The murder of women in order to uphold ‘honour’ has occurred throughout history and in many contexts. Despite high rates of domestic violence and increased rates of honour killing over the last decade in Palestine, there is a paucity of empirical data about the phenomenon, the social and cultural forces underlying it and how it affects family members emotionally and socially. The standpoint of this thesis is that Palestinian society today has no solution to honour killing (HK). This study addresses two questions: the factors that contribute to HK, as reported by the participants; and the emotional and social effects and consequences of it. The study adopted a Grounded Theory method. Data were collected using individual and group interviews with family members, professionals and neighbours associated with victims of HK. The total numbers of the participants were 43 (23 family members, 15 professionals and 5 neighbours). A feminist paradigm guided the data collection and analysis. The findings of this study have revealed that the HK phenomenon is multifaceted, grounded in the interplay of several complex factors, including institutionalized patriarchy within society, families and Palestinian culture; honour and shame values in the traditional society and other societal influences (cultural norms and values, legislative and institutional systems). This study therefore concluded that HKs were patriarchal and traditional methods of disempowering and subjugating women, enabled (directly or indirectly) by families, communities, political parties, religious leaders, professionals and the state, rendering society at large as unlikely to condemn honour killing. The main result was that although family members killed their female relatives primarily in an attempt to re-establish their honour, the murder failed in this purpose and in fact made their situation worse. Understanding this significant finding gives a clear message to family members and to the public that honour killing harms perpetrators emotionally and further damages family honour, where enter into a long process which ultimately leads to social death. Thus, multiple efforts are needed to combat HK, but this is extremely difficult. Altering the attitudes and behaviour of those who believe in HK is not an easy task but one of the first and crucial steps in combating this issue is state action. This study shows that most participants, especially family members, were concerned about family reputation and endeavoured to resolve problems within the family. This makes solving the problems inside families more difficult for any external party. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to work with families. Further research has the potential to increase our understanding of other social factors and processes involved in honour killing, which would enable concerned parties to better craft effective intervention strategies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the leaving process of girls, who have been exposed to honor-related violence and oppression, thereby creating knowledge to provide suitable and useful support for these women. The theories we have used in this study is shame, guilt and the process of role exit. In our qualitative study, content analysis is used as an analysis method. The study was conducted through analyses of five autobiographical stories written by women who have been exposed to honor-related violence and oppression in Sweden. The results of the study shows that Holmberg and Enanders (2011) theory of the leaving process isn’t designed and adapted to be applicable in an honorary context, which we with our study have contributed to make viable. Feelings of guilt and shame appear frequently in the women's stories. A conclusion we have drawn about honor related violence and oppression is that it is a complex phenomenon that is difficult to define, this result is in line with previous research.

This study examines social authorities' experiences of what it is like to work and collaborate with honour-related violence and oppression. All respondents come from different authorities and are members of a collaboration group aiming to collaborate and work against honour-related violence and oppression. The study is based on six semi-structured interviews with professionals from school, the police, social services, county administration and health care. The study shows that honour-related violence and oppression is a complex and multidimensional concept that is mainly expressed by collectively exercised control which in the worst case can lead to murder. Furthermore, it can be seen that there is a common understanding that cooperation in honour-related violence and oppression is particularly important because these cases are more complex than others. The result shows that there is a common understanding and consensus regarding the concept's definition within the collaboration group. Success factors for good collaborative work are highlighted by shared knowledge of the problem and understanding of each other's different roles, which the respondents feel they have gained by participating in the collaboration group. However, the respondents feel that this is lacking within the authorities due to the fact that knowledge within this field is scarce. The result describes obstacles in cooperation which are described as a lack of knowledge within the authorities but also laws, high workload, staff turnover and time restriction. Thus, the results show that despite a functioning collaboration, there are limited opportunities to help people exposed to honour-related violence and oppression. / I denna studie undersöks samhällsaktörers upplevelser av hur det är att arbeta och samverka kring hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Respondenterna kommer från olika verksamheter och är medlemmar i en resursgrupp mot hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Studien är baserad på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från skola, polis, socialtjänst, länsstyrelse och hälso- och sjukvård. Av studien framkommer att hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck är ett komplext och mångdimensionellt begrepp som främst tar sig i uttryck av en kollektivt utövad kontroll som i värsta fall kan resultera i mord. Resultatet i studien visar att samverkan inom hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck är särskilt viktigt eftersom dessa ärenden är mer komplexa än andra. Resultatet visar att det föreligger en gemensam förståelse och samsyn kring begreppets definition inom resursgruppen. Framgångsfaktorer för ett gott samverkansarbete framhävs av gemensam kunskap om problemet samt förståelse för varandras olika roller vilket respondenterna upplever att de fått genom att ha medverkat i resursgruppen. Däremot upplever respondenterna att detta saknas inom respektive verksamheter då det råder brist på kunskap inom området. Resultatet redogör för hinder inom samverkan som utgörs av rådande kunskapsbrist inom respektive verksamheter men också lagstiftning, hög arbetsbelastning- och personalomsättning och tidsbrist. Dock visar resultatet att det trots en fungerande samverkan, finns begränsade möjligheter att hjälpa personer utsatta för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck.

