Honor and Obey Short Video

In the short video, Honor and Obey, in the Northern part of England two young Paki-
stani woman and man have come together to celebrate their union with their families in a ex-
travagant, beautiful, and colorful setting in a church. Just moments before exchanging their
vows the priest sat down with the womens parents and future husband, Is this an arranged
marriage? Is this an arranged marriage? Is this an arranged marriage? 8 out of 10 thousand
marriages in the U.K. are forced marriages. Women who refuse to marry their pre-ordained
partners become victims of kidnapping, sexual offenses and murder ordered by their family to
restore family honor. Asian women have a significant role in their culture in following their fami-
lies honor and traditions like arranged marriages. It is accepting in the Middle Eastern culture to
have arranged marriages. Police officers are scared to address the issue because one becomes
racist, when addressing someones cultural practices. According to the video, 500 young men
took a survey about arranged marriages: 2/3 of people are accepting of this concept of honor,
1/5 justify the consequences women will suffer if disobedient, and 6% of young men believe that
the killing of these women can be justified. The issue is there is a silence within the community
to speak up and take action for these women. The culture and religion of the Pakistani is what
makes up their believe something and to take something so deeply rooted like this will be a life-
long process like socialization process. It is not like role exit where one decides to change iden-
tity. It may be for the young women who escape this slavery but not for the Pakistini culture.
According to Comte, he would of thought that religion and social order had a significant
role in establishing social order. Therefore, Comte would respect the views of the Asian and
would support an arranged marriage to maintain family honor and social order. Durkheim also
believed that religion supported social order. Durkheim believed that religion unified separated
forces within societies because of common values, despite, of their social class, ethnicity, or


sex. Therefore, Durkheim would also stand behind this culture value to keep the culture in tact
and bring people together. He would think that stopping arranged marriages would risk the sep-
aration of the people and their believes. It would be a sacrifice that the women would have to
give up to maintain unity and closeness among people.
On the other hand, Marx thought religion was a false consciousness. He believed that
religion only established social stability to those already with power. This maintained the power-
ful at the top and kept the underprivileged oppressed and controlled. Marx believed that religion
only benefits those in power and created many disadvantages to the powerless. In this case,
Marx would clearly see the unfairness and the powerless in this situation. The women are prac-
tically slaves to the men they are set-up with. They have no say or freedom. Marx would see
how the religion views of this culture benefits the men and the families arranging these marriag-
es but not the women. Also, there is no change occurring to make this fair to any women the
socialization process to believe these views are instilled with the women since kids. Marx would
say that girls are oppressed young and easier to follow versus lead because the popular vote
in other words the powerful would win because they continue to stay at the top.
The paradigm most represented in my video would be Conflict Theory.
I selected Conflict Theory because it the how individuals must compete for resources, money,
political and social power. The same competition of social power amongst Asian women and
men in the U.K. occurs when it comes to their religion, views, and social law. The Conflict Theo-
ry explains, Social structures and organizations such as religious groups, governments, and
corporations reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities. In other words, the way this
community is organized and will continue to stay this way is by keeping the powerful in office
and maintain the weak oppressed. It is easier to maintain something then to change something.
Therefore, this paradigm explains my video the best because the way this religious group func-
tions only is by means of competition and the inequalities are the contributing factor to whom in
power.