Reply #36: In our culture or theirs? I believe the poster was showing how the perps veiwed things. [View All]

[ehrnst]

People on DU were willing to discuss the roots of islamic extremists hatred of the US, and could still decry the attacks of 9/11.

Yes, I believe what happened is an atrocity, but will judge those who participated with a different lens than I would someone that commited this same act who is living in the mainstream western culture. I will also indict the culture that produced them.

What the poster was saying is that the problem did not spring up out of nowhere - as it would if it happened in Kentucky. To simply decry these individual people is not enough - they are products of a system that lead family members to sacrifice some family members for what *they* percieve to be the survival of the rest of the family.

This is not just about cultural relativism - not one is trying to justify the murder of this girl, just explaining the reasons why it could have been justified in *their* perspective. In fact, to ignore the system that made this crime just in the eyes of the people doing it is do nothing about it, and to spin our wheels.

We cannot judge it as "sensless" in the same light as we would the same crime in this culture - because these people saw different consequences for having a pregnant daughter.

If we understand that the family has no safety net if they are "shamed" - then we work not only to reduce the "shame" heaped on women, we also work to get that society towards health insurance, social security, etc.