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About ArmaVirumque ( AHR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh) In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil sang of "arms and a man" (Arma virumque cano). Month in and month out, The New Criterion expounds with great clarity and wit on the art, culture, and political controversies of our times. With postings of reviews, essays, links, recs, and news, Armavirumque seeks to continue this mission in accordance with the timetable of the digital age. Recent posts
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Mar 22, 2007 04:11 PM ’You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours’ by James Panero
For the America Alone file, by now many of us have heard about the case of a German judge who refused to grant a German woman of Morrocan origin an accelerated divorce from her abusive husband, on the grounds that the abuse of one’s wife is acceptable in Muslim culture. The German judge even quoted the Koran’s defense of domestic abuse in the verdict. From Der Spiegel: The verdict is shocking, and speaks once again to the weak will of contemporary German culture. Armavirumque would therefore like to offer up another source text for adjudicating Western law in the face of foreign customs. It comes by way of Sir Charles Napier (1782-1853) and his famous response to colonial Indian who were seeking to pursue their native ritual of suttee, the live immolation of a wife after the death of her husband, while under British authority: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
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