Family Honor and the Forces of Change in Arab Society

Author(s): Peter C. Dodd

Source: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1973), pp. 40-54
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/162224 .
Accessed: 25/01/2014 06:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
International Journal of Middle East Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
40 Int. J. MiddleEast Stud. 4 (I973), 40-54 Printedin GreatBritain

Peter C. Dodd

FAMILY HONOR AND THE FORCES

OF CHANGE IN ARAB SOCIETYI

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 charac-
terized as preoccupation with sexual purity and chastity, or as a cause of suspicion
and jealousy between men and women.2 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.
Yet much of the organization of the Arab family can be understood in terms of
'ird as a controlling value, legitimating the family structure and the 'modesty
code' required of both men and women. While 'ird is most evident in the tribal
and peasant sectors of society, it also appears in the contemporary urban sector,
in all but the most 'modernized' families. Although such forces of change as
urbanization, social revolution, and education may have an impact on the value
of 'ird and its associated norms, this value and these norms resist the processes
of change. Such is the argument of this study.
The only comprehensive study of family honor among the Arabs is a historical
one, concentrating on the pre-Islamic period.3 Summarizing this research, the
author states:
'Ird from its etymology seems to be a partitionwhich separatesits possessor from the
rest of mankind.This partitionis certainlyfragile since it was easilydestroyed.... [In
thejahiliyya period] 'irdwas intense and of momentousimportance;besides, it was the
guiding motive in the acts and deeds of all the Arabs except those of the Yemen... on
accountof its sacrednature,it was entitled to take the place of religion;the Arab put it
in the highest place and defended it arms in hand.4

I Revised version of a paper presented at the Fourth Annual Middle East Studies
AssociationMeeting, Columbus, Ohio, November I970. For financialsupport on the
researchleadingto this paperI am gratefulto the Arts and SciencesResearchCommittee
of the AmericanUniversityof Beirut.I acknowledgewith thanksthe thoughtfulcriticism
of R. Antoun, H. Barakat,C. Churchill, S. Farsoun, P. Gubser, F. Khuri, H. Mason,
E. Salem, B. Sirhan,M. Swartz,L. Sweet, and C. Zurayk.
2 Cf. W. J. Goode, WorldRevolutionand Family Patterns(New York, I963), p. 89;
M. Berger, The Arab World Today (New York, I962), pp. I00-I.
3 B. Fares, L'Honneur chez les Arabes avant l'Islam (Paris, 1932).
4 of Islam(Leiden, 1938),pp. 96-7.
B. Fares,' Ird', in Supplementto theEncyclopaedia

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 4I

The importance of 'ird, according to the same source, continues in contemporary

society:
Among the modernBedouinswe still find 'irdwith all its pre-Islamicforce... the use of
the term 'ird, in its traditional sense, though less rich in meaning, has continued,
keeping its sacred characterand its relation with insult...At the present day, the
meaning of the word 'ird has become restricted;in Transjordaniait is associatedwith
the virtue of a woman or even with her beauty... In Egypt, the 'ird of a man depends
on his wife's reputationand that of all his female relatives.

It is instructive to compare this description of 'ird with that given by Lane,

summarizing a large number of Arabic dictionaries. While 'ird may have a num-
ber of other meanings (a valley, the body, the skin, etc.), the major meaning is in
connection with honor:
A man's honour,or reputation,jdniba,which he preservesfrom impairmentand blame,
both as it relatesto himself and his hasab(or groundsof pretensionto respecton account
of the honourabledeeds or qualitiesof his ancestors,etc.) or whetherit relateto himself
or to his ancestorsor to those of whose affairsthe managementis incumbenton him;...
those things by the mention whereof with praise or dispraisea man rises or falls...I

Lane does not explicitly raise the question of women's virtue. Women are
clearly included in the phrase 'those of whose affairs the management is incum-
bent on him', but their behavior is not the main issue. It is also worthy of note
that 'ird, in Lane's treatment, appears to be the possession of an individual, not
of a group.
Other dictionaries have tended to rely heavily on Lane, such as the one by
Hava.2 Wehr, relying on modern written sources, gives the following definition
of 'ird: 'Honor; good repute; dignity; and fi 'irdak. I rely on your generosity,
have mercy upon me!'3 Wehr does not mention the question of women's
behavior, purity, or chastity.
Lane, Wehr, and to a lesser extent Fares rely on literary sources: the written
heritage of the Arabs. They emphasize the aspect of 'ird which relates to a man's
reputation: his honorable deeds, his ability to defend himself, his willingness to
accept a challenge. Less emphasized is another aspect of 'ird which relates to the
reputation of the women for whom a man is responsible: his daughter, sister, or
wife.
The literary tradition may be compared with the observations made by anthro-
pologists and sociologists concerning contemporary Arab culture. Abou-Zeid,
describes the Bedouin tribes in the Western desert of Egypt, and stresses the
element of meaning connected with the reputation of the women:
...'ird is rather difficult to translate,for it is used only in connection with female
chastity, prudence and continence.

