Abstract The present study aims to examine one of the main components of honour-related violence, the previously disregarded – honor-contextualized rumour/gossip, by examining the process with which rumours/gossip advance within and through-out the honour-related social collective and its purposes for, and effects on, the mechanism of violence and oppression that permeates the collective. This study is based on hermeneutic premises and is constructed on ten semi-structured interviews with respondents in the ages 18 – 25 whom for an extensive period of time have been subjected to honour-related violence victimization. The findings show that rumour/gossip is equal to the process of raising the public awareness of individuals who resort to alleged or actual norm-deviant behavior. Consequently there is a connection between rumour/gossip and the publics’ appraisal of its members thus rendering rumour/gossip crucial to the occurrence of honour related violence. Rumour/gossip is utilized by the members of the collective as a means of maneuvering the public eye, as it permits them to control on whom the eye of the public focuses, to various extents. Rumour/gossip is used in offensive and defensive purposes. Rumour/gossip as well as honour related violence occurs with the prospect of influencing the members positioning within the collectives’ status-/power hierarchy, by enabling dethronement and advancement through the appraisal of the public eye. Rumour/gossip is a key component in determining whether an act of violence should be labeled as honour-related, as it attests the appraisal of the public that the perpetrator, in the act of violence, takes in consideration. The social services’ investigatory work and riskassessment must take in consideration the occurrence of rumour/gossip in each case. The present study should be seen as a theoretical instrument for investigatory social workers in social services in their highly complex undertaking of determining whether a case should be met and treated such as conditioned by a variety of parental authoritarian methods of limitation in a youths’ emancipatory process or if the case is conditioned by a social context wherein the victimized members are subjected to a violence and oppression mechanism – if the case should be labeled as honour related violence and oppression. Key words: honour related violence and oppression, honour-contextualized rumour/rumor/gossip, gossip mongering, ostracizing of a third party, reputation, the public eye, public awareness, collective, collective consciousness, status-/power hierarchy / Sammanfattning Föreliggande studies syfte var att undersöka en av hederskulturens, tidigare outforskade, centrala empiriska komponenter – den negativa ryktesspridningen. Detta genom att betrakta ryktesspridningens inverkan på och betydelse för den kollektiva arenan och dess vålds- och förtryckarmekanik. Studien är hermeneutiskt orienterad. Tio semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med intervjupersoner i åldrarna 18-25 år, vilka har långvarig erfarenhet av hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Resultatet visar att ryktesspridning utgör den process med vilken offentligheten varseblivs om avvikande kollektivmedlemmar. Ryktesspridning är således förbundet med offentlighetens individbedömning och är därför fullständigt avgörande för förekomsten av hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Ryktesspridning används av kollektivmedlemmar likt en avledningsmanöver då den ger dem möjlighet att i varierande grad kontrollera mot vem eller vilka offentlighetens öga riktas. Ryktesspridning används i offensivt och defensivt syfte. Ryktesspridning likväl hedersvåldshandlingar sker i förhoppning om att genom offentlighetens bedömning påverka kollektivmedlemmars positionering inom den kollektiva arenans status-/makthierarki, det rör sig om att framkalla detronisering/avancemang. Ryktesspridning är själva navet i definitionen av huruvida en våldssituation ska etiketteras som hedersproblematik. Detta till följd av att den vittnar om förövarens hänsynstagande till offentlighetens bedömning av denna. Socialtjänstens utredningsarbete och bedömning av hotbild måste därför ta hänsyn till, för ärendet aktuell, ryktesspridning. Föreliggande studie ska ses som ett teoretiskt verktyg för utredare inom socialtjänst i åtagandet att bedöma huruvida ett ärendes huvudperson enbart är begränsad i sin ungdomliga frigörelseprocess, med en uppsättning auktoritära gränssättningsmetoder, eller om denne är fången i en kollektiv vålds- och förtryckarmekanism, det vill säga om denne är utsatt för vad som konstituerar hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Nyckelord: hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck, hederskontextualiserad negativ ryktesspridning, ryktesspridning, skvaller, rykte, offentlighetens öga, kollektivt medvetande, den kollektiva arenan, status-/maktstruktur.

