Cultural diversity and its impact

The context of the topic related to anthropology relates towards the understanding of the various cultures through out the human societies. The countries that have a more diverse cultural population tend to more socially healthy and tolerant in comparison to the monocultures. According the report, the more diversified a region is, in the term of cultural diversity and ethnicity, the higher is the chance towards rich cultural quality. The places that are generally culturally diverse tend to promote and encourage the bonding and the mutual respect (Hussain et al., 2016). The diversity restrictions in the certain parts of the world have been influenced towards the elimination due to the context of the globalization and its effect has been on an ever changing pattern for the social scenario of the world. In the changing world with the boon of the context of the globalization, the conflicts from the practice and the beliefs have been flourishing to a greater extent. Thus it is extremely essential for the creation of the opportunities for a culturally and socially secure place for the enhancement of the cross cultural diversity.

The diversity in the culture is one of the most intriguing factors from the context of the human history. The numerous context of diversity including the race that has evolved throughout the years and the numerous social beliefs, religious orientations that has been developing towards the historical origin are some of the main factors for consideration. The ethnic origins of the community tend to identify the group of the individuals sharing some of the common beliefs and practices and some of the similar rituals as the integral part of their social lives (Chesler, 2015). The essentiality towards the understanding of the different cultures and the ethics tends to allow us towards an insight of the cultural beliefs and the thoughts that are diverse for identifying the similarities among the cultures. The context of the cultural relativity lies on the fact of the understanding of the other culture and the practices without initiating any sort of hamper or interference. Respect towards all the cultures is generally challenged by the issue or the difficulty for the criticizing of the cultures that initiates the violation of the basic human rights. The assignment highlights the context of the honor killing, which is one of the most internationally argued violation regarding the rights of the women and the girls.

The harmful tradition and practice in the context of cultural customary, the concept of honour killing is one of the major violation of the human rights rules and regulations. Included and denoted as one of the most pathetic aspect regarding the disrespect towards the concept of the human rights, the context of honour killing includes instances like forced marriage, rape, imprisonment by the family, torture and even murder by the members of the family (Churchill, 2018). The context of honour killing is a customary practices which challenges and violates the human life, equality, liberty and freedom without the context of any categories of discriminations.

Understanding different cultures

Honor, the word can be illustrated or defined as a latent trait that serves as one of the essential factors that the people tend to regain for the reestablishment of their status in their community. The loss of the honour has both the inner and the outer quality. This is because the loss is not only accompanied by humiliation, disgrace and shame but also the loss of reputation. The context of the honor killing in the current scenario is generally accompanied  and associated with the assassin or the murder of  the female member of a family or a group of people in the community or the society on the basis of the beliefs and the perceptions that the targeted victim has brought dishonor and shame to the community and the family by the means of their acts (El Guindi, 2015). Most of the cases that has been reported till decade illustrates the victims to bee women or the girls.

As per the report by the United Nations, there exist more than 5000 cases of honour killing every year on the name of the cultural boon or the practices prevailing in the society. Mostly prevalent among certain communities, these gruesome instances have been increasing towards the knowledge of the public. Countries like Egypt, Iran, Iraq accounts more than half of the incidents of the honour killings in the world targeting the instances of discrimination towards the rights of the women, the law of the family and the practices in the male dominated society. In the context of the culture practice of honour killing,  one of the prevalent practices is stoning where young women from Pakistan and Afghanistan are stoned publicly for refusing to marry as per the wishes of their family (Green & Ward, 2017). Furthermore some of the heinous report as been documented showing the instances here females of the society are slaughtered for chatting with men on the social networking web pages.

Apart from being a cultural stigma and practice in the male dominant society, the honour killing encircled some of the most obvious reasons of the degrading attitude towards women who marry off according to their own choice and are believed to have stained the honour of the family they belong from (Fiske & Rai, 2014).  The women are subjected to stoning and ultimate sentence in case of marriage on their own choice and also in cases of sexual assault or rape since it is believed that they have brought dishonor and disgrace to the family. According to the sociologist, the reasons behind the cultural practices of honour killing are still prevalent to the society due to the rigidity in the caste system.

The concept of the cultural stereotype of honour killing is based on the deep rooted belief that women and the girls are commodity who are not entitled towards any kind of dignity or rights equivalent to the men. The bodies of the women in the society are considered the repositories of the honour of her family and any allegation and dishonor towards the character and the action of the women results in brutal retaliation and violent death.

The harmful tradition of honour killing

From the perspective of the cultural relativism that upholds the believe that all the cultures and the cultural practices are valid worldwide; this custom of honour killing reflects the violation of the human rights towards the women and girls of the society (Khan, 2018).

The concept of the cultural relativism was firstly invented by the anthropologists which argued the understanding of the life of the people and their cultures and their actions. On the later half of the 20th century, the concept of the cultural relativism was expanded on the origin of the ethical and moral relativism (Cooney, 2014). The issue of the cultural relativism expands the ethical judgments that is being culturally biased and inapplicable in the cross cultural background. The issue of the honour killing predates all the modern religions that simply focuses of the sort of the severe punishments for the girls or the women exhibiting offending behavior to the men in the society. Based on false allegations, honour killing projects the humiliation and the violation of the rights of the women and the girls in the society who are the victims of marginalization irrespective of any race, color or social backgrounds.

According to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, most of the victims of honour killing stems from the accusation regarding their illicit relation (Begikhani & Gill, 2016). Women are subjected to brutal death in lieu of the misconceptions and the judgments in relation to the suspicions on them.

The collision among the cultural norms is actually at a greatest tension in the field of the criminal law. The rationale behind the defenses of the culture relies on the age old customs, the practices of the society as the trend that enables the people of a society to uphold and preserve their position and honour in the place they stay. Thus to conclude the essay focused on the cultural defenses in the context of the brutal cultural practices of honour killing of the women and the girls, challenging the basic factors of the human rights  by the family members that is mostly fueled and influenced by the pressure of the community.

According to my personal opinion, the heinous crime of honour killing must be stopped, banded. The government and the state agencies of the social services for the community people must take steps to abolish and ban the cruel practice of the females. This is because there lies no hounour in killing or murdering a member of the family or a female in the society. These cruelties and the acts of the violence attack more than the bodies of the humans but also their challenge towards the oppressive patriarchy. The justification of the odious crimes of the women by their murder or a honourable motives are something we must stop for a healthy living society.

References:

Begikhani, N., & Gill, A. K. (2016). Honour-based violence: experiences and counter-strategies in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish diaspora. Routledge.

Chesler, P. (2015). When women commit honor killings. Middle East Quarterly, 22(4), B1.

Churchill, R. P. (2018). Women in the Crossfire: Understanding and Ending Honor Killing. Oxford University Press.

Cooney, M. (2014). Death by family: Honor violence as punishment. Punishment & Society, 16(4), 406-427.

El Guindi, F. (2015). Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu?Lughod.

Fiske, A. P., & Rai, T. S. (2014). Virtuous violence: Hurting and killing to create, sustain, end, and honor social relationships. Cambridge University Press.

Green, P., & Ward, T. (2017). The transformation of violence in Iraq. In The Criminology of War (pp. 123-141). Routledge.

Hussain, M., Gillani, A. H., Fatima, A., & Ahmad, S. (2016). Honor Killing in Pakistan: Socio-Legal Implications from Mid-1990s to the Dawn of 21 st Century-A Critical Analysis. International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies (IRJIMS), 2(2), 18-31.

Khan, R. (2018). Attitudes towards ‘honor’violence and killings in collectivist cultures: gender differences in Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian (MENASA) and Turkish populations.