Honor related violence has become a recognized abuse all over the world and violence against women carried out by the men in their families is and has always been a resurfacing problem in all societies. This paper will focus on the problems which relate to cultures where honor related violence is a more common practice and will depart from societies where men can take violent actions against women in the name of family honor and hide behind cultural exemptions. This paper is written to create a deeper insight to the needs and wants of subjected women and to understand their own perception of this type of violence and its underlying causes. This paper takes on the view solely of the subjected women and is a direct presentation of their stories and their lives. Instead of using outside observers this paper goes directly to the women living in these types of situations and represents the women based on their own wants and needs from society and authority. The methodological framework for this paper is through an inductive process of writing and is through observations and unstructured interviews trying to build a systematic description revolving around the victims of honor related violence. The interviews, biographic narratives, will ask the participants to tell a story about their lives, a biographic narrative where they will freely speak and this will be facilitated during eight in-depth interviews with four different women who during many years lived under abuse carried out in the name of honor by two husband, a father, and several uncles. The results of these interviews lead to the conclusions that women often are ignored and forgotten by outside forces such as police and organizations until a crime is committed.

The patriarchal societies in the MENA region have their entire social framework around the protection and regulation of female sexuality. The woman’s male relatives have to make sure that her honor is under their control and fulfills the patriarchal family demands. Women’s failure to stick to the code of honor may result in aggressive reactions that may mount to honor killings and this had happened in 2019 to Israa Gharyeb. The murder of the 21-year-old girl sent a shockwave of protests not just in the Palestinian society where the crime had happened but also across the Arab region. Activists on social media and the streets are sending a clear and strong message that murdering women will not be hidden anymore. Accordingly, this thesis sheds the light on the Twitter hashtag # كلنا_اسراء_غریب (we are all Israa) to reflect on the participants’ responses to both crime event and the traditional discourse on “Honor killings.” Theoretically, the paper offers a rereading of the theory of critical discourse analyses on the notions of ideology, power, and dominance. Empirically, this paper will analyze 460 tweets by conducting critical discourse analysis and qualitative content analysis.

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