Part 1: Honour killings and their significance in British society
 

Honour crimes are perpetrated with the goal of restoring or protecting the ‘honour’ of oneself, one’s family, or community. Due to specific social norms that devalue women as individuals and human beings, honour violence is mostly, though not exclusively, committed against women and girls. 

 

The crimes are committed as retribution for the perceived shame or disgust a person has brought upon their family and community. Acts of honour-based violence include female genital mutilation, acid attacks, forced arranged marriage (including forced child marriage), rape, along with various other forms of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The intention and ‘justification’ for carrying out these acts, is to control someone or to punish them for engaging in acts that go against traditional cultural norms. This can include: wearing their own choice of clothing, seeking an education and/or employment, expressing their sexuality, having contact or engaging in premarital relations, being a victim of a rape, choosing one’s own spouse, rejecting an arranged marriage and fleeing from a marriage. However, the most extreme form of honour violence is an honour killing — the murder of boys, girls, men and women by their own mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers as well as relatives from their extended families or in-laws. 

Heshu Yones, aged 16, from Acton, west London, was stabbed eleven times and then had her throat cut by her father. He felt he had to kill her because other men in his circle of Kurdish friends thought she had a boyfriend and his ‘honour was shamed’.

Police estimate that at least twelve women are dying each year in the UK due to honour killings. However, it can be argued that further crimes of this nature are being covered up by forced suicides or ‘ambiguous deaths’. Women aged16–24 from Asian and Arab backgrounds are three times more likely to kill themselves than the national average for this age group. It is very difficult to assess what cultural pressures some of these women must have been under. British girl Robina, of Indian heritage and belonging to the Sikh faith, was forced into an abusive marriage aged 15. She could not leave the marriage out of fear she would be dishonouring her family. She resorted to suicide by setting herself on fire; she felt this was her only outlet to escape. For every person who dies due to this type of crime, it seems certain that there are numerous others living with honour-based abuse, hidden away.

 

Celine Dookhran, a 19-year-old British girl also of Indian heritage, was reportedly in a relationship with an Arab man, who she was planning to marry – a situation which is said to have angered some members of her family and caused her honour killing.

 

It is believed that only a small percentage of afflicted victims manage to escape forced marriage in the UK. If they leave, they have to live with fear and rejection from their families, communities and sometimes their friends. It is not uncommon to have bounty hunters out hunting down young people who have left forced marriages or fled from a family where they are at risk.

 

Honour crimes are often synonymous with domestic violence. Although domestic violence is an extremely horrific crime affecting many women in Britain today, acts of domestic violence do not typically have the same shame or honour driven motivation as honour crimes. There is an insidious amount of collusion from other family or community members in honour-based abuse that is not usually present in other forms of domestic violence. Additionally, domestic violence is often shamed by society as something heinous, despicable and unacceptable. However, honour crimes do not share the same judgment by their cultural society and often perpetrators of honour killings are seen as ‘heroes’ by their families and wider communities for ‘cleansing society’ of a sick impurity. Even when the perpetrator goes to prison, it can be noted that they often feel no remorse as they truly believe that they have improved their communities. This highlights that a prison term does little to deter the perpetrators of these crimes, and the ‘punishment’ may only be felt, at most as a mere inconvenience.

 

It can be seen that many cultural attitudes justify honour killings as the correct way to handle female ‘immodesty’ and ‘shameful behaviour’. I believe that honour crimes are even more serious and threatening to society than domestic violence. This is because the whole community is socialised into believing that such a crime committed against them is correct and socially acceptable. This can be achieved in many ways such as manipulation of religious scriptures to justify the act. Often, victims do not seek help because they too are socialised into accepting that this is ‘correct’. Robina, her suicide is discussed above, was socialised into accepting her fate. After Robina’s death, her parents stated that it was better for her to commit suicide than to leave the forced abusive marriage and shame the family.

