The ‘Problem’ of SHW as Outraging of Modesty: Subjects of ‘Honour’

In this chapter, I will argue that the construction of modest woman (a) makes this woman’s body controllable, (b) instils shame as an obstacle to go to court and (c) modesty as a constitutive trait of the ‘good women’ in fact prohibits her construction as a legal subject. In this sense, modesty turns the focus away from the question of what a subject experienced, how she was hurt and how she could have (re)acted to the objectification of her female body. Her body is thus turned into a vehicle for the socio-legal evaluation of ‘honour’. I illustrate through data from court verdicts how ‘modesty’ becomes a central legal tenet for arbitration and form of ‘proof’ for the woman’s worthiness of justice. A specific ‘modest’ subject is created, one who is expected to prove their modesty through (almost entirely) circumstantial evidence in a court. Certain subjects, I argue, are de facto considered ‘not modest’ such as trans women and ‘lower’ caste women. I further posit that in the definition of ‘modesty’, both caste-based and colonial norms of ‘honour’ are applied.