Community Notions of Honour Concerning Honour Killings of Women and Girls

The notion of 'honour' exists in many societies. However, its conception, configuration, convenience and consequence are variable historically and culturally. It 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 practices have been eliminated, yet, the harmful practice of 'honour killings' still occurs in many countries. Public and policy discourses on honour related violence, in particular 'honour killings' of women and girls, are generated from journalism and demotic with much less attention to empirical research, scholarship and theory. Moreover, perspectives of the communities where honour related violence tends to occur have been afforded less attention. Hence, the practice continues to be presented as a 'cultural' product per se, which is condoned by certain cultures or religions. Such explanations mask the wider factors and narratives that shape, legitimise and maintain the use of honour as a justification to violence. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, we argue this is a multi-layered and complex problem; therefore, scholarship may reconceptualise the notion of honour and steer towards understating of 'fields of power' in which the honour operates and influences. Our research found that honour is considered as a form of social property, which is highly valued and fiercely protected in the communities. The social standing of a family within a reference network (community or a group) mainly depends on honour that fundamentally operates to control the sexuality and behaviour of female members of the family, and they are deemed as objects of the property.