LGBITTAQ

‘Honor’ murder or ‘honor’ killing is not identical to a manmurdering a woman in a domestic violence scenario. An ‘honor’ killinginvolves the death of a female family member who is murdered by one or more male family members, sometimes with the active assistance of other women related to the victim. In ‘honor’ murder, a female family member is deemed by her male relatives to have transgressed the family’s honor. Unsurprisingly, ‘honor’ murders are historically underreported because of the shame the victim brought to her family. Analyses of ‘honor’ murder cases, therefore, are scarce. I examine the 2007 strangulation of Aqsa Parvez, an ‘honor’ murder victim, through the theoretical lenses of face/shame and the social bond (Scheff, 2000), identity/social identity theory (Stets & Burke, 2000), and Black’s (1983) theory of crime as social control (cited in Gauthier & Bankston, 2004). Then, I deconstruct the conflict leading to Aqsa’s murder through the conflict mapping modeldevised by We...

For some time, a prominent strand of gay and feminist theory and theology has taken it almost as axiomatic that gay men, lesbians, and straight women have a common stake in dismantling patriarchy.  While I have always understood my own work as a gay theologian in terms of that common struggle, recent developments point to a significant challenge to keeping that bond intact in the larger sphere of political activism.

At the end of last year, National Public Radio deemed 2011 an extraordinary year for gay rights.    Buzzfeed listed 40 reasons why it was the best year for gays ever, beginning with a Gallup poll showing that for the first time a majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage.  The list also included the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and several firsts for openly gay elected officials.  Even the world of professional sports is becoming more accepting: in a recent tweet, Ravens’ linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo equated support for same-sex marriage with playing in a Super Bowl when asked about his life’s greatest accomplishments.

Simultaneously, we saw a steady legislative assault on women’s reproductive freedom. 

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2011, state legislatures introduced more than 1,100 health provisions.  68 per cent of the proposed legislation would have restricted access to abortion in various ways.  Not all the measures passed – the draconian measure in Mississippi that would have conferred “personhood” on a fetus didn’t.  But the sheer activity shows remarkable momentum against women’s reproductive rights.  Repercussions from earlier restrictions are also making themselves felt.  At the end of 2011, in Maryland, a reliably “blue” state, two abortion providers were charged with murder for performing late-term abortions under a law passed in 2005.  Maryland is in the company of 38 states that have such laws on the books. Mexico also faces an anti-abortion backlash.