Honor without women: Honor and the legitimization of murder in the criminal courts of Lebanon.

Honor crimes are the killing of women, and occasionally men for deviation from sexual norms and expectations. This phrase is an oxymoron which binds the notion of what is socially condoned, honor, with what is condemned and punished, a crime. The bulk of the data collected for this exploration is composed of investigative literature and Lebanese criminal court records. The court archives serve the purposes of displaying a discourse of honor in a controlled setting, and demonstrating the de facto handling of such crimes. Through examination of the transcripts of the 36 honor crimes tried in 1995, the boundaries of honor are defined revealing an unadulterated leniency towards the killers. I argue this bias stems from a deeper level of discrimination against women, since in all but a few cases the victim are women. A hegemonic discourse exists that obscures the reality of the murder, and increases the margin of acceptable justifications for killing a female relative. In the process, I attempt to dispel some of the common misconceptions about the reality of honor crimes, such as the role Islam plays in their perpetuation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997 .S465. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0394. Adviser: Max Hedley. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998