James seems to be of the opinion that it is only womens’ job to speak up and act against these things: “I never wanted to publish this essay, or even to make much more than a start on writing it. I wanted women to do the job”. I think it’s even more critical that feminist MEN act on their beliefs, given that honour killings are largely carried out by men who are more likely to value the opinions of another man.

I confess my eyes glazed over as I was attempting to read James’ article, so I’m not really doing his (or your) argument justice. But I do think there is some truth in the idea that many consider “the West …the only criminal”. I find people often use the excuse “oh, it’s cultural” when discussing practices in other cultures - i.e. what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ depends on where you are from. Not so much for issues such as genital mutilation, but in general we’re hesitant to criticise someone else’s culture - maybe because as Westerners we have such a bad history of stomping in and crushing everyone elses’ ways of doing things.

There are many religious/cultural practices that I view as unfeminist - in short, any that have different rules for men and women. For example, I don’t think Muslim women should have to wear a scarf or hijab. In the present political climate, however, I think many Muslim women would wear one simply as a symbol of pride for their culture, regardless of any religious requirements. So I don’t want to just lob in and start saying “this isn’t fair”. How do you start such dialogues without just getting everyone on the defensive?