I would not have thought that I would enjoy a book on the subject of honor. But I was wrong. This book is thought provoking and interesting. It is the work of a professor and philosopher. Appiah’s ambition is to find a means to stop the honor killing of women. Honor, according to Appiah, is based in the recognition of others as peers or equals. One can gain this form of honor simply by being recognized as belonging to a group, as police, for example, or gentlemen, and, now, as human beings. Honor, like integrity or trust, is something of an impartial force. It can lend itself to inequality and violence. It can also be channeled, however, to encourage equality and dignity. Appiah hopes that honor, a concept invoked in the murder of as many as 5,000 women and girls annually, can also be used to end such crimes. In these days of phobia about Islam, it would be all too easy to cast blame for these crimes on a religion or on Pakistan or Iraq. Appiah serves us all when he reminds the reader that the tenets of Islam, as widely understood from the Koran, the Sunnah and the hadith, do not condone the killing of women by men in their own family.
Not only are honor killings immoral, they are also often technically illegal. In other words, religion and law have failed to temper them. In The Honor Code, Appiah offers the foundation for a creative and provocative solution to one of the world’s more notorious evils. That would be enough, but he has also given something more by elegantly reminding us of modernity’s bravest idea: that all people now deserve that most basic honor, dignity.
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