 

Honour crimes mainly are inflicted upon female victims. However, there have been a number of honour crimes that have happened to male victims. An acid attacker left a 25-year-old man severely disfigured in a horrific plot to avenge his family's "dishonour". Awais Akram was the victim that was targeted due to his 'unacceptable relationship' with a married businesswoman. Awais' actions had 'shamed the woman's family'.
 

There is undoubtedly a substantial evident stigma surrounding domestic violence. The Official Crime Statistics of England and Wales is no longer seen as reliable, due to extensive research to demonstrate a significant dark figure of unreported crimes. The statistics surrounding honour crimes are even more unreliable as honour crime victims are even less likely to come forward. This is because there exists, even more shame in victims; the victim has to additionally bear the burden of betraying their family and their cultural community by reporting the crime.

 

Mariam is a British woman now in her thirties. “From an early age I was controlled by my extended family,” she recalled to The Independent. “When I started thinking for myself, I was taken out of school in case I did something to dishonour them — that could mean having friends, wearing makeup, getting an education or going to the corner shop.” She was warned by her family to never speak to boys or even look at them. When she was 16 she was taken to Pakistan and later raped on her wedding night after being forced to marry her 23-year-old cousin. It took her more than four years to escape from this abusive and controlling marriage, where she was enslaved by her husband. “When I had my children they said I’d brought shame on the family for not producing a son.” Mariam’s story is not uncommon, there are many women in Britain also suffering from crimes of this nature.

 

Honour-based abuse and mentality can also inhibit reproductive and sexual health rights, especially amongst women. This stems from the idea, that a woman's body is 'owned' by her family or husband. Women, therefore, may not be fully in control of their bodies, unable to use contraception or have consensual sexual relations. Some women also have to undergo degrading virginity checks before marriage. Amongst the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community, men sometimes are forced to undergo sterilization and it has been seen that 'corrective rape' is used amongst the female lesbian community, to 'cure' them, as homosexuality is seen in some cultures as a 'disease'.

Part 2: The issues with tackling honour crimes
 

 

 

 

Travelling to Pakistan was important to allow me to better understand the root causes of honour crimes and to effectively aid development in Britain. Carrying out this nature of research in Pakistan is extremely dangerous. Therefore, accompanying me during my research were two armed body guards. 

Prior to my research, I had my own preconceived beliefs and judgements on how to best tackle honour-based abuse. However, upon completing my research I now have a thorough understanding of honour crimes. 


Ethnic profiling
 

Lately, the moral panic surrounding terrorism in society has negatively affected the way in which honour crimes are handled. Due to the introduction of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and more recently the terror attacks occurring around the globe in the last two years, there has been increasing ethnic profiling where people of specific minority groups have become the subject of suspicion. The current political climate and the mood of the wider British society have had an enormous impact on ethnic and religious minorities not feeling ‘accepted as equals’, especially with the rise of the recently strong anti-immigration advocacy. Hence, under-reporting honour crimes can also stem from the idea of severe judgement, being equally looked down upon by wider society for not being able to fully conform to British values. Hence, many victims choose not to be a part of this narrative. They do not want to create further tension between their communities and wider society.

 

Lack of integration

 

Honour crimes occur in many cultures and religions in the UK, and there are many cultures and religions that have been noted to not fully integrate into British society. However, I will be focusing on how the lack of integration in a minority of Muslim communities can exacerbate honour crimes. 

There is a palpable and profound problem caused by a lack of integration within a minority of Muslim communities with the wider society and vice versa. Very recently, the EU’s highest court in Luxembourg has welcomed a new ruling allowing companies to ban employees from wearing religious symbols. I argue this will disproportionally affect Muslim women. Women who wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), will be marginalised and alienated from the work place, they will not be able to enter the work place due to their religious belief without compromising. If they choose to uphold their beliefs, they will be excluded from an aspect of British society. This ruling will only lead to many more Muslim women feeling attacked by secular values; isolated from an integral part of society; made to feel judged for their religious values. This will ultimately result in a further reduction of integration in some ethnic minority and religious groups in British society. Integration is vital in order to expose some members of these groups to ideas such as gender equality and female liberation. How can we expect Muslim women to come forward and report these crimes if they do not feel wider society truly cares about their fundamental rights and their well-being? If the right to wear hijab is not seen as a legal right at work, then it can be argued that Muslim women are not being fully accepted and valued by society. This will create an atmosphere of hostility, which could be a further reason why many Muslim women will underreport honour-based violence. Additionally, if some Muslim women cannot take part in the work place they will become financially dependent on their families. And thus, if their families inflict honour-based abuse and patriarchal values, they will not be able to leave their families as they perceive being financially independent impossible to achieve.