I E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (London, 1874), book I, part 5, p. 2007.

2
J. Hava, An Arabic-English Dictionary (Beirut, I95I).
3 H. Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. by J. M. Cowan(Ithaca,New
York, I96I).

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
42 Peter C. Dodd

The Bedouins do not impose sexual segregation but they do respect severe rules for
the behaviour of one sex towards the other. Deviation from these rules results in the
murder of the offenders... 'Ird differs from sharaf in that sharaf can be acquired and
augmented through right behaviour and great achievements, whereas 'ird can only be
lost by the misconduct of the woman. And once lost, it cannot be regained. The respon-
sibility for retaliation in cases of offences inflicted against 'ird falls on the shoulders of
the near kin of the girl and more particularly on her ibn 'amm (father's brother's son)...
The husband of the adulterous woman cannot impose any punishment on her, apart
from divorcing her and recovering the bridewealth... the woman does not affect the
'ird of her husband's lineage...

Abou-Zeid's description indicates that 'ird is an all-or-nothing quality: 'once

lost, it cannot be regained'. Furthermore, the husband is not responsible for
punishing the offending wife.
Antoun has presented the 'modesty code', as it operates in a Jordanian Muslim
village:

'Modesty' in the present context has three referents: it refers narrowly to patterns of
coverage for various parts of the body; more broadly to various character traits - bash-
fulness, humility, diffidence, and shyness; and most widely to institutions often
associated with the above - the customs and beliefs relating to the chastity, fidelity,
purity, seclusion, adultery, animality, and inferiority of women, to the superiority of
men, to the legitimacy of children, and to the honor of the group.2

He records two usages of the word 'ird in conversation. In the village, after an
offense against honor, a man will say 'ir.di imbayni, 'my honor is exposed'. In
other parts of Jordan he will say nak 'ir.di, 'he has violated [literally, made sexual
connection with] my honor'.
Antoun also gives an account, carefully compiled from his fieldwork, of an
offense against 'ird and the punishment for it:

A few days later just after dawn on the morning of the Festival of the Sacrifice, the
great Islamic feast-day, and two weeks after the apprehension [of the offense], the
father of the girl took her directly to the front of the house of the guardian of the young
men (father of one, uncle of the other) and slew her with his dagger. He then went to
the police station and surrendered himself to the authorities... The men of the village
...moved to the police station where they demanded to see the girl's father. When he
was brought to the balcony, he was welcomed by three resounding cheers. Later in the
day the village watchman told me quietly, as if to seal the day's events, that the shame
('ar) had now been erased.

I A. Abou-Zeid,'Honor and Shame Among the Bedouins of Egypt', in J. G. Peristiany

(ed.), Honour and Shame: The Values of MediterraneanSociety (London, I965), 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 con-
temporary 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.
2 R. Antoun, 'On the Modesty of Women in Arab Muslim Villages', American Anthro-

pologist, vol. LXX(1968), p. 672.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 43

Antoun makes it clear, by contrast to Abou-Zeid, that capital punishment for

violations of 'ird is not the statistical norm.
Elopement,marriage,hushing-up of violations,compensationand banishment,or any
combinationthereof are the usual and preferredsolutions for cases of honor. Only one
case recordedby me for the Ajlun district over a period of seven years resulted in the
death penalty. [P. 685.]'
In the Sudan, offences against family honor are referred to as fa.diiha:
Fadiiha deals with matters of family and personal honor, such as the dishonorable
behavior of women or physical violence to members of one's family... In actual
practicetoday,fadiiha encompassesbehaviorrelatingto a girl's honor.
... it is shamefulfor a girl to initiate conversationwith men or to speakto strangemen
except strictlyfor business purposesat which time the girl should maintaina sober and
highly reservedattitude. In public, girls should also be properlycovered from head to
foot, since exposureof the hair, bare arms or legs is believed to attractthe attentionof
men. In other words, each girl should seek to makeherselfas inconspicuousas possible
in any public place; any other behaviorwould be viewed as either consciously or un-
consciously seeking the attention of men.2
Barclay's description offa.diiha places the emphasis on the behavior of the women,
although he also notes the component of 'irf, stressed by Lane, that refers to the
man's capacity to defend himself in physical combat.
In the Lebanon I have noted the following examples of the use of the term
'ird among city-dwellers. A man may affirm a statement by adding bi-'irdz, 'upon
my honor'. He may insult another man: yil'an 'ir.dak,'your honor is cursed'.
In an interview in I967 an adult Palestinian male, head of the family, was
asked to describe his experience in leaving his village home in the June War of
i967.3 In his answer he made the statement shirridnd bi-'irdnd, 'we ran away
with our honor intact'. His usage is interesting for two reasons. In the first place,
the action to which he refers involved both components of 'ird: the honor of the
women and the response to physical challenge. By the standards of 'ird, he had
responded satisfactorily to the first component, saving the honor of his women,
but failed to respond to the second, the challenge of the occupying army. To him,
the first component justified his action. It took precedence over the second: honor
of the women outweighed his honor as fighter. This ranking of values is striking.
A second point is the use of the plural: 'we ran with our honor'. This suggests
that the honor in question is a collective possession, something that belongs to
more than one individual. This usage goes beyond that noted by Lane and Fares,
who define honor primarily as the possession of an individual.
Further support for the idea of 'ird as a collective possession is to be found in
Gubser's observations in Kerak, Jordan, in I968. He reports many discussions,

