Last week we heard how
Helen launched, if not a thousand ships, at least 1000 SUV and small pickup
trucks. Here’s more on why.
I had the pleasure of
attending a cultural awareness conference with a Palestinian woman from the
West Bank town of Nablus. The fact that she’d never been to Nablus is for
another story.
During this talk we
watched a video clip of the 1995 film Rob Roy, in which Rob Roy, played by
Liam Neeson, talks about honor. He goes on about how men can gain honor and
lose honor. He also seems to imply that women have all the honor, but
that men are the only ones who can guard it.
While we were eating
lunch, I brought up the scene with her. She said that indeed women are capable
of defending their honor. She noted in her city, Nablus, the women are
all very strong. Nothing happens if the women don’t agree. She rattled off a
saying in Arabic.
But she went on to say,
that in the Arab world, when you hear talk of honor, you should know that the
speaker is referring exclusively to a woman.
“Really! Anytime. It all
can be extended back to a defending a woman. And, more specifically, her
virginity”
She poked out her pinky
into the air. “Every woman has this, um, this, er… membrane. And that is the
most important. If a woman plays soccer or does sports, she must disclose this
before marriage, or it may be shameful for her family.”
“Hmm.” I asked, “What do
you think of that?”
She shrugged, “It’s what
is believed.”
I turned to my brownie
and thought about Liam Neeson and his “very particular set of skills” and
wondered if he was typecast as a defender of honor.
Anyway, that’s how it
came to be that riots broke out after Helen Christos ran to her friends house.
A clash of clans turned into a tribal battle over honor and shame.
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