 

Political correctness 
 

Additionally, there resides the issue of political correctness which can ultimately lead to decreased police intervention. Political correctness is the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. It has been proposed that the term 'honour killing' should be banned because “political correctness” is putting police off investigating these crimes. The MP for Wealden, Nusrat Ghani, warned that some police officers are wary of intervening fully in so-called honour cases for fear of offending ethnic minority and Muslim communities. Nusrat Ghani has hence endeavoured to introduce a Bill* to the House of Commons which will ban the term ‘honour killing’ in official documents, as well as be requiring the British authorities to prosecute those who beat and murder British women abroad. She states that the term ‘honour killing’ when describing the murder of a family member due to the perpetrators’ belief they have brought ‘shame’ on a family, normalises murder for cultural reasons and sets it apart from other killings when there should be no distinction.

 

However, it must also be highlighted that the term honour killing is not racist, nor is it religiously intolerant since honour killings happen to occur amongst various races and religions. Jordan has the highest rate of honour killings globally yet they occur just as prevalently in Christian households as in Muslim households. Surely a better approach would be to address the fact that the term ‘honour killing’ is an accurate term used to describe this atrocious crime. Attempting to change the name of honour killing to a less poignant term is wrong. I must stress that the use of the term “honour” is not to provide any justification for abuse, but to be able to clearly identify the motivation of the abuse. The context of honour-based abuse is usually more complicated than domestic abuse. As such, it is vital that professionals dealing with this nature of abuse fully understand the motivation in order to provide specific and tailored approaches to the victim. If this Bill is passed, professionals will have less understanding, knowledge and confidence on the issues and complexities of honour-based abuse. This will ultimately result in poorer responses being provided to victims, victims being more likely to underreport and remain held within highly dangerous situations. By refusing to call the crimes ‘honour killings’, it will be even easier to overlook what is already recognised nationally to be a hidden crime. If we do not use the term “honour” to identify it, appropriate agencies will not note its frequency which will subsequently lead to a poor identification of this issue. This will additionally weaken a police force’s capacity to recognise the levels of honour crime incidents in its area, which will decrease the prioritisation of this issue on their agenda.

 

It must be stressed that deciding to refer to ‘honour killings’ as domestic violence instead, due to the term being perceived as ‘too sensitive’ or invading the boundaries of ‘political correctness’, has only helped to further marginalise immigrant British communities. This is because the Bill actively refuses to recognise that minority groups have different problems that concern them than the wider British population. Hence, this Bill could be interpreted as being racist and xenophobic, which is far more dangerous and ‘politically incorrect’ and hence, the introduction of the Bill would be illogical and senseless.

 

Lack of sympathy for minority communities 
 

Adding to the woes of this problem is the apparent lack of sympathy and urgency when it comes to dealing with problems affecting a minority of British society. The silent prejudices of the wider British society can be illustrated by using the Madeleine McCann case as an example. Madeleine McCann was a white British child who was abducted whilst on holiday in a foreign country. The story of her abduction was extremely upsetting and shocking to us all. However, honour crimes are also upsetting and shocking. Why is it then, that Madeleine McCann has received and continues to receive more press and funding than any other British ethnic minority child or woman who was murdered by an honour crime, or kidnapped to undergo an honour crime on British soil? In fact, children who are taken out of the country to undergo female circumcision and girls and women who are abducted to face any other form of honour crime collectively, are receiving significantly less press coverage Madeleine McCann has received. Could the difference reside in the fact that despite being in 2017, issues concerning white citizens are deemed as more important? We need to make ethnic and religious minorities more integrated in Britain in order for any progress and change to be achieved.