I Ibid. pp. 684-5.

2 H. Barclay,Buurrial Lamaab:A SuburbanVillagein the Sudan(Ithaca,New York,
I964), pp. 5I-2.
3 P. Dodd and H.
Barakat, River Without Bridges: A Study of the Exodus of the I967
Palestinian Refugees (Beirut, 1969), p. 46.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
44 Peter C. Dodd

among men, of the 'ird of a tribe, where 'ird meant the bravery, fighting ability,
and response to challenge on the part of the young men of the tribe. (The Arabs
in Kerak, although technically town-dwellers, continue to identify with tribes.)
Gubser also notes that, when discussing the flight of the West Bank Palestinians,
the Kerak men said that the Palestinians fled in order to protect their 'ird.' This
usage thus indicates the two components of 'ird: women's honor and fighting
ability.
These examples of contemporary usage indicate the extent and importance of
'ird in contemporary Arab society. Nearly all the examples are drawn from
village and nomad-pastoralist sectors of the society, and the question may be
raised whether this is not a 'rural' value that may be expected to disappear in the
process of urbanization and modernization.2 Before answering this question, it
is necessary to summarize the characteristics of 'ird as shown by a survey of the
classical writings, and the contemporary ethnographies.

THE PATTERN OF 'IRD: A SUMMARY

(I) 'Ird appears to be a secular value rather than a religious one. The term does
not appear in the Qur'an, although both the term and the very high value attached
to it existed among the pre-Islamic Arabs.3 Islamic teachings regarding women's
status and male-female relationships may be regarded as supporting 'ird in-
directly, but it is not per se an Islamic pattern. This suggests that the 'ird pattern
can exist in communities that place little or no emphasis on orthodox Islam:
nomadic pastoralists, the Druze, and even the Christians. Campbell has described
patterns of honor in Christian Cypriot villages that resemble 'ird, although there
are also important differences.4
(2) 'Ird is an attribute both of individuals and of a group. A man has 'ird, but
it is in large part a reflection of the 'ird of his family and his lineage. The precise
limits of the lineage are not defined, but it is traced exclusively through male kin,
the agnates.
(3) Enforcement of norms defending 'irdis carried out primarily by the agnates:
father, brother, father's brothers, and agnatic cousins. These men are the pos-
sessors of the 'ird. A husband may at times regard his wife's reputation as
reflecting on his honor, but the marriage bond does not have the same effect as
the blood tie. The fact that marriage ties are less important than blood (agnatic)
I p. Gubser, personal communication.
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.
3 M. 'Abd-el-Baqi, Il-Mu'jam il-mufahras li-lafz il-qur'an il-karim (Concordance for
the Holy Koran) (Cairo, A.H. 1378, A.D. I959), pp. 457-8. B. Fares, "Ird', op. cit. p. 96.
4 J.K. Campbell, Honour, Family and Patronage (London, I964); also his 'Honour and
the Devil', in J. G. Peristiany (ed.), Honour and Shame: the Values of Mediterranean
Society (London, I965).

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 45

ties appears to distinguish Arab husband-wife relationships from conceptions of

family honor held in Spain, Italy, and other Western societies.
(4) Once lost, 'ird is difficult to regain. It can be lost through a single act in
a brief space of time, and may take generations to restore. In this connection, it
is relevant to recall the idea of a partition (screen) '...which separates its
possessor from the rest of mankind. This partition is fragile since it is easily
destroyed... '.I
(5) 'Ird, however, is not an all-or-none quantity. The 'ird of a family can be
raised or lowered, depending on the demeanor of its women (and the conduct of
men towards its women). Antoun reports this account of the norms for behavior
in a Transjordanian village:
If she as much as turned her head so (moving his head to the side) to glance at others,
if she did not cover her head properlyin a head wrap, or if a man greetedher by saying
'Good morning, how are you?' we would take good care of her and him too.2

