ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the legal treatment of rape, adultery, honor killings, abortion, sexual abuse, homosexuality, trans-sexuality, sex work and new reproductive technologies in the Middle East, a brief discussion of honor, retaliatory punishments, and murder is necessary prior to discussion of these issues. Anthropologists have described the codes of honor as a dynamic pole of honor/shame. Regional ideals of masculinity and femininity incorporate this tension. However, in crimes of honor or passion sentencing of men has been more lenient due to the wording of the penal codes. The Iranian Penal Code spells out in horrifying detail the stoning of adulterers. Also of interest are discriminatory evidentiary rules. However, region-wide, bisexuality still appears to be far more common than homosexuality. In the Middle East, very few women's shelters are available. In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality may be punished as zina. The concept of individual autonomy from the family or larger kinship and communal groups requires additional attention in the Middle Eastern context.
