Redeeming Family Honor

Mark Madoff offed himself by way of hanging. This may have been in part some form of atonement for the sins of his father. Of course the notoriety, the pressure, and a looming civil suit may have factored into Madoff's suicide. Other cultures have even more perverse ways of preserving so-called family honor. The honor killings (almost exclusively) of females in the Middle East spring rapidly to mind and these horrific misogynistic offences even prevail far from Arab nations in homes where a strict interpretation of Islam is practiced as far away as England and as far afield as the US state of Texas where a Muslim cab driver murdered his own two daughters for becoming too Westernized. In any event, no honor is restored, no cleansing of family name accrues; only more lives are lost. There is no redemption in hanging by a dog leash and absolutely no honor in honor killing.