Crimes of honor Introduction: Attention-Getter:

A Chinese company Gigimo has created a fake hymen kit (A device that a woman would place in her vagina before sex, then when it is broken during intercourse leaks a fake blood like substance. In America this does not seem very controversial at all right? It almost seems like a novelty. However, On September 28th 2009, Abdul Mouti Bayoumi, A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty. This fake hymen kit has led to huge controversy in Egypt, where there is a movement to ban the kit that is seen as an affront to God's word. According to an article from the Washington post on July 23, 2009, In Islam, virginity is linked to bridal purity and family honor, said Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Mosque.

Central Thesis: The controversy over the fake hymen illustrates the classic masculine values of Islamic culture.

Significance/ Statement/Justification: The treatment of woman in Islamic societies causes a large rift in western and Arabic relations. The move to ban the fake hymen kit is yet another example that could further serve to damage these relations.

Preview: To give a better idea of how Muslims view woman, we will first examine how masculine cultures treat woman. We will then look at how the banning of the kit is an example of the suppression of women in masculine cultures and Islam. Then we will draw conclusions on how the allowing the kit would help western-Arabic relations, and how the banning of it would hurt them.

Transition: I. Setting the tone, the masculine culture of Egypt and the horrible crimes that are allowed in the name of honor. A. Egypts strong religious and masculine culture allows for women to be the victim of horrible crimes in the name of the respect and honor of their father or husband. 1. Sharia is an Arabic word meaning way or path. In Arabic, the collocation arDat Allh (Gods Law) is traditionally used only by Muslims, but Jews, sometimes translating expressions such as Torat Elhm [ ] or ho nmos to theo' ( '.) Yet in modern English it often refers to an Islamic concept, the wide body of Islamic religious law. Used thus, it refers to the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence and for Muslims living outside the domain. Sharia deals with many aspects of dayto-day life, including politics, economics, banking, business, contracts, family, sexuality, hygiene, and social issues. 2. Muslim marriage is based on male dominance. The desegregation of the sexes violates Islam's idea of women's position in the social order. Women should be under the authority of fathers, brothers, or husbands. Since women are considered by Allah to be a destructive element, they are confined and excluded from matters other than those of the family. Female access to non-domestic space is put under the control of males. Contrary to what is commonly assumed, Islam does not advance the thesis of women's inherent inferiority. It acknowledges the potential equality between sexes. The existing inequality does not rest on an ideological or biological theory of women's inferiority, but is the outcome of specific social institutions designed to restrain her power: namely, segregation and legal subordination in the family structure. In Western culture, sexual inequality is based on belief in women's biological inferiority. In Islam there is no such belief in female inferiority. On the contrary, the whole system is based on the assumption that women are powerful and dangerous beings. All sexual institutions (polygamy, repudiation, sexual segregation, etc.) can be perceived as a strategy for containing their power. B. There are a whole host of problems with this entire situation. The mere existence of an artificial hymen begs the question of why Muslim society is so obsessed with controlling womens sexuality. This social adulation of

purity is damaging to women. Male expectations of virginity encourage a culture of violence against women by demeaning their bodies and valuing them only as objects to be maintained for male consumption. It drives home the notion that women are defined by their bodies and their sexual choices rather then their participation in society as thinking, feeling, and valuing people. In this culture it makes it even easier for a rapist to get away with the crime. A lot of women are too scared to report it to the police. The worry about the shame and embarrassment of talking about it. If a rape is reported the woman may be shunned, beaten, killed or jailed. Most often, she bears the humiliation and the crime alone. 1. In a country and a region where pre-marital sex is so taboo it can even lead to a woman's murder, the debate over the virginity-faking kit has revived Egypt's constant struggle to reconcile modern mores with more traditional beliefs namely, that a woman is not a virgin unless she bleeds after the first time. "Bleeding is not the only signal that yes, she's a virgin," said Heba Kotb, an observant Muslim woman who hosts a sex talk show on TV in which she fields calls from all over the Middle East. Kotb noted that a medical procedure that reattaches a broken hymen by stitching is illegal in Egypt and can cost hundreds of dollars prohibitively expensive for the poor. But many women still secretly seek it out in fear of punishment for pre-marital sex. Such punishment could include death by stoning or slayings at the hands of relatives, a practice more commonly referred to as honor killings. 2.
Sharia, or Islamic law, influences the legal code in most Muslim countries. A movement to allow Sharia to govern personal status law, a set of regulations that pertain to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody, is even expanding into the West. "There are so many varying interpretations of what Sharia actually means that in some places it can be incorporated into political systems relatively easily," says Steven A. Cook, CFR senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies. Sharia's influence on both personal status law and criminal law is highly controversial, though. Some interpretations are used to justify cruel punishments such as amputation and stoning as well as unequal treatment of women in inheritance, dress, and independence. The debate is growing as to whether Sharia can coexist with secularism, democracy, or even modernity.

C. With little to no legal recourse here in Egypt it is becoming unbearable for some women II. In a conservative Middle Eastern world, this product could be a lifesaving tool of empowerment for women.

A. The fake hymen is a small device that would allow a woman to fake her virginity on her wedding night. The device is inserted into the vagina and then expands. During intercourse it is broken and leaks a small amount of a fake blood liquid. 1.According to samovar in our Communications Between Cultures book, 2009, In a masculine culture assertiveness and the acquisition of money and things (materialism) are emphasized and often take precedence over interpersonal relationships. 2. It is easy to understand why in a culture such as Egypt where women are seen as possessions, men feel that they need a virgin. The role of women
in a religious society like Egypt and the middle east, pertains, simply, to the question of whom and what women are, the answer to which is found in the Koran. In these sacred Islamic verses the role and nature of women have been described by Allah, or God the almighty creator of us all. Despite the traditional multi-ethnicity of Egyptian societys social fabric, however, Islam as a universal religion for the entire country has shaped the structure of Egypts society and the mentality of its citizens.

III.

Masculine cultures set rigidly defined roles for women and men. A. i. In Egypt a man feels that for his own image and the image of his family it is of the upmost importance to marry a virgin. ii. Hofstede, in our Communications Between Cultures book, 2009, is noted saying Masculine cultures use the biological existence of two sexes to define very different roles for men and women. They expect men to be assertive, ambitious, and competitive, and to strive for material success, and to respect whatever is big, strong, and fast. iii. Sheik Sayed Askar, a member of the Egyptians muslin brotherhood who is the parliamentary committee leader on religious affairs, said the kit will make it easier for Egyptian women to give in to temptation. He demanded the government take responsibility for fighting the product to uphold Egyptian and Arab values.

Conclusion: Review The controversy over the fake hymen kit will not be easily resolved in the male dominant Middle Eastern countries where Sharian law is so evenly entangled with civil law. In a 2007 University of Maryland poll, more than 60 percent of the populations in

Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and Indonesia responded that democracy was a good way to govern their respective countries, while at the same time, an average of 71 percent agreed with requiring "strict application of Sharia law in every Islamic country." This contradiction indicates no easy resolution to the problem encountered by women in these areas. The fake hymen kit, if detected when imported or used, still places women in imminent danger. And the controversy is debated openly in Egyptian editorials inprominent newspapers and online blogs. "If this thing enters Egypt, the country is going to go to waste. God protect us," commented a reader on the Web site of Egyptian newspaper Al-Youm Al-Sabie. Marwa Rakha, an author and blogger who writes about dating issues, sees the product as a tool of empowerment for women in a macho Arab culture that restricts women's sexual urges but turns a blind eye to men galavanting. "It sticks it in the face of every male hypocrite," she said.

Tie in with attention-getter

Bibliography
New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 5, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/middleeast/06briefs-EgyptBrf.html? _r=1&scp=1&sq=fake%20hymen&st=cse News bank http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb? p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=1130D55601B9AE5 0&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=1 Washington Post, the (DC) - Sunday, July 23, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8279276.stm Notes for outline Men are less self confident. It is very important for men to know their wife is a virgin. Men can boast about their sexual triumphs without any problems Islam is the religion; a Muslim is the person who follows it.

Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims comprising between 80% and 90% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The vast majority of Muslims in Egypt are part of the Sunni Islam.
According to bbc on Friday, 8 February 2008 EGYPT

Sharia law in Egypt applies only in personal status issues - such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody of children. Otherwise the legal system is entirely a secular one, on the model of the French legal system. Egypt incorporates Islamic law into its constitution by making Islam the official religion of the country and Islamic jurisprudence the principal source of legislation. Sharia courts and judges, qadis, are run and licensed by the Egyptian Ministry of Justice, not by mosques. Islamists in Egypt are pressing for Sharia law to be applied in all areas of the legal system. A non-religious Supreme Court operates above the Sharia personal status courts and the secular criminal courts. Religious minorities in Egypt are governed under separate personal status laws and courts. Coptic Christians in Egypt marry under Christian law, and foreigners marry under the laws of their countries of origin.

References I used
Women in Islam By Farzad Roohi http://mwillett.org/atheism/islamwomen.htm Sharia Law http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/S/ShariaLaw.aspx Islam: Governing Under Sharia Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8034/

How to Die a Virgin in Egypt: Leading Scholar Calls for the Execution of Women Buying Kits to Fake Virginity by Jonathan Turley October 3, 2009. http://jonathanturley.org/2009/10/03/how-to-die-a-virgin-in-egypt-leading-scholar-callsfor-the-execution-of-women-buying-kits-to-fake-virginity/