La sexualité et les infractions sexuelles restent parmi les questions les plus sensibles dans les sociétés en général et dans la société musulmane en particulier, notamment parce qu'ils touchent à la l'intimité profonde de la personne. Chez les peuples du Moyen-Orient, dont l'Irak, la question de l'honneur sexuel (‘ird) est une question de vie ou de mort liée étroitement à la tradition dominante.Au sein de la société irakienne, l'inégalité entre hommes et femmes est une évidence reflétée par plusieurs aspects de la vie courante, notamment dans la gestion de la sexualité, la tolérance que la société y accorde, et la polygamie, qui, toutes, semblent avantager l'homme aux dépens de la femme. Le traitement discriminatoire des libertés sexuelles masculine et féminine est renforcé et affirmé dans le droit irakien lui-même. L'importance de la discrimination sexuelle a des répercussions néfastes sur le statut et l'émancipation des femmes irakiennes, ainsi que sur l'évolution globale de la société. / This Ph.D. dissertation examines how Iraqi criminal law with regard to sex and sex-related crimes severely discriminates women in Iraq. It looks at this issue in light of ancestral traditions of prejudice and violence against women that are deeply rooted in Iraqi society. Honor is an extremely important notion in the mentalities of Iraqi people. Women are supposed to maintain chastity and sexual purity in order to be considered "honorable". Anything that compromises their chastity, including crimes of which they are victims such as rape, destroys their honor and along with it, that of their entire family. Many women in this situation find themselves killed, injured, or forced to marry their attacker in order to allow their families to recover their honor. This study shows how Iraqi legislation, case law and legal doctrine all contribute to encourage and perpetuate this problem, and suggests some possible solutions.

This dissertation examines the intersection of the prosecution of criminal justice, sexual morality and the family at the parlement of Paris, which was the highest court of appeal in France, during the height of its power and influence in the kingdom from 1564-1655. This dissertation argues that in its adjudication of the crimes of seduction, infanticide, adultery, and bigamy the parlement of Paris interpreted the law according to a paternal theory of state by prioritizing family integrity and patriarchal honour in its decisions. In so doing, it presents a unique synthesis of statute and published legal opinion with a systematic survey of judicial decisions, based on archival findings, relating to these sex crimes in early modern France. It concludes that these judicial decisions were ensconced in the concepts of family, the king’s justice, and sovereignty, which were foundational to the interconnected theories of state and society in early modern France. The parlement tended to separate elite and modest appellants according to the socio-economic priorities of lignage and ménage, or the protection of the integrity of elite lineages and the stability of artisanal households within broader networks of family and community. Ultimately, this study exposes the expectations and values that gendered authority placed on men and women in early modern French society, reveals the ways that the most powerful judges in France interpreted the law according to these values, and unveils the narratives that women and men crafted when they confronted these expectations before these powerful judges. In so doing, this dissertation sheds new light on the relationships between gender and the law, gender relations in state and society, and the lived experience of marriage in early modern France. / Graduate / 2022-08-09