As the quotation suggests, 'ird can be protected through prompt action against
the offender.
(6) The penalties for violation of the norms surrounding 'ird are severe and
may include death. These are the penalties inflicted by men on women of their
own family. The penalties may also be inflicted on male transgressors, but such
infliction raises possibilities of reprisals and feuds.
(7) The network of norms surrounding 'ird extends to many actions that are
only remotely connected with sex: loud speech, bearing, appearing in public
places. Furthermore, the norms extend to situations where challenges to 'ird might
appear. Thus it becomes necessary to restrict the occupations that women may
enter lest, in the course of their work, they meet with situations that incur dishonor.
(8) The actions of other men may bring about loss of 'ird, since these actions
cast doubt on the reputation of the family's women. The actions of other men
may be independent of the women's actions: the women may have done nothing to
encourage the men, yet the men, by making advances, bring dishonor on the family.
(9) 'Ird is a matter of reputation even more than of fact. What other people
think becomes as important as what takes place. An advance from a man, even if
the woman is blameless, dishonors the family if the advance is observed by or
becomes known to others. (Hence, boasting of one's conquests endangers the
social fabric, since it obliges the family of the woman to punish her and oneself.)3
An offense against 'ird, violence or adultery may receive only a light penalty,
unless it is publicly recognized and acknowledged. Like many other transgressions
of the norms, the offenses against 'ird become very serious when public notice is
taken of the offenses.
B. Fares, "Ird', op. cit. p. 97.
2
R. Antoun, 'On the Modesty of Women...', loc. cit. p. 675.
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.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
46 Peter C. Dodd

(Io) 'Ird is primarily a possession of the males, but the women of the family
may come to take responsibility for the observance and enforcement of the code.
They watch for infringements of the code on the part of the family's women.
When an offense goes unpunished, they may urge the father or brother to do his
duty, to see to it that the 'ird is protected. For the older women it is the 'ird of
their sons as well as that of their husbands.
These general points indicate the importance of 'ird in Arab society. It is
important to note the implications of these points for the organization of society.
In order to have a society where 'ird can be so highly valued and so strongly
defended, the actions of women must be strictly circumscribed and so, by
extension, the actions of men must be circumscribed. Some sectors of society,
those that involve public appearance, must be strictly male: most occupations,
most economic transactions, all political activity, all military activities. Education,
for students of ages approaching adolescence, must be segregated by sex. All
activities in which women engage - household chores, agriculturalwork, visiting,
child-rearing - must be predominantly private or subject to careful supervision.
Furthermore, social organization must be 'small-scale', personalized, and
bounded. Peristiany has observed:
Honour and shame are the constant preoccupationof individuals in small scale, ex-
clusive societieswhere face-to-facepersonal,as opposed to anonymous,relationsare of
paramountimportanceand where the social personalityof the actor is as significantas
his office.I

In the 'small-scale' social organization, reputations are known. Offenses injure

reputations; offenders can be apprehended and corrected.
As the dominant type of social organization shifts from small scale to large
scale, the place of honor and 'ird may change. 'Ird may become less important:
a man's reputation may depend less on his women and his family and more on
his career and organizational affiliation. Considerations such as these bring us to
the central question of this study: what happens to the valuation of 'ird in
'modern' Arab society? As the nations of the Arab world become urbanized,
educated, governed by large-scale rational-bureaucratic organizations, what is
the place of 'ird?

'IRD AND THE PROCESSES OF CHANGE

Social scientists have often made the distinction between the 'traditional' and
the 'modern' in Arab society.2 For our purposes, it is more direct to specify
processes of change and to leave open the question of whether these changes

I J. D. Peristiany, Honor and Shame..., p. I .

2
D. Lerner, The Passingof TraditionalSociety (Glencoe, Illinois, I958); M. Berger,
The Arab World Today; W. Polk, 'The Nature of Modernization',Foreign Affairs,
vol. XLIV (I965), pp. IO- II.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 47

constitute 'modernization'.' Of interest here are those processes of change that

are thought to affect family structure.
Goode has surveyed contemporary family structure and change in six major
cultural areas: the Western nations, Arab Islam, sub-Saharan Africa, India,
China, and Japan. He concludes that, in general, major emphasis is to be placed
on the processes of industrialization and urbanization. For Arab Islam, how-
ever, he notes 'the slow effects of urbanization... a minuscule industrialization'
and 'major propaganda campaigns'. He further notes the importance of re-
volutionaries to the process of change: '... the revolutionaries in Arab countries
have typically led the way toward emancipation and freedom... '.2 Thus Goode's
survey of the contemporary Arab family suggests three important processes of
change: urbanization, revolution, and 'propaganda'. For propaganda it is
preferable to substitute education, since the educational systems of all Arab
countries have expanded greatly since the achievement of independence.
This adaptation of Goode's findings specifies three processes of change that
may affect Arab family structure: urbanization, revolution, and education. Each
of these processes will be considered here, with reference to its impact on 'ird
and the modesty code. This review may also suggest the ways in which 'ird and
its associated norms resist the processes of change.

