Author: Laina Farhat-Holzman
Publication: Globalthink.net
Date: September 5, 2009
URL: http://globalthink.net/index.cfm/2009/9/7/Not-All-Cultures-Are-Equal
I remember my first encounter with anthropology
in college when we were taught that cultures are neither bad nor good-but
are reasonable to their members. I have since learned that this extremely
generous concept was intended to counteract the western bias of 19th century
anthropology, being as it was, part of European colonialism.
In Europe and Canada, some have even supported
immigrants selecting their own law codes under special circumstances. For
example, the Muslim community in Ontario tried to get legal recognition of
strict Muslim Sharia law in family matters (marriage, divorce, status of women).
In Canada's misguided political correctness, they almost let this happen-had
not organized and outraged feminists defended these Muslim women as Canadians,
and would not let them be battered, married off by force, or other Sharia
horrors.
England, however, is not so lucky. Sharia
is a Muslim option available to the Pakistani community in Britain and will
not be revisited until some horrible abuse of a woman or girl gets press.
Meanwhile, even polygamy (paid for by the British taxpayers) gets no legal
attention, nor do the victims of this system get legal recourse.
In a Liberian immigrant community in Phoenix,
an eight-year-old girl was gang raped by four boys, ages 9 to 14, one of them
her cousin. The little girl's family went public and indignantly blamed the
child for bringing shame on them. The parents did not want her back after
her hospitalization. They also do not want to prosecute the boys ("because
they are our clan, our kin," was what they said). Alas, they have brought
their culture with them, and we should not permit it. If they cannot be retrained
to be civilized, deport them.
In Iraq, there is widespread wife battery.
American trainers of Iraqi soldiers and police had discussions in which the
Americans asked why so many Iraqis beat their wives. They received an ancient
answer (supported both by their religion and tribal cultures): women have
the power to seduce men with their sexuality and if men do not beat them,
the women will not learn who is boss. (If wives are disobedient, says the
Koran, beat them.)
I cannot imagine what cultural excuse the
Pakistanis have for kidnapping and gang-raping young girls who, if they go
to the police, get gang-raped by the police as well. The girls' families expect
them to commit suicide (which many do) to expunge the family's "shame,"
or the families kill them themselves. Why is this "reasonable" to
anthropologists?
How do anthropologists explain the annual
pogroms in Sub-Saharan Africa against supposed "witches" and even
worse, against albinos? The unfortunate albinos are murdered and their body
parts sold (and eaten) "for luck," an indulgence even to Africans
educated in the west.
In Afghanistan, there is a new law (with Koranic
support) permitting husbands to deprive wives of food and water if they refuse
sex. The previous law permitted marital rape, but a fuss was made abroad that
derailed its passage. Shame on President Karzai for signing these bills!
But who is looking at Muslim world pedophilia?
I recall a quote from the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran that it is a shame for
a family to house a girl after her first blood. She must be married off. There
is a haunting photo in the August 15 Economist of a little girl looking apprehensively
at her old, dirty, mean-looking "husband." He family sold her in
payment of debt. And on line, al-Jazeera news service confirms a mass wedding
in Gaza-happy grooms of all ages-and tiny girl "brides" looking
frightened.
We have our own rapists, pedophiles, and wife
beaters in the west. But our societies brand them as criminals and punish
them. How unlucky to live in a culture that has not evolved this far.
In Somalia, the Islamist al Shabaab group
pulls gold and silver teeth (without anesthetic) from residents because they
say Sharia law so dictates. Pretty easy money here; and remember, the Nazis
pulled the gold teeth from dead victims and melted them down.
No, not all cultures are equal.
- Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer,
and writer. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com and www.globalthink.net.
