Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
02/12/2011 - Issue 48
Honour slander shames us all
Recent changes to the criminal law on honor killings and rape got me thinking about shame culture...and Jodi Gordon.
Jodi Gordon was a young beautiful star of the most popular Australian television soap in 2009. Living in a waterfront penthouse apartment with her boyfriend – the heir and son of Australian media mogul, Ryan Stokes - she seemed to have it all.
One night in June, police responded to a call to an apartment in Sydney’s red light district. When they arrived, they found Gordon cowering in a cupboard with a less than reputable gangster criminal. The pair had been holed up for days, and had called police in the midst of a drug-induced hallucination that the apartment was under attack from intruders.
Police leaked the story and within days the paparazzi and tabloid press, including my former employer, were chasing the young star wherever she went.
The scandal was delicious. It was on every channel and every magazine cover. The public couldn’t get enough of the fall of Sydney’s “golden girl” to shameless harlot. What had gone on in the apartment was anyone’s guess, but the insinuation was clear - Jodi Gordon was a slut; she had cuckolded her rich and powerful media boyfriend and shamed her family and employer.
Within days of the “scandal” she had moved from her apartment, the couple split and the television network dumped her from the lead role, deeming her actions incongruous with the clean image of her role.
I met Jodi Gordon in person weeks after the initial scandal, after chasing her down the street to ask for comment on the scandal. With a tape recorder shoved in her face, Jodi Gordon broke down in tears. Later I learned she was on her way to a psychiatric appointment and reportedly suffering depression.
Reaction to the amendments to the criminal law regarding honor crimes and rape (amongst other crimes) as announced early last month in Syria have been mixed.
On the one hand, human rights groups say the increase in penalty for the murder of a wife, daughter, sister or other female relative suspected of having illegitimate sexual relations from a maximum of two years to a minimum of five has been applauded as a step in the right direction, effective in convincing any man contemplating the act to at least think twice. The increased punishment, they say, at least gets those who think they have a legitimate right to kill a Syrian woman to think of the act as a crime.
A maybe two years to a certain five years in a Syrian prison would certainly make me think that perhaps what I was doing wasn’t such a good idea.
On the other hand, women’s groups and legal practitioners tell me they were disappointed with the amendment; which, despite years of campaigning, still categorizes the murder of a woman as a crime of passion, differentiating it from any other homicide. In other words, family “honor” is still a consideration in handing down a sentence.
That shame culture should be legitimized in Syrian legislation in this way is seen as an inappropriate form of mixing religion and law.
In all discussion of the new law, the critics have focused on how Islamists will react.
“These things have to be taken slowly,” said one prominent analyst. “You can’t undo the law completely – otherwise you will upset Islamic groups that still have a lot of power.”
Foreign media are fond of saying that shame culture and honor crimes are a unique scourge in Islamic countries. In fact, Robert Fisk shocked international readers with his September 2010 honor killings series in The Independent newspaper, essentially labeling the problem an epidemic in Islamic societies.
But hang on a sec – who said shame culture is unique to Islam? Shame culture has little to do with religion and everything to do with culture.
Personally, I don’t believe that a woman should remain a virgin until marriage - unless she wants to. I don’t believe her sexual preferences have any bearing on her ability as an actress, mother, secretary, lawyer or human being. It’s simply none of my business.
Legitimizing shame culture through public institutions is damaging and discriminatory. Western, predominantly Christian countries, perpetuate the shaming of women through popular media in exactly the same vulgar way.
No one is saying that killing a woman is equal to slandering her. Not at all. But the same attitude towards women’s honor is at work here, be it in the homes of Arab families, or on the pages of Western tabloids.
Whether it is through law, or media destroying a woman’s career, hurting her physically or slandering her character through insinuations about her sexual engagements, we are using shame culture. For that, we should all be ashamed.
Krystal:
This article is very thought provoking and I agree with the sentiment whole heartedly. Australian media is beyond the point of tacky these days and particularly one Sydney based paper that puts social scandals as the front page are more interested in sensationalism now than anything else.
You're absolutely correct that the fundamentals of shaming women are the same in this country as they are half way around the world. The hypocrisy shown by Australia's willingness to critique Islamic culture without first reflecting on our own similarities at a basic level is disturbing.
Krystal:
This article is very thought provoking and I agree with the sentiment whole heartedly. Australian media is beyond the point of tacky these days and particularly one Sydney based paper that puts social scandals as the front page are more interested in sensationalism now than anything else.
You're absolutely correct that the fundamentals of shaming women are the same in this country as they are half way around the world. The hypocrisy shown by Australia's willingness to critique Islamic culture without first reflecting on our own similarities at a basic level is disturbing.