Post-Schna-ulations

More things that go unnoticed...

Sentenced to be Raped

In June 2002, the police say, members of a high-status tribe sexually abused one of Ms. Mukhtaran's brothers and then covered up their crime by falsely accusing him of having an affair with a high-status woman. The village's tribal council determined that the suitable punishment for the supposed affair was for high-status men to rape one of the boy's sisters, so the council sentenced Ms. Mukhtaran to be gang-raped.

The four men who enacted this sentence are now on death row, as Ms. Mukhtaran did not take the traditional course of killing herself, but instead took the men to court. She now lives under police protection, but is still shunned by many in her culture as having no honor and being totally disgraced.

In recognizing that this is a different culture than that with which I am familiar, I wonder to what extent I can be appalled by this sort of action. Don't get me wrong, I am. It sickens me to think that this goes on. But culture and tradition are a strange thing. I read a book entitled "Holy Days" about the author's experience living for a brief time amongst Hasidic Jews in New York City. Woman did not allow their knees, elbows, or hair to show in public. To them, that was a right reserved for their husbands. While this is not a lifestyle I would choose, I respect that some of these woman choose these traditions and are happy with them. So where is the line? I'm sure there are many woman who choose and are content with the culture which enacts gang rapes upon the sisters of male criminals. While examples like this (or rituals such as female castration which occurs still) are more extreme and seem easy to judge as "unacceptable", I still question where that judgement comes from.
Perhaps this struggle comes from a fear of being too moralistic or imposing my views onto the lives of others. But there are no universal moral standards -- belief, opinion, and even emotion are not unchanging, ahistorical concepts. They're tied to a person, a culture, a time, a place, and a number of events and occurences past and present that cannot possible all be accounted for. So again, my question becomes, how can I draw a line at what I think is "right" and "wrong" (for lack of a better way to put it)?
Perhaps this is why people so often turn to the belief in a higher power to answer this question. It provides a stability, a point of reference. As I don't wish to rely on anything outside of myself to draw these conclusions, where is my point of reference?

posted by Schna @ 10:17 AM