The issue of honour killings has become a prominent topic of discussion in the Western discourse of violence against immigrant women. In Canada, particularly, the recent high-profile cases of honour killings have drawn increased attention from the media, academics and the public. The prevalent discussion links these murders to the broader issues of immigration, multiculturalism, and violence against immigrant women. In this thesis, I examine the nature of honour killings, their components, and the discourse of honour killings in its Canadian context. In doing so, I conduct a textual analysis of the representation of three recent honour killings in two major Canadian newspapers; The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. Results suggest that honour killings touched a nerve in Canadian media leading to the use of culturalist approaches to understand and represent these killings. This culturalist approach to the debate created serious obstacles for clarifying or explaining this form of violence against women. It further hindered any constructive public debate about ending these killings. The consequences of the culturalist approach to honour killings as well as recommendations for future research and theoretical developments in this area of violence against women are suggested. / UOIT

Honour culture is a constructed social problem and can be defined on the basis of several different ideas. The phenomenon of honour culture is complex and multidimensional and from a constructivist perspective, the concept of honour culture leads up to unwarranted fears and stigmatization of people living with honour norms. This qualitative study shows how several young boys and girls live with a culture of honour without feeling oppressed or limited. The purpose was to use the survey to shed light on how young people think about their opportunities in life in a context of honour. Although they expressed several rules that entailed limits and prohibitions, they meant that it was not something they perceived as problematic. There are extensive studies about violence, oppression and murder that are linked to the honour context. It shows that the strong family bond that characterizes the honour culture is based on the fears that young people have of their parents. They fear the consequences of breaking the norms of honour but also for disappointing their parents. Based on this study, it appears that young people have good opportunities to shape their own lives, but the respondents accentuate that the parents and the relationship with them are both important and meaningful. The parents’ desire and will for how they should live their lives weighed just as heavily as their own will, and so they were willing to compromise in order to please the parents. The reason, according to the respondents, was the high level of trust they had in their parents.

<p>This paper discusses honour related crimes and the judicial process within the legal system in a Swedish context. The empirical base of the study is four cases, with an honour background, and we have used discourse analysis as our method. We have developed four tools for analysing the sentences with which we observed aspects such as; language, the roles of victim and perpetrator that the involved can undertake, the different identities that the sentence might create and finally how the stories change when they enter the legal context. We connect our results to our theoretic backgrounds such as Kolfjord who discusses the legalization of conflicts, the holistic and individual perspective, the legal system as a theoretic background and finally the UN:s definition of honour crimes. These four theoretic perspectives have helped analyse the empiric base. The study reveals that the courts handle cases of honour without discussing that fact. It emerges aspects from the stories that are specific for honour crimes. The courts show a difficulty when handling cases with an honour background, there is a conflict between the group norms and the individualistic perspective. The courts describe honour in the empirical material despite the fact that honour has no legal grounds in the Swedish laws.</p>

This paper discusses honour related crimes and the judicial process within the legal system in a Swedish context. The empirical base of the study is four cases, with an honour background, and we have used discourse analysis as our method. We have developed four tools for analysing the sentences with which we observed aspects such as; language, the roles of victim and perpetrator that the involved can undertake, the different identities that the sentence might create and finally how the stories change when they enter the legal context. We connect our results to our theoretic backgrounds such as Kolfjord who discusses the legalization of conflicts, the holistic and individual perspective, the legal system as a theoretic background and finally the UN:s definition of honour crimes. These four theoretic perspectives have helped analyse the empiric base. The study reveals that the courts handle cases of honour without discussing that fact. It emerges aspects from the stories that are specific for honour crimes. The courts show a difficulty when handling cases with an honour background, there is a conflict between the group norms and the individualistic perspective. The courts describe honour in the empirical material despite the fact that honour has no legal grounds in the Swedish laws.

This thesis argues that the honour of the Crown and the reconciliation agenda are engaged in the sentencing of Aboriginal offenders, given grossly disproportionate Aboriginal incarceration rates and their underlying causes, including socio-economic problems, community breakdown and cultural dislocation that arise at least partly from the history of Crown-Aboriginal interaction. Such an interpretation facilitates a new relationship between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples and will contribute to the rehabilitation of the rule of law. I address not only the underlying legal questions pertaining to the engagement of the honour of the Crown and the reconciliation agenda in sentencing Aboriginal offenders, but also interrogatories relating to the role of morality in the law and the rule of law for Aboriginal peoples in the sentencing context. Fundamentally, the honour of the Crown and reconciliation principles are interpreted and applied such that the sentencing of Aboriginal offenders can accommodate and attempt to ameliorate colonialist history. This distinctive history produces a legal requirement of reconciliation and honour-based governance if the rule of law is to be a reality for Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code and Gladue analysis provide a vehicle for the courts to inject the honour of the Crown into the sentencing of Aboriginal offenders, albeit at one remove. However, the honour of the Crown requires a vigorous Gladue type analysis by judges sentencing Aboriginal offenders regardless of the existence of section 718.2(e). Canada must be prepared to accept responsibility and directly address some of the fallout in the criminal justice system from the history of Crown / Aboriginal relations. The honour of the Crown requires a different sentencing approach for Aboriginal offenders independent of section 718.2(e) and reconciliation is an interpretive normative principle underlying the sentencing of Aboriginal offenders, shaping the honour of the Crown and infusing the rule of law for Aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal offender rehabilitation needs to go hand in hand with the rehabiltation of the rule of law for Aboriginal peoples as a pivotal component of reconciliation. / Thesis (Master, Law) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-23 18:41:36.57

