Some families will go so far as to migrate to the West to seek a new beginning and hopefully put the girl's past behind them. This however has not proven to be a solution as each human being, male or female, seeks to be an individual and in the West will initiate all the more revolt against the ancient customs. Sometimes the girl becomes daring and she develops an affair with a young man of her choice. In not so extreme cases, the girl might be beaten or even killed by her father or brother and the community remains silent about their guilt, all just to protect the realm of the male patriarchy. It is sickening to think that in this day and age when we are all connected by modern internet technology, families will preserve this ancient tradition with impunity. When a community considers a father who kills his daughter as a hero, something is severely wrong in that community.

The world watches now as the US is struggling with the debate about abortion and to some degree, the continued struggle for equal pay for women workers. In the typical ancient argument we hear from both sides, one claiming that life must be preserved while the other continues in what they claim is a fight for a woman's rights to her own body and will. It is an interesting debate, but more importantly for the purpose of this writing, it is a debate that does hail back to a time when women were contained and controlled by what was perceived as the patriarchy. So, the argument continues in yet another sphere about a woman's role in society, and is an argument that will probably continue for a long time to come. It will be interesting to see how it will evolve. If we follow the patterns of social progress and history, we note that women started out as liberated, then lost their freedoms when civilization came about. The history of women is the story of them regaining that ancient freedom, until the history one day becomes known as 'herstory'. Until, then the struggle and the debate, continues. 


Copyright Ismail Butera, 2022

Observations Upon Saraswati's Veena

I am seeking to share an excellent and sublime explanation and definition of the popular imagery of the goddess Saraswati performing with her veena, by a very astute and humble disciple of deep mystical and spiritual knowledge. There are as many interpretations and perceptions of spiritual art as there are spiritual beings on the planet and in the universe, thus expression is limitless. Humbleness and modesty are sure signs of inner knowledge and spiritual maturity, and such expressions have the power to move us beyond the horizons we ourselves create. In this there is much to learn. 

Hinduism, or as it is more properly known, the path of Sanatan Dharma, is expressed outwardly by numerous complex manifestations of symbolism. I have always been moved by the very shape and design of the instrument, particularly the rudra veena, with the musician sitting between the two large resonating gourds (toumba) which seem like two spheres, representing two realms. The goddess Saraswati performing celestial music on her veena seems to represent the divine musician in us all. Yet music is more than simply two eye catching spherical objects, or even the wonderful vibratory experience of performing on the instrument itself, for which maybe my own sense of Maya or illusion has come into play here. Indeed, India's great sages and rishis have been contemplating, discussing and debating mysteries and every aspect of our existence for millennia yet all have remained humble and admit that none can fully come to any conclusion about most anything. To even begin to understand the eternal we have to acknowledge the finite part of ourselves, then gradually the realm unfolds for us. 

I wish to share one such observation and interpretation with you...

'The words of scholars struggle to unveil the mysteries of Sarasvati Devi, so what of mine? Saraswati Devi is very much real, as a divine person and also as the consciousness corresponding to the divine person, so the symbols of her representation will show the aspects of her reality which we couldn't otherwise apprehend. I am not well educated on the matter, specially about music, but among many other things the veena would represent the resonance of knowledge, the all-pervasiveness and intrinsic harmony of knowledge. The goddess plays the veena with one hand on the upper part of the strings and one on the lower part, showing the wide range of her perfect mastery. Whether spiritual, artistic or practical, she has mastery over all domains of knowledge. The goddess "full of vijnana", higher intuitive knowledge, is also the power of "perfect perfection" in work, or applied knowledge'.

Thank you for this, Zoleikha Ali Cooke

Musician Jyoti Hegde perforiming on the rudra veena

Rabia of Basra

Individualism is how one comes to understand and experience  the most intimate spiritual realization with divinity. Personal acts of devotion coupled with charity reveal one's personal interaction with divinity, which we expect to be cheerful with a note of contentment upon the wearer of the cloak of sanctity. If one's God is compassionate and merciful, loving and kind, then the devotee would most certainly manifest these features in their own personal life. Their demeanor would be calm and accepting, and such a person would eschew harshness in all its forms. The face of true faith, regardless of the faith path one is following, thus should reflect the soul searching, the love affair and the longing one experiences with one's beloved.

