Reconceptualising the notion of honour in relation to honour-related violence and killings in South Asia

Honour has been a central concept across many societies. However, its conception, configuration, convenience and consequence are variable historically and culturally. In essence, honour has positive connotations and characteristics, but the combined use of honour with crime, violence and killings made it contentious. The honour has been attributed as an underlying cause of horrific violence, for example, duelling in England, foot binding in China and wife immolation (sati) in India. These heinous practices have been eliminated; yet harmful practices against women and girls in the name of honour, such as honour killings, forced marriages, female genital mutilations, and child marriages, are occurring in many countries. However, South Asia is a hotspot. Public and policy discourses on honour-related violence are generated from journalism and demotic rather than empirical research, scholarship and theory. Moreover, perspectives of the communities where honour-related violence tends to occur have been afforded less attention. Hence, the practices are presented as a 'cultural' product per se, which is allowed by patriarchal cultures or particular religions. This type of presentation masks the underlying wider historical, social, economic, and political processes and narratives that shape, legitimise and maintain the use of honour as a justification for violence. This is a multi-layered and complex problem; therefore, scholarship may reconceptualise the notion of honour and steer towards an understanding of 'fields of power' in which the harmful practices take place.