Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
Although every study of Arab society agrees on the central importance of the family to the organization of society, there has been relatively little discussion of the honor of the family, ‘ird. In the descriptions that exist, this honor is characterized as preoccupation with sexual purity and chastity, or as a cause of suspicion and jealousy between men and women. The distinctive characteristics of honor have never been spelled out; it is usually referred to briefly and then discarded in favor of such topics as the authority structure, the preference for marriage with the father's brother's daughter, and the seclusion of women.
page 40 note 2 Cf. Goode, W. J., World Revolution and Family Patterns (New York, 1963), p. 89;Google Scholar Berger, M., The Arab World Today (New York, 1962), pp. 100–1.Google Scholar
page 40 note 3 Fares, B., L'Honneur chez les Arabes avant l'Islam (Paris, 1932).Google Scholar
page 40 note 4 Fares, B., ‘'Ird’, in Supplement to the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1938), pp. 96–7.Google Scholar
page 41 note 1 Lane, E. W., An Arabic–English Lexicon (London, 1874), book I, part 5, p- 2007.Google Scholar
page 41 note 2 Hava, J., An Arabic–English Dictionary (Beirut, 1951).Google Scholar
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page 42 note 1 Abou-Zeid, A., ‘Honor and Shame Among the Bedouins of Egypt’, in Peristiany, J. G. (ed.), Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society (London, 1965), PP. 256–7. The statements by Abou-Zeid and the other ethnographic materials are selected to represent recent research, and so to illustrate the continuing importance of 'ird in contemporary society. It must be conceded that some recent ethnographies do not describe 'ird. Such omissions are probably due to limitations of the ethnographic method rather than the absence of 'ird.Google Scholar
page 42 note 2 Antoun, R., ‘On the Modesty of Women in Arab Muslim Villages’, American Anthropologist, vol. 70 (1968), p. 672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 43 note 1 Ibid. pp. 684–5.
page 43 note 2 Barclay, H., Buurri al Lamaab: A Suburban Village in the Sudan (Ithaca, New York, 1964), PP. 51–2.Google Scholar
page 43 note 3 Dodd, P. and Barakat, H., River Without Bridges: A Study of the Exodus of the 1967 Palestinian Refugees (Beirut, 1969), p. 46.Google Scholar
page 44 note 1 P. Gubser, personal communication.Google Scholar
page 44 note 2 This paper touches only peripherally on the enforcement of the norms supporting honor. A study of the enforcement of these norms should begin with a compilation of ‘honor crimes’, as reported in newspapers and recorded in police dossiers. The enforcer is often the woman's brother, and it is my impression that he is urged on by the older women of the family.Google Scholar
page 44 note 3 'Abd-el-Baqi, M., Il-Mu'jam il-mufahras li-lafz il-qur'ân il-karîm (Concordance for the Holy Koran) (Cairo, A.H. 1378, A.D. 1959), pp. 457–8. B. Fares, ‘'Ird’, op. cit. p. 96.Google Scholar
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page 45 note 2 Antoun, R., ‘On the Modesty of Women…’, loc. cit. p. 675.Google Scholar
page 45 note 3 This point would appear to demarcate a society valuing 'ird from a society valuing machismo, the sexual prowess of the male. The conquests, boasting, and public behavior of Don Juan have few parallels in Arab literature or in Arab social reality.Google Scholar
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page 49 note 1 Personal observation, 1970.Google Scholar
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page 52 note 3 See Goode, World Revolution…, p. 149; Berger, op. cit. p. 131.Google Scholar
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