Those Quiet Voices

So quiet one can hardly discern their imagined agitation over the plight of women in traditional conservative, culturally backward communities where women's place is silent and oppressed by any standards. On the other hand, because these women are mostly (not solely) represented from within Muslim male-dominated societies it is most uncomfortable to point out that this situation exists; that is if you're a leftist, a unionist, a social-academic or a feminist.

Since, according to this collective thought-process something neatly called relative morality is at play here.

Society has no business judging another culture's, another society's, another's heritage, another's religion when it comes to morality. Morality is a moveable feast; what is claimed to be moral certainty, for example, in Western culture, simply has the distinction of being given some level of neutral ambiguity when it is perceived that in Islamic societies the kind of default perspective that is generally embraced as moral certainty, does not resonate there.

And this must be respected, for who are we to judge?

After all, from the perspective of the socially enlightened, morality and respect for human rights - that we embrace as firmly recognized - can be construed otherwise in other, perfectly legitimate and to-be-respected cultures. Western acceptance of morals as being non-negotiable as human-rights issues are moribund, stifling, incapable of dealing with a complex world where realities are different, and as such, to be accepted.

Social, political accommodation must be made for those cultures, traditions and religions that recognize differing values and imperatives for we are too ignorant to understand that our morals need not necessarily be shared by them. Which explains why no unison of voice is raised in condemnation from among the social elites, the feminists, social academics, leftists, unionists, at the plight of Muslim women stifling under male domination and intolerable repression.

Women are targeted as the means by which honour is besmirched, and for that unforgivable sin, seen as bringing disgrace to the clan, the tribe, the family, the religion, a steep price must be paid to cleanse the dishonour. That women are doubly victimized appears irrelevant. They are constrained by culturalhabitude, and they must abide by such restrictions to their freedoms and their rights as human beings; subservient to their menfolk.

When the ignorant public raises a hue and cry against honour killings, the politically correct deride their lack of sophistication, of rational enlightenment, and point to violence against women occurring everywhere. Of course family violence is a tragedy, and is a problem that must be dealt with everywhere it raises itself to public notice. We have laws and protection for women and we have social assistance agencies that seek to help women.

On the other hand, a culturally institutionalized form of capital punishment for women who defy male authority is quite another thing altogether; victimizing women and children from the day of birth to that of their demise. We should no more tolerate 'honour killing' than we would any kind of violence directed toward women, children, minorities, gender-issued, or, for that matter, men. It does not get a free pass.

The importation of cultural traditions that do not respect individuality, freedom and human rights is not to be accepted, nor excused as a respected relic of another society's heritage. It is what it is; an intolerably vicious affront to civil society. This tradition represents humanity degraded. The politically correct consciousness of empathy is corrupt.

This is the face of a society itself complicit with the evil of victimizing half of humanity in the guise of advancing the cause of the misunderstood, the wrongly faulted, the blameless.