URBANIZATION, 'IRD, AND FAMILY STRUCTURE

The process of urbanization in Arab society has been both rapid and extensive.3
The number of cities has grown, as has the number of persons resident in cities.
Countries have experienced a net increase in the proportion of population
resident in the cities, and the growth of the largest cities has been especially
rapid.
To estimate the effect of urbanization on 'ird, it is necessary to specify certain
characteristics of the city. The defining characteristics of the city are size of total
population and density of population. Size of total population implies that a wider
range of experience is available to residents of the city; markets, occupations,
amusements, types of housing, government services, politics. Density implies that
people are physically closer to each other: crowds, apartment houses, busy streets.
The combination of size and density has suggested to Western observers the
urban characteristics of anonymity: people are too numerous to be identified as
individuals, too preoccupied to develop close ties.4 Urban dwellers are thought to
I A. Inkeles,'Making Men Modern: On the Causesand Consequencesof Individual
Change in Six Developing Countries', American Journal of Sociology, vol. LXXV(1969),
pp. 208-25.
2 Goode, World Revolution ..., p. 2 I.
3 C. Issawi, 'Economic Changeand Urbanizationin the Middle East', in I. Lapidus
(ed.), MiddleEasternCities(Berkeleyand Los Angeles, 1969).
4 L.
Wirth, 'Urbanism as a Way of Life', AmericanJournal of Sociology,vol. XLIV
(1938), pp. 1-24.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
48 Peter C. Dodd

be mobile, both geographically and socially, and to break ties with the extended
family.
If anonymity and mobility are indeed characteristics of Arab city life, they
make maintenance of 'ird and the modesty code very difficult. 'Ird involves
reputation, and reputation is precluded by anonymity. The modesty code
requires enforcement, but mobility makes enforcement difficult. Mobility and
large crowds make possible encounters between men and women of the very
type that the modesty code forbids. Surveillance and observation are no longer
possible. Seeking work, the brothers tend to move away from the family and are
no longer available to join with the father in maintaining honor.
Studies of Western cities, however, suggest that anonymity is by no means so
extensive as was once supposed.I Abu-Lughod, studying contemporary Cairo,
finds that the transition from rural to urban life does not involve the breaking of
ties with the village community, nor does it involve anonymity:
... the culture of Cairofails to be characterizedchiefly by anonymity,secondarycon-
tacts, and the other attributesof urbanlife... Cairois not one communitybut, rather,
many separate social communities...A member of one community may pass daily
throughthe physicalsite of communitiesother than his own, neither 'seeing' them nor
admittingtheir relevanceto his own life. But, within his own community,there is little
if any anonymity.2

A similar finding regarding anonymity is reported for the middle-sized city of

Tripoli, Lebanon: '... the predominant style of life in Tripoli - as in Lebanon
generally - is for most people a set of interactions with known persons.'3 Gulick
further notes that the population density of Tripoli is 'higher than that of the
Borough of Manhattan'.
These observations on Cairo and Tripoli suggest that interaction does not
often take place between strangers or outside the context of one's own community.
In such an environment, however 'urban' the population density, the main-
tenance of 'ird and the modesty code is both possible and probable. Encounters
between women and men are observed and duly regulated by family and
community, where the 'community' is some small fraction of the larger city.
It should further be noted that the organization of cities in the Arab world is
deeply embedded in the culture. The traditional culture has had many centuries
to adjust to the problems presented by the city: large numbers of people in small
spaces. One solution offered by the culture is to break up the total mass into
smaller self-contained units: the quarters of the traditional Middle Eastern
city.4 Within these quarters, as Abu-Lughod indicates, the traditional small
I H. Gans, The UrbanVillagers(Glencoe, Illinois, 1962).
2 J. Abu-Lughod,'MigrantAdjustmentto City Life: The EgyptianCase', American
Journal of Sociology, vol. LXVII (1961), pp. 22-32.
3
J. Gulick, Tripoli: A Modern Arab City (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), pp. 119, I90.
4 For a descriptionand references,see I. Lapidus, MuslimCitiesin the LaterMiddle
Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), pp. 85-6. He remarks that 'many of the quarters, though
not every one... were closely knit and homogeneouscommunities'.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 49

