Book review: Honour, Violence, Women and Islam
| DOI | 10.1177/096466391102000402 |
| Date | 01 December 2011 |
| Published date | 01 December 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Social & Legal Studies 20(4)
chimerical. I understand that Fitzpatrick’s mediative sovereignty needs to be read with
poetic rather than legalistic sensibilities but nonetheless I would like to know, how would
it respond to the execution of Bin Laden or how Joyce’s resistance to privileging national
sovereignty over indigenous law would assist in resolving issues of genital mutilation or
the status of Shari’a law? What we have been given in this collection is evidence that
these scholars command an impressive theoretical toolbox and that there is an urgency
to the questions they ask. What I look forward to is some intensification of the relation-
ship between such productive possibilities and the times in which we live.
HELEN CARR
University of Kent, UK
MOHAMMAD MAZHER IDRISS AND TAHIR ABBAS (eds), Honour, Violence, Women
and Islam. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011, 248 pp., ISBN 9780415565424, £75.00 (hbk).
Mohammad Mazher Idriss and Tahir Abbas’ edition aims to analyse honour-based
violence (HBV) in the contemporary world with the contribution of academics and
professionals from different disciplines. The book follows a multidisciplinary approach
and contains in-depth legal, sociological, anthropological, and religious analyses of
HBV. The volume covers not only theoretical discussions but also case analyses
of HBV that attracted media attention in the Western world. The collection includes
15 comprehensive essays on HBV. Mohammad Mazher Idriss’ essay as Chapter 1 pro-
vides an illuminating introduction to HBV whilst highlighting the aims and objectives of
the volume.
Following the introduction, Tahir Abbas, in Chapter 2, specifically focuses on HBV
against South Asian Muslim women in the UK within the context of masculinity, cultural
relativism and Islamphobia. In Chapter 3 Zahira Latif also critically analyses HBV within
the South Asian community – mostly within the Pakistani Muslim Mirpuri community –
in the UK. Veena Meetoo and Heidi Safia Mirza examine in Chapter 4 the concept of hon-
our and how it influences HBV within the context of multiculturalism. Joanne Payton in
Chapter 5 analyses a well-known HBV case – Banaz Mahmod, ‘a 20-year-old divorcee of
Iraqi Kurdish Origin, who was killed by order of her uncle and father because she had a
romantic relationship with an Iranian Kurd ...’ (p. 67) – and critically evaluates the police
investigation. In Chapter 6 Anna Carline explores the honour and shame paradox and the
provocation defence of HBV. Sadia Kausar, Sjaad Hussain and Mohammad Mazher
Idriss in Chapter 7 criticize the patriarchal interpretation of the Qur’an and examine how
...
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