02 Apr, 2009
Screaming in a well — “Honor” crimes
Posted by: BamBam In: Blast| hyperbole reality| jordan
Are things quiet now ? well they shouldn’t be.
About a week ago or so there was a campaign by kinzi to send letters, messages, and write posts denouncing “honor” killings.
As usual, I didn’t participate (atleast not visibly) but i like to observer and think about what was said, suggested, and how things transpired afterward. One thing to note, previously i noticed little interaction between the Syrian and Jordanian blogosphere but nowadays it’s highly amusing to me that it’s becoming more intertwined as we saw posts by Syrian bloggers on the issue (Abufares, razan and KJ pitched in)
For starters many of the posts, emails and messages made it to the jordan times and were posted and several initiatives transpired. A couple of data bases one for the victims, the other for signatures for a petition. The third is a master plan of sorts to raise awareness.
Other than the troll that was annoying everyone by saying that the king should do “something” it seemed like everyone was supportive, but personally I felt something missing. There was too much “preaching to the choir” going on.
Usually in cases of tackling social issues and being an agent of change the task that should be tackled after identifying social problem is not solving the problem …. that comes much later on. You need to understand the problem from all angles and tackle the sources and other permutations of the problem.
The way to go about it is by asking the tough questions, You need to first understand the risk itself with questions like :
“Are honor crimes an isolated occurrence or a culmination of several events that lead to them ? how frequent do those events occur and if I reduce the occurrence of the most frequent event can I reduce honor crimes? Why do people commit honor crimes? is it because of religion , to protect social status and reputation, or some other reasons?
After learning about the problem we need to understand who does it, we need to define the target audience:
“Whats the profile of the person that commits “honor” crimes ? where does he live ? what does he do ? whats his education ? what’s his origins ? what are his reasons? whats the profile of women around this person ? what’s his view of women outside of his cricle and the women inside of his familial circle? what’s the reason for any difference of perception between the two ? is the problem seen as personal or something that affects other people? “
With those answers we would be able to develop a better idea of who is the target audience, who do we have to reach in order to achieve some tangible change on the ground. Somehow, and i might be mistaken here, reaching West Ammani’s with English language bumper stickers denouncing honor crimes won’t be all that effective.
After you identify your audience, and the risk you would need to define your message and the method of delivery.
“Who the audience listen to ? how can you ally with the people that the audience listens to ? how can you convince them to work with you and what do u have to offer ? What is the focus of the message ? are you going to educate individuals in society and do capacity building or will you use the media to deliver that message ? What are the misconceptions that you need to tackle to achieve change ? who are the people that will appose those changes ? how will you answer them and pacify them ?:
This doesn’t not necessarily mean that the message has to be about honor killings, maybe there are other initiatives going around that are less polarizing and will benefit your goals.
I will not even begin to answer those questions and they are hardly all the topics or questions to be asked, but I thought that we need to recognize that we need to stop providing solutions to this problem and claiming to understand it when we are clearly lacking in our knowledge of it. Otherwise we are just going to face the similar problem that we faced in 2000, when the change came from the top-down and the representatives of the bottom-up will say the same things that they said in defense of the law.
For in this issue you will not only be going against the status quo but the opposition as well since they see it as a right, and a right that does good and curtails from sinful behavior and no slogan “polo” shirt or play is going to change that opinion. I honestly admire the energy and passion of some, but i would rather see it channeled more effectively rather than screaming in a well and feeling bejeweled by our echos.
ENJOY!
ps. I hope I’m being constructive rather than just pessimistic.
) even more (for you saved me from posting so many comments on Black iris because you already said it all and less sarcastically). 
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