{"id":5282,"date":"2008-07-08T23:48:48","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T04:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=5282"},"modified":"2008-07-10T00:43:02","modified_gmt":"2008-07-10T05:43:02","slug":"izzat_it_isnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/08\/izzat_it_isnt\/","title":{"rendered":"Izzat? It isn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve never quite understood what “Izzat” means, since it covers behavior I think of as thoroughly dishonorable and fails to cover other things that I think of as being quite honorable. But now, thanks to two tragedies in Georgia that have recently been in the news, I think I understand. Izzat means kill the bride<\/span><\/font>. <\/p>\n\n

Exhibit A: Chaudhry Rashid and his daughter Sandeela Kanwal<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n\n

Rashid is accused of having killed his daughter because she wanted to get out of her arranged marriage:<\/p>\n\n

Authorities allege that Rashid killed his daughter because he feared that her resistance to a recently arranged marriage would disgrace the Pakistani-American family… “She was very unhappy with the marriage, had not seen the husband in three months and was seeking a divorce,” … “The father felt like the he had to uphold his family’s honor…” [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>Let’s ignore for a second the fact that in Islam marriage is a civil affair and divorce is allowed. And let’s ignore the fact that if the marriage broke down, some responsibility must reasonably lay with the person responsible for choosing the groom. And let’s ignore the fact that the father was married to an American<\/a>, so he clearly had not had an arranged marriage himself.<\/p>\n\n

If<\/em> the police account is correct (and Rashid has been charged but not yet tried, so the facts are not all out and there is no verdict), Rashid saw his daughter’s behavior as bringing disgrace to the family, and believed that the only way to set things right was to kill his daughter.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>Exhibit B: Chiman Rai and his daughter-in-law Sparkle Michelle Rai<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>In this case, it’s Chiman Rai’s son, Ricky, who the father feels has stained the escutcheon by marrying a black woman, Sparkle Reid. The son<\/em> is the one who has dishonored the family here, right? So what does the father do? Disinherit him? Kill his son? Nope – he hires hitmen to kill his daughter-in-law: \n<\/p>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p><\/p>\n\n

Atlanta jurors have found an India-born businessman guilty of masterminding the murder of his black daughter-in-law because he feared the mixed marriage would smear the caste-conscious family’s name… two women arrived at the apartment of Rai’s son Ricky and his new wife, pretending to deliver a package. A 300-pound hit man then choked Sparkle Reid Rai with a vacuum cleaner cord and stabbed her a dozen times within earshot of her 6-month-old daughter. [Link<\/a>] <\/a><\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p><\/p>\n\n

(The son went on to marry a desi girl, never telling her about his ex-wife or daughter, by then being raised by Sparkle’s parents. And Chiman Rai was just convicted on seven charges and may face the death penalty, but this is besides the point)<\/p>\n\n

See, it’s the magic solution. No matter who does something “wrong” (the son, the daughter) nor what that “wrong” thing is (getting married, getting divorced), the answer is always the same: if you want to preserve the family’s honor, kill the bride and regain your “izzat.” Bride-killing, on the other hand, well that’s not shameful at all.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve never quite understood what “Izzat” means, since it covers behavior I think of as thoroughly dishonorable and fails to cover other things that I think of as being quite honorable. But now, thanks to two tragedies in Georgia that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}