5 - Murder and Torture for Tradition and Honour

Summary

This chapter discusses interference in minority affairs when they engage in physical harm to others. Relevant considerations are the extent of harm, consent (or lack of) of those who are subjected to harm, parental care and responsibility, significance of religious and culture norms and values, and the extent to which a liberal society should intervene in group and individual affairs. It first analyses the practices of suttee, self-starvation, scarring, murder for family honour, female circumcision and female genital mutilation. It is argued that liberal intervention is justified in the case of gross and systematic violation of human rights, such as murder, slavery, expulsion or inflicting severe bodily harm on certain individuals or groups. Such norms are considered by liberal standards to be intrinsically wrong, wrong by their very nature. Physical harm includes cases of widow burning, female infanticide, murder for family honour, and harsh forms of female circumcision, deformation or alteration which are rightly termed female genital mutilation.