Generalising entire communities 

 

Another challenging associated consequence of tackling honour crimes that must be addressed is the imposition of our judgments on all ethnic minority and religious groups. Honour-based abuse is not tolerated in most ethnic and religious minority families and communities. It is important to remember only a minority of the minority groups in Britain justify and carry out honour-based abuse. Hence, any policy tackling honour-based abuse should be carefully implemented in order to not marginalise entire ethnic and religious minority groups, but targeted only to the specific communities involved. This doesn’t imply this issue can be overlooked because of the small proportion of the British population it impacts; at least 12 honour killings occur every year on British soil. This is not an insignificant figure!

 

Honour crimes and mainstream feminism 

 

Please click on this image below to read my open letter discussing honour crimes in relation to mainstream feminism.
























Part 3: Possible solutions

Creating more scholarships and access schemes for women from ethnic minority heritages would be an ideal way to boost education and participation in the workplace. Additionally, more scholarships and access schemes can help destroy a 'you and us' mentality, which honour-based abuse flourishes on. This would also convince ethnic minority communities that ethnic minority women are valued and are actively being sought out by wider society. This can encourage female liberation in these communities, remove women from dangerous situations and help more women become financially independent.
 

It is crucially important to educate people who are not affected by these honour crimes in order to understand the suffering of this group of afflicted people in Britain, and to create a sense of community cohesion and community solidarity, in which the victim is able to feel comfortable when seeking help.
 

We cannot have police officers in British society that do not want to intervene in honour crimes because they feel too uncomfortable. This will only lead to selective justice and again, further marginalisation of ethnic minority communities. These crimes are happening in Britain and every police officer needs to deal with it appropriately.
 

There is a sense of great urgency to enforce more appropriate measures to the perpetrators of honour crimes to deter them from committing these crimes. There is also the need for specific rehabilitation in prisons to ensure the perpetrator of an honour crime is educated effectively. Subsequently, the perpetrator will learn that his crime was not ‘honourable’ in order to destroy these patriarchal attitudes and ideas.

 

There must be more sensitive language when discussing honour crimes, using care to not marginalise entire communities. Currently, it seems that journalists are fuelling an array of unnecessary social issues by painting some religious groups as 'folk devils' and inherent perpetrators of honour-based abuse. Thus, there must be more guidelines and censorship in print journalism. Many will argue the freedom of speech debate, but it can be better argued that censorship is more important. Ignorant print journalism has contributed to honour crimes being inefficiently tackled which has led to vulnerable people to remain in dire situations.
 

Finally, there is also a dire need for education about gender equality within these cultural and religious communities. There needs to be more government funding distributed to education programmes teaching the importance of gender equality so that every single person in the UK can have access and knowledge to this vital information. Charities and the government authorities must collaborate with religious centres, schools, universities and community centres to fight patriarchy and honour-based ideologies without people feeling as if they are losing all of their cultural and religious values. Education and awareness in these cultural and religious centres must include discussion about basic sexual and reproductive rights. This topic remains a taboo and largely avoided in many minority communities but it is important to discuss this topic as some forms of honour-based abuse can exploit these rights.  In addition, there is a need for further integration. This is not only directed at ethnic and religious minorities but also wider British society. 

To conclude, honour-based abuse is an increasingly pressing issue for Britain today. There are many complex problems surrounding tackling honour crimes, but with every problem, I truly believe there are solutions. I see a very progressive future in tackling honour-based abuse in Britain, with the spread of more and more awareness of this cause. Hence, I believe that honour crimes in Britain can be defeated but only if wider British society recognise that these horrors and tragedies are very much a reality for many British citizens living alongside them. Honour crimes are culturally motivated, violent crimes that are committed which have no place in a civilized society. Surely, this is something all British people can agree on.