community continues. Since it is small-scale, personalized, and bounded, it

fulfils the prerequisites for a society in which honor and reputation are first-order
preoccupations of individuals. Thus the historical perspective shows that a model
for city life already exists in the culture. Contemporary observation suggests that
this model can be adapted to cities of any size and density. If this is the case, then
urbanization in and of itself may have relatively little effect on 'ird. While the
modesty code may have to be altered to fit the ecological requirements of the
city, the alterations may be congruent with the protection of 'ird. The veiling of
women, for instance, is an urban practice but not a rural one in many parts of the
Arab world. The veil is a means of maintaining the interpersonal distance
essential to 'ird, under circumstances where a woman might be exposed to en-
counters with non-kin males. Veiling, although it is disappearing in some Arab
cities, shows remarkable persistence. In contemporary Syria, where military
preparedness is emphasized and the school-girls wear khaki army-style uniforms,
they also wear black face veils.I
Statistical data on any topic related to 'ird are scarce. There is one area, how-
ever, where a tentative test of the effect of urbanization on family structure is
possible. For some time, data have been accumulating on birth-rates in several
of the Arab countries. These data may be used as an indication of changes in the
valuation of 'ird, providing certain assumptions are made.
Most crucially, one has to assume that a change in the valuation of 'ird will
result in a change in the birth-rate. This assumption covers a complex causal
sequence, which may be summarized as follows: the valuation of 'ird implies
a set of norms requiring early marriage for all adult women, restrictions on
activity, the forbidding of many types of occupations, ambivalence towards
education. Associated with these 'ird-norms is the importance of child-bearing,
especially the production of sons. The traditional family structure has therefore
resulted in very high birth-rates. Relaxation of any of these norms should result
in lower birth-rates.
A second assumption is that the data on birth-rates are accurate and valid.
Ideally, one would like to have the fertility rate: the number of children born
per adult woman per year, based on birth registration. In fact, one has to
settle for crude birth-rates, either computed or estimated, from a variety of
sources.
With these assumptions stated, a comparison of rural and urban birth-rates
may be undertaken to assess the effect of urbanization of family structure. This
comparison is shown in Table I.
The studies summarized in Table I show that there is little evidence of any
fertility differential between rural and urban areas. Five studies of fertility in
Egypt fail to show any rural-urban differential, and one study even shows higher
fertility in the city. In the Lebanon, the Muslim families do not show a statisti-
cally significant difference between urban and rural families. Such a difference
Personal observation, 1970.
4 MES 4 I

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
50 Peter C. Dodd

TABLE i Rural-Urban fertility differentials in Arab countries

Country Year of Study Direction of Differential

Egypt I906-30 No difference

Egypt 1931 No difference
Egypt 1947 No difference
Egypt 1960 Urban higher
Egypt 1957 No difference
Lebanon
Christian 1958 Urban lower
Muslim 1958 No difference
Algeria 1950 Urban higher

REFERENCES. For Egypt, H. T. Croley, 'United Arab Republic', Country Profiles

(New York, Population Council, 1969); for Lebanon, D. Yaukey, Fertility Differencesin a
Modernizing Country (Princeton, New Jersey, I96I); for Algeria, H. Miner and G. De
Vos, Oasis and Casbah: Algerian Culture and Personality in Change(Ann Arbor, Michigan,
1960).

is to be found, however, among the Christian families; they alone show the
'expected' effect of urban residence.
Agreement with this finding is to be found in a recent survey by Schultz. For
Egypt, he states that:
the higher fertility observedamongthe urbanthan amongthe ruralpopulationcontra-
dicts the traditionalview that urbanizationhastens the demographictransitionto low
birth rates ...
The small and irregularmagnitude of rural-urbandifferencesin the Arab Middle
East is also evidenced in Jordan in I96I, in the Jordan West Bank and Gaza-Sinai
region in I967, and among Muslims from a Lebanese sample in I959. That urban-rural
residence is not associated with substantial differences in reproductivebehaviorhas
been discussed in the case of Egypt, but its pervasive characterin the Middle East
casts doubts on the assertionthat urbanizationwill in itself contributeto the resolution
of the region's populationgrowth problem.'

The absence of rural-urban fertility differentials suggests that the traditional

norms are continuing to be upheld in the urban areas. Although the data are
tentative and more accurate measures are desirable, the absence of differentials is
striking. It leads one to question the extent of the effect of urbanization on
traditional family values. It is also some indication of the resistance offered by
these values to the processes of change.

A SECOND SOURCE OF CHANGE: IDEOLOGY AND REVOLUTION

A number of Arab nations have experienced political revolution, accompanied
by ideological changes of varying degrees of explicitness. Egypt was first, followed
I T. P. Schultz, Fertility Patterns and their Determinantsin the Arab Middle East (Santa
Monica, California: the RAND Corporation, 1970, Document RM-5978-ff.), pp. I8-23.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 51

by Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Aden, Libya, and the Sudan. In some cases, such as
Algeria, Egypt, and Aden, there was a protracted period of struggle against an
occupying foreign power. In all cases, the 'revolution' was heralded as intro-
ducing a period of widespread political and social change.
The 'revolution' contained within itself two sources of change. For those
states which were engaged in warfare, there was the requirement that the full
energies of the society be mobilized. For all the revolutionary states there was
a new ideology: the new society would be different from the old. Both of these
sources of change had potential consequences for honor and the modesty code.
In time of warfare the code might be suspended. In the creation of a new society,
it might be radically revised or even abolished.
The requirements of warfare meant, first and foremost, that the energies of
men would not be available for the defense of 'ird. Military service necessitated
the absence from the community of the able-bodied males, the 'brothers' who
were expected to provide enforcement of the honor code. In the Algerian revolu-
tion, for instance, the men of the resistance had to remain in remote areas,
sometimes outside Algeria itself, for long periods of time. Furthermore, the
energies of the women themselves were mobilized in the struggle. They acted as
messengers, as carriers of arms, and on occasion as active combatants. All of
these activities were contrary to the norms of the honor code and meant that the
code itself could not be considered operative.
The involvement of Algerian women in the war against the French did not,
however, result in a permanent change in the status of women. A survey of
developments in Algeria in the four years after the achievement of independence
in I962 concludes that:
... women soon found that, whateverthe law might say or however fervent Ben Bella
might be in insisting on their rights, Algeriawas still a man's world, and that they were
still, for all practical purposes, second-class citizens. The mood of disillusionment
expressed by many educated Algerianwomen since independencehas only deepened
since the coup d'etat of June 19, 1965. To them it seems that while Ben Bella had at
least been sincere in his effortson their behalf, Boumedienneis at best grudgingin his
assertionsof the 'rights'.I

Four years is perhaps a short space of time in which to introduce major changes
in patterns so deeply rooted as those associated with the honor code. But the
reversion to pre-revolutionary patterns is an indication of the strength of these
patterns.
The Palestinian resistance movement in recent years has enlisted young
women as well as men. The activities of the women have attracted attention only
when they participated in incidents involving aircraft, but there are also accounts
of the training of women commando fighters.z The young Palestinians have
I D. Gordon, Women of Algeria:An Essayon Change(Cambridge,Mass., 1968),p. 82.
Also pp. 5I-6o, for the activitiesof women in the resistance.
2 A. Francos,Les Palestiniens(Paris, I968), pp. 267-9.
4-2

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
52 Peter C. Dodd

developed a phrase that puts the value of patriotism before the value of family
honor: il 'ard qabl il-'ird, 'land before honor'.
The ideology of the revolution may contain principles affecting family
structure and the honor code. The Egyptian Revolutionary Government has
made two important statements regarding the status of women. The Constitution
of 1956 guaranteed to women 'compatibility between her role in the society and
her duties in the family'. The second, in the National Charter of 1962, went
much further, and included a statement of the equality between men and women:
'Woman must be regarded as equal to man and she must therefore shed the
remaining shackles that impeded her free movement, so that she may play
a constructive and profoundly important part in shaping the life of the country. "
To the extent that ideology of this type becomes implemented, the honor code
must give way. It will therefore be important to observe future developments to
determine the extent of implementation. As of 1965, Mansfield observed that
the status of women... has been slowly but steadilyimprovingin Egypt since the First
World War, and there has been some accelerationsince the Revolution... There has
been a slow but markedrelaxationin the severelyconservativesocialcustomsgoverning
the relationsbetween the sexes.2

EDUCATION

A third force for change, and one that may occur independently of urbanization
and of political revolution, is education. The impact of education may be assessed
by considering the facts of school enrollment, by estimating the effect of school
enrollment, by estimating the effect of school experience upon attitudes, values
and behavior, and by studying the relationship between education and employment.
In the study of Arab society, statistics on enrollment in educational institutions
are frequently set forth as evidence of change.3 The growth in the enrollment of
girls has been great in almost every Arab country. It is important, however, to
make a distinction between elementary school enrollment and that in secondary
schools and universities.
Elementary-school education involves relatively little change in valuation of
'ird and the modesty code. The behavior of girls of elementary-school age, up to
puberty, is relatively unrestricted. Their attendance at school does not contravene
any traditional norms. In traditional Arab society there was no rule against girls
acquiring a basic education and the skills of literacy, although few of them did so.
The situation is quite different at the secondary-school level, since the girls
are of marriageable age and therefore come under the restrictions of the 'ird code.
The girls should remain under the supervision of members of the family. Even
I For the Constitution,see U. Paceand V. Sisto, Repertoire de la legislation
permanente
egyptienne (Alexandria, I959), title II, 19. The quotation is from section 7 of the Draft of
the Charter (Cairo, Department of Information, I962), p. 63.
2 P. Mansfield, Nasser's Egypt (London, rev. ed. I968), pp. 133-5.
3 See
Goode, World Revolution..., p. I49; Berger, op. cit. p. I3I.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Family honor and change 53