Yes

The purpose of the study has been to describe and analyse in which way court make a distinction between honour related violence and violence in other cases by using an text analysis together with an content analysis. Previous research shows that honour related violence have been a controversial concept, which have made it hard for the swedish society to get a hand of the background of the phenomenon. Some researcher describe honour related violence as a cultural related lifestyle, all though some researchers does not agree with this explanation. The result have been analysed through a feministic perspective on gender, definitions of ascendancy, the normalizations process of violence and through honour and shame. To create an understanding of how the gender norms can take place in different family structures, Al-Baldawis pyramid of patriarchal family structure have been used as an illustration of the differences in authority of power. The main result shows that men's violence against women have been over represented, categorized after violence in close relationships. It also shows that the court´s assessment often is objective, based on the circumstances of the case.

The murders of Pela Atroshi, Sara Abed Ali and Fadime Sahindal, started a debate concerning the underlying motives of honour related violence. This paper aimed to describe and explain in what way honour related violence is perceived in publications by academics, public authorities and voluntary organisations to name a few. Different types of literature were thematically analysed as well as analysed using a model by Lorentzon. The scope of this paper was narrowed down to Swedish conditions and excluded men as victims of honour related crimes. The conclusion suggests a definition of honour related violence as a result of general patriarchy with different features. For example, men’s honour is connected to women’s behaviour and retaining of virginity. The only way to restore a lost honour is to eliminate the woman physically or socially. The use of postcolonial theories in analyzing the definition resulted in an understanding of honour related violence perceived as something different from Swedish culture.

The purpose of this essay is to explore high school and collage school counselors knowledge and experience of honour related violence and repression. Our study is based on a qualitative method with interviews. The main question in our study is to examine the school counselors education in how to provide support to the exposed adolescents. We have conducted six interviews with school counselors in the southern Sweden. We have used a semi structured interview technique with questionnaires that have been a support to us during the interviews. The results of our study showed that some of our respondents knew that they had limited education and knowledge in honour related violence and also that they wanted more experience about the problemarea. Other respondents said that they had experience enough about the problemar ea. The results also show that the respondents believe that there is more honour related problems in the adolescents families than what the counselors find out about, and that some of the respondents didn´t even know in wich way they could provide help to theese students.

Abstract This study aims at investigating how four different Swedish newspapers produce the phenomenon of honor, creating differences between "we and them" (our own quotation), as well as a summary of the differences between the newspapers'. This is to gain a deeper knowledge of the connection between the honour phenomenon and Swedish media. Method: Eight articles were collected based first on predetermined criteria and then by a random selection from all four newspapers. Analysis: The collected material was divided based on the issues as well as an thematization of the content and then analyzed in order to answer these questions. This study is based on an intersectional perspective with the following concepts: Culture, power, ethnicity, biological and social gender. Conclusion: The conclusions drawn in the following study are that the writers build their text content on factors that are represented as the causes of the honour-related violence. The most relevant factors are culture, religion and ethnicity, where the term gender also creates an additional dimension in the explanations of the honour phenomena. These explanations can further create a division between "we and them" (our own quotation). The victims of the articles are often made as weak and helpless as well as being young girls of different origins. The role of the villain becomes complex, as the practitioners themselves becomes the helper, while honour or culture takes the place as the main villain character in the content of the text. Even society is assigned a meaning through two different roles, patrons and the fraudulent rescuer. Based on this conclusion, a model was formed that might serve to clarify when it comes to the media's presentation of the relationship between the majority society and the victim of the honour violence. From this model, it becomes possible to understand the importance of self-awareness regarding attitudes in society and how it can further affect social work.

The purpose of this study was to examine professionals' experiences of working with youngwomen who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression. The study also aimed toexamine how these professionals' approach the issue of honor. To answer the questions, aqualitative method was used. The method involved semi-structured interviews withprofessionals who work with the target group in question. The professionals inquired for thestudy were eight people including: social workers that work at women's aid, school nurses,and counselors. To conduct the study, the researchers arranged telephone interviews withtwo of the professionals. The remaining candidates were interviewed in physical attendance.Furthermore, the analysis method used on the empirical data was coding and thematization.Additionally, the empirical data was examined by using previous research and selectedtheories. First, the results of the study showed perceived difficulties among the interviewees,in making an assessment and acting righteously in different situations regarding honorissues. Second, the results also showed the importance of having a well-functioningrelationship between authorities and organizations, and how their alliance according to theinterviewees hypothetically work. Moreover, the study emphasizes the necessity for expertsto expand their expertise in order to effectively comprehend and assist women inhonor-related situations.

This is a qualitative study about the implementation of the National Agency for Educations directives regarding honour violence and culture. The focus will be on the work of the teachers, principals and curators and how they implement The National Agency for Education’s directives regarding honour violence and culture. Through the use of interviews and mainly through Lennart Lindquist’s theory “want, understand and able” the essay has its purpose to study the implementation of the directives in four different schools. Interviews were conducted with principals, teachers and curators in hopes of getting the perspective of if and how the people in the mentioned field implement the directives. The study shows both similarities and differences between the different professions which we present in the analysis chapter and later address in the discussion part of the study.