The honor paradox: Tradition, modernity and the human cost

This paper attempts to investigate various honor-related issues that women in traditional societies of the Middle-East, the South- Asia and other countries face. In these societies, a culture of honor is being prioritized at the cost of human lives. These have almost negligible occurrence in the developed modern western countries. However, with the advent of globalization and resulting influx of immigrants, the western world has also started witnessing many of these honor-related issues which are mainly confined to the immigrant communities only. The Western societies have for long practiced the concept of multiculturalism that lays greater stress on least interference with the culture and traditions of immigrant communities. In her text, Unni Wikan has linked the honor killings of Fadime and many other young women in the Scandinavian countries to the failure of multiculturalism and the assimilation policy of these countries. These modern societies have failed to recognize unequal power structures and the existence of patriarchy within immigrant communities. To take into account the above, they have now come forward with the concept of liberal multiculturalism. This concept highlights the importance of respect for culture and traditions of immigrants but at the same time lays greater stress on the human rights and the country’s legislations.