though the school enrolls only girls and is staffed only by women, it is by
definition a non-family organization. It is not concerned with family honor and
therefore not sufficiently protective of honor. The expansion of secondary and
university education may therefore be taken as a sign of the erosion of the honor-
modesty code.
In this connection, it should be noted that the drop-out rate in school is very
high, beginning in the latter years of primary school. Part of this is due to the
examination system, which eliminates a large number of students at the end of
primary school and another number at the end of three years of secondary
school. The effect of the examination system, however, coincides with the
requirement of 'ird: large numbers of girls are returned from school to home
supervision at the beginning of puberty. An indication of the drop-out rate may
be seen in the case of Egypt in 1965-6, where 58 % of the girls of primary-school
age were enrolled in school but only 17 % of the girls of the age-group 13-I5 and
9% of the girls of the age-group i6-i8.1 Thus for every girl enrolled in the
upper level of secondary school there were six enrolled in primary school.
However high the drop-out rate, the presence of girls in secondary schools and
universities is an indication of their families' preference for the values of education
over those of the 'ird code. The growth of enrollments at these levels is a clue to
the decline of the code.
Education is not only an indirect indicator of the decline of 'ird. It also has
a direct effect on the norms of the 'ird code. By gaining literacy, the student can
learn of alternative codes and come to reject his own. This process probably
comes about more as a slow effect of gaining literacy than as an effect of the
content of material learned in school, since school textbooks seldom present
material that conflicts with the traditional culture. But evidence is accumulating
that education, particularly the education of women, causes people to reject
norms associated with 'ird. Abu-Lughod has shown that education has a powerful
inhibiting influence on fertility among urban Egyptian women. She also suggests
that 'a value system that favors or permits the production of educated women
also implies the assignment of roles to these women that extend beyond the
universal one of childbearing'.2 Education of women implies that women may
have a choice of activities other than that of bearing and rearing children.
In a study of Egyptian youth, it has been shown that the attitudes of male
youth towards women's emancipation are strongly influenced by the level of
education that their mothers have achieved.3 The sons of educated mothers tend
to favor women's emancipation, whereas the sons of illiterate mothers tend to
These estimatesarebasedon the followingsources:for thenumberof girlsin eachage
group, I960 Census of Population (Cairo, 1963), table vIII; for the school enrollments, il-
mufakkirail-ihsa'iyya (Statistical Notebook) (Cairo, Ministry of Education, I966), pp. 2-3.
2
J. Abu-Lughod, 'The Emergenceof DifferentialFertility in Urban Egypt', The
Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, vol. XLIII (1965), p. 240.
3 P. Dodd, 'Youth and Women'sEmancipationin the United ArabRepublic', Middle
East Journal, vol. xxII (I968), pp. 159-72.

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
54 Peter C. Dodd

oppose it. The effect of mother's education on these attitudes appears to be

stronger than the effect of social class or of urban residence. When one controls
for the effect of social class, the effect of mother's education remains, showing
that it is not just an artifact of differences in family status. It appears that the
education of a woman may have a distinctive effect on the attitudes of her sons.
It is possible for education to affect the 'ird code in a third way: by equipping
women with the skills needed to enter an occupation. At present, this process is
just beginning. Outside of government service and teaching, employment oppor-
tunities for women are scarce in Arab society. Even where new opportunities arise,
they are not utilized: some Arab airlines find it difficult to recruit stewardesses
with the appropriate educational qualifications, and employ non-Arab women.
But the number of employed women is increasing, and education is usually
a prerequisite to employment. Employment outside the home is an activity that
runs counter to the norms of the 'ird code. As employment becomes more
frequent, the code must give way to it.

CONCLUSION
This study emphasizes the importance of family honor, il-'ird, in contemporary
Arab society, especially in the rural areas. It shows the depth of attachment to
the value of honor and the extent of the norms surrounding and maintaining this
value. If this assessment is correct, then the value of honor and the accompanying
norms may be expected to resist the processes of change.
One major process of change, that of urbanization, appears to have had
relatively little impact on the valuation of honor. A second process, political
revolution and military warfare, results in the suspension of the honor code but
not in its abolition. A third process, education, appears to promise substantial
changes in the valuation of honor and in the norms attendant upon it.
For further study, two kinds of data in particular are needed: evidence on
what women are doing and evidence on what men will permit women to do. The
code is upheld and enforced by men, and their attitudes are particularly signifi-
cant in detecting changes in the code. Indication of change also comes from the
activities of women: such statistics as the age at marriage, the proportion un-
married, enrollment in education, numbers employed.
Emphasis on the 'ird code suggests a new approach to the study of the Arab
family. First, this code, as a fundamental feature of the society, must be described
and understood. Secondly, elements of the code may be studied to assess the
degree of change. Thirdly, major processes of change may be evaluated in terms
of their impact on the elements of the code. Fourthly, planned change must take
the elements of the code into account as probable resistances to change.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT
BEIRUT, LEBANON

This content downloaded from 149.156.89.220 on Sat, 25 Jan 2014 06:15:37 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions