‘Morality’ and Caste Hierarchy, ‘Honour’ and Misogyny, ‘Tribal Justice’ and Law: The Intersecting Layers of Violence against Women in Mukhtar Mai’s In the Name of Honour

Abstract

From the micro levels of implicit violence to the macro of genocides and wars, violence has
a range that defies attempts at definitive definition. As John Docker puts it succinctly,
violence includes an illimitable range of forms and shades incorporating “physical violence
and the violence that inheres in language and culture, in ideas, notions, concepts, narratives
and images” (01). Apart from this mind boggling range of situations in which it can and
does occur, “‘violence’ as a term is ambiguous and its usage is in many ways moulded by
different people as well as by different social scientists to describe a whole range of events,
feelings and harm” (Stanko 2-3). The ambiguousness of the term ‘violence’ and its usage,
coupled with its almost limitless conceptual range, leads to an insurmountable block in the
way of adequately and comprehensively defining and understanding violence. The only
logical way away from this block of difficulty is the one that Elizabeth Stanko suggests by
reference to the ‘Violence Research Programme’ of The Economic and Social Research
Council of the United Kingdom.