Organized religion imposes ritual and rules which are to be obeyed by a community and if necessary, the devotee punished somehow if these acts of organized piety are ignored. While many can be and are moved by organized, massed acts of piety, any religious teaching acknowledges each individual and their personal path to divinity, even though that person is part of a huge group al seemingly seeking the same thing. Often however, the group effort becomes just a ritual to be performed with everyone following the same rules, creating a group think that turns fellow worshippers into group spies, who are ever ready to reprimand the individual who might step out of bounds. For the spiritual traveler seeking the higher callings and realms of divinity, such an atmosphere of rigidity and ritual become a bore, and the individual becomes spiritually depressed. Enter then, the mystical path.

Rabia of Basra was born in what is now Iraq somewhere between the years 714 and 718 AD, in the city of Basra, hence her name. This era was a time when Islam as a religion was still in its infancy, barely one hundred years after the death of its founder Mohammed. There were no Islamic schools of law and thought yet created, therefore the religion was not yet formalized. The Quran said by Muslim sources to traditionally have been compiled about forty years after Mohammed, may not have been fully compiled as of this time either, if we are to believe some recent historians who question the long accepted Muslim narrative about the compiling of their holy scripture. Nonetheless, modern historians have shed new light on the history of early Islam, quoting not the already popular Muslim sources but the writings and observations of those who came in contact with the Arabs who themselves were building an empire, namely the Umayyad caliphate. Historian Tom Holland notes in his studies that one cannot find any evidence of the use of the term Muslim or Islam, nor mentions of Mohammed in the first 100 years after he supposedly lived, leading us to ponder the theory that Mohammed and Islam are creations of the Arabs themselves during this time of their military and political rise on the world scene. Just as none can actually prove that Abraham, Moses, or Jesus actually lived when they did as all we have are the written accounts of what supposedly took place, in the form of stories, so none can prove that Mohammed actually lived in Arabia, having died as is claimed in 632 AD. Of course Muslims take offense with this just as Christians might be offended about the question of Jesus' reality. But faith is much more than supposed facts or theories which have been cemented in people's minds by scribes working for political minded rulers seeking to unite and kingdom or empire utilizing religion to achieve that. As in the ancient mythologies, there is the hero who does something profound in his or her day and leaves deeds to be retold by others who thought those deeds and the person worthy of remembrance. Like all the mythical heroes of the ancient epics, these special beings may have actually lived, or not. What is important is the message they share and represent, and the teachings which are attributed to them. This is why such belief and devotion is called faith, and not fact, and it is faith that guides and illuminates whole societies.

The Umayyads burst out of Arabia a few decades after the death of Mohammed, after that is, fighting a civil war among themselves for the control of what was supposedly Mohammed's domain. His career was one of struggling to bring the word of Abraham to his semi nomadic and pagan people. This was not an intellectual society where he could persuade by debate and discussion the people to his teachings, but one in which oral poets sang songs of the deeds of warriors who engaged in bloody raids on each other's tribal dwellings, stealing camels and sheep and sometimes women and children to be kept for ransom or for slavery. Mohammed fought for ten years, then finally entered Mecca and proclaimed the one God of Abraham for his people. The pagan Meccans were given the choice to convert, which of course they did. But their descendants did not forget that they were the lords of Mecca and once were the powerful rulers of that trading city. They were not going to forget their embarrassment by Mohammed, and after he died they began to bicker as to who would rule the new unified Arab state. A civil war broke out, which saw many of the members of Mohammed's family killed by the descendants of the Meccan pagan families. However, all during the time of Mohammed's wars with the pagans, there were supposedly times when his speeches and sermons taught actual faith and religion, charity and compassion. Both the spiritual and political aspects of that early time became part of what the world would eventually know of as Islam. The victorious Umayyads, utilizing Mohammed's genius for unifying diverse and feuding tribes, created a new unifying factor in the form of a religion, and marched on to conquer an empire that would eventually exceed the combined size of the Roman and Persian empires. They would rule much of the known world from Spain to China, and in that empire dozens of peoples and ideologies would rub elbows and create new forms of thought and faiths. In history, societies become distilled like sweet wine, and eventually give off a new taste and aroma, but only after the harshness of military campaigns and political intrigue.

In this early period of Islamic civilization, the cities of that Umayyad empire teamed with people who clung to an assortment of religious faiths including various Christian sects, Jews, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, Sabeans and others. A booming economy and the order set in place by the Umayyads in the fertile crescent region, heretofore devastated by centuries of wars between the Roman and Persian empires, was welcome indeed. The new religion of the conquerors, Islam, had few rules and laws. The 'people of the book' as Christians, Jews and Sabeans were considered, paid a poll tax for protection and thus were free to keep their religious practices. While this sounds odd today and would eventually become corrupt and oppressive under Islamic rule, paying to keep the right to pray as one wishes for the time was viewed as novel. If one studies the religious history of early America, we would note that under British colonial law all subjects who were non members of the Anglican Church had to pay a poll tax for the right to pray in their own tradition. If a minster or deacon of some subject church died, the congregation had ninety days to replace him, and if none could be found all the congregants had to convert to the Anglican faith. Thank the founding fathers for their revolutionary views about religion!

Rabia was born to a poor family. Her name is simple, as it means the fourth, as she was the fourth child in the family. Her birth has become tied up with prophecies and dreams, but of course this can be but mythology. We do know that she became interested in spirituality, her city an important port which saw people of various faiths and ethnicities interacting and sharing their views. A famine overtook Basra when she was a teenager, and she went into the desert in imitation of the Christian mystics and became an ascetic. it should be remembered that Basra as a port saw ships coming in from the Indian ocean, with Hindus and Buddhists among the crews. She developed what was called 'pure and unconditional love for divinity', among a number of other ascetics which were blossoming at the time in the region. Just as Christianity developed out of a desire for Jews to attain to a personal relationship with the Holy One rather than depend on strict laws and rules, so did adherents of this new and simple monotheistic Arabian religion want something more from their contact with a stern Allah of the desert. These mystics became eventually known as Sufis, so called for the simple woolen cloaks they wore in preference over silken robes and the jewelry the upper classes would lavish as a result of their imperialist success. These mystics were not interested in the political and military tales of Mohammed's wars with the pagans, but rather sought the spiritual teachings he spoke of in his sermons, and those of other religious communities which he himself acknowledged. This of course was contrary to the empire building Islamism of the conquerors, and this contrast of opposites has been within Islam ever since. 

The Quran can be read as a literal reading, word for word being the very word of God, and these words are meant for all time. Thus the jihad can be called by imams and the verses that tell of the war against the pagans of Mecca repeated, and were repeated for centuries thereafter. But the Sufis saw the holy words differently. If Allah is vast then so must be his words, so vast that each verse in the Quran, the Sufis claim, has eighteen thousand meanings. People interpreting the holy book like this have little time for war and conquest, not to mention that they read the verses about Mohammed's jihad campaigns as pertinent to their time and place, and these events happened, in Rabia's day, a hundred years before.

So the message of these mystics was one of love and devotion to God and his signs. Service to his creatures was considered a form of devotion, giving away one's wealth or even a simple smile could be charity. Rabia, through her acts of prayer, fasting and devotion, was in love with God and all associated with him. When asked if she prayed for a reward she said she 'desired that she be singled out on the day of resurrection by Mohammed himself, who would then announce to all they should take note of the piety of this woman, who inspires people to do the same'. I find it interesting here that while literalist Muslims, living according to the rules and laws established centuries after Rabia in the form of what is known as Sharia, follow a hard and stern pagan slaying Mohammed who married a young teen when he was fifty, Rabia sees something else in Mohammed. She understand the man as a teacher and unifier, not a military leader. And she accepts the essence of Mohammed the man, not Mohammed the divine being, which Muslims have turned him into. In his career, Mohammed pointed to the worship of God, not worship of himself. He was a special being to Rabia, no doubt, but he was not the object of her affection and love, which was reserved for Allah alone. Rabia was ahead of her time, in that she was able to interpret her faith as a viable, loving and caring faith rather than as a politicized set of harsh dogmas meant to encourage rigidity and imbalance in the Muslim community and the world. 

While imams throughout the world today still preach hatred of Shaitan, the Devil, Rabia ignored such evaluations. She was famously asked if she harbored hate in her heart for the Devil, to which she replied; "Only the love of God fills my being, therefore there is no room there for hatred of the Devil or anything else. 

One day she was seen running through the city carrying a buket of water in one hand and a pot of fire in the other. When asked what she was up to, she said that she wanted "to put out the fires of hell and burn down the rewards of paradise, as both these things are obstacles to knowing and loving God". She wanted to worship God for what God is, the source of all love and beauty, and not for a reward or for honor. When the great Sheikh al Basri asked her how she was able to perform miracles and cure the sick through her intimacy with God she responded "you know of the how, but I know of the howless".

For Rabia, God was everywhere and everything, and since this was what she believed, then harming people or creatures or committing violence had no place in the world. The mosque and the church, synagogue and temple all vibrated with the same name and light of the divine holy one, thus all were a brother and sisterhood of lovers. She is considered to be the first Sufi mystic, and set much in the foundations of what would become the great mystical paths of the Islamic world. Indeed Rabia, love conquers all.

A lovely modern song based on the words of Rabia of Basra, by Ani Zonneveld...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIB0r1GLzwk