<p>The purpose of our study was to give girls who are victims of honor related violence a chance to express their needs experienced after the breakup from their families. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine in what extent the girls' needs have been met, how and by whom? The focus was the girls' own experiences thru the breakup from their families and beyond. The issues we wanted to answer were: What needs of help and support does these girls feel that they have? What are the needs immediately after the breakup and how do they look in the longer term? To what extent do the girls have their needs met, how and by whom? What needs experience the girls have not been satisfied? In order to answer our questions, we used semi-structured life-world interviews. We have used needs as a theoretical concept in an attempt to understand the perceived needs of girls through different perspectives. Our results show that the girls are in: need for security both in connection with the breakup but also seen in the long term, needs of belonging to a community and finally, a need of being confirmed as an individual.</p>

The purpose of our study was to give girls who are victims of honor related violence a chance to express their needs experienced after the breakup from their families. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine in what extent the girls' needs have been met, how and by whom? The focus was the girls' own experiences thru the breakup from their families and beyond. The issues we wanted to answer were: What needs of help and support does these girls feel that they have? What are the needs immediately after the breakup and how do they look in the longer term? To what extent do the girls have their needs met, how and by whom? What needs experience the girls have not been satisfied? In order to answer our questions, we used semi-structured life-world interviews. We have used needs as a theoretical concept in an attempt to understand the perceived needs of girls through different perspectives. Our results show that the girls are in: need for security both in connection with the breakup but also seen in the long term, needs of belonging to a community and finally, a need of being confirmed as an individual.

There are many cultures where honour is of central value, with strict ideas about how an individual should be and act. These are based on heteronormative views on gender and sexuality. This often effects lgbtq individuals because of their tendency to deviate from these norms. This results in them becoming victims of honour based violence. The aim of this thesis was to study social work practice with lgbtq individuals who are subject to honour based violence, with a focus on the practitioners’ experiences with this work as well as the types of support provided for this client group. To collect our data we interviewed practitioners who encounter lgbtq individuals living in an honour-centred context. Relevant research for this thesis is limited and often only covers either lgbtq related struggles or honour based violence. To analyse our data we used Erving Goffman’s theory of social stigma combined with research on these areas. The result shows that practitioners can see a certain vulnerability amongst these individuals because of their lgbtq identity and the honour-centred context that surrounds them. Heteronormativity also plays a large role in how the individual is viewed by their community and they often get stigmatized because of this. Practitioners explain how gender neutral language is of great importance when meeting the client group. They also highlight the lack of knowledge when it comes to working with this specific group. The amount of support available for and adapted to these individuals is also lacking, however, there is support provided for individuals affected by honour based violence which can also be accessed by those who identify as lgbtq.

The aim of this study is to examine Swedish teachers’ experiences and perspectives on honour-related oppression and violence amongst students as well as how to recognise and manage honour-related issues amongst the students. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify possible associations between religious groups or religion in general and honour-culture. This was done through a qualitative phenomenological method with semi-structured interviews of six teachers working in different schools in Stockholm. The six participating teachers had different backgrounds yet three of them had backgrounds in the Middle East. The empirics of this study has been analysed through three theoretical frameworks: social constructivism, ethnocentric and cultural relativism and finally individualism and collectivism. The results of this study show that Swedish teachers find managing honour-related issues amongst students complicated as they find themselves unaware of official procedures. All six teachers express the importance of this issue, although the three teachers with backgrounds in the Middle East find managing honour-related issues easier due to their language skills. The Arabic language was found closely associated with students who experience honour-related oppression and violence. The parents of these students were found as the main factor of the issue as they often come from societies with values that differ from the Swedish democratic values. Working with the parents was found as the main solution for the issue. The mapping of these students is made through listening to their opinions and values and if they are influenced by honour-culture. Also, the teachers find that certain students do not attend some compulsory school-activities, like swimming, due to their parents which was found to be a common thing amongst students who live in honour-culture. A point was made to look at the participating teachers’ background and what was found was that all teachers had religious backgrounds. This can imply that religious teachers feel a need to participate to prevent common prejudice regarding honour-culture being related to religion. This also suggests that teachers with religious backgrounds feel a certain liability for students who live in honour-related conditions. However, all informants expressed clear distance from the statement of religion and honour-culture being related. Moreover, connections between Islam and honour-culture are commonly made, however, previous research argue that honour-culture is related to religiousness in general rather than a specific religious group which my study verifies.