Crimes of the Community: Honour-based Violence in the UK

170 Pages·2008·0.782 MB·English

by  James Brandon, Salam Hafez

CentreforSocialCohesion ISBN978-1-903386-64-4
Crimes of the Community:
ACivitasProject
Honour-based violence in the UK
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marriages, female genital mutilation and other
forms of abuse. It explains why traditional ideas of
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Centre for Social Cohesion t James Brandon and Salam Hafez
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CluthaHouse,10Storey’sGate,LondonSW1P3AY
Tel:[phone]
Fax:[phone]
Email:[email protected] CentreforSocialCohesion
£15.00
www.socialcohesion.co.uk ACivitasProject
Crimes
of the
Community
Honour-based violence in tHe uK
by
James brandon and salam Hafez
2008
C e n t r e f o r S o C i a l C o h e S i o n
Crimes of the Community:
Honour-based violence in the UK
by
James Brandon and Salam Hafez
Centre for Social Cohesion
A Civitas Project
Centre for Social Cohesion
Clutha House
10 Storey’s Gate
London SW1P 3AY
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
www.socialcohesion.co.uk
Director:
Douglas Murray
The Centre for Social Cohesion is a Civitas project
CIVITAS is a registered charity: No. 1085494.
Limited by guarantee.
Registered in England and Wales: No. 04023541
© Centre for Social Cohesion, January 2008
All the Institute’s publications seek to further its objective of promoting the advancement of learning.
The views expressed are those of the authors,
not of the Institute.
Crimes of the community: Honour-based violence in the UK
Some of the names and details of the individuals quoted in the report have been changed at their request.
All rights reserved

ISBN 978-1-903386-64-4
Printed in Great Britain by
The Cromwell Press
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Contents
introduction 1
cHapter 1
origins of honour 3
introduction 3
Sexual honour 3
n Origins of an idea 3
n Honour today 4
advantages of honour 5
Common ways in which honour can be damaged 6
Consequences of losing one’s honour 8
cHapter 2
forced marriage 9
introduction 9
Motives for forced marriage 12
abuses related to forced marriage 15
n Physical violence 16
n Psychological and emotional violence 17
n Isolation, imprisonment and withdrawal from school 18
n Kidnapping and being forced to travel abroad 19
abuses after a forced marriage 21
n Rape 21
n Abandonment 22
n Depression, self harm and suicide resulting
from forced marriages 24
cHapter 3
honour-based Domestic Violence 27
introduction 27
forms of honour-based violence 28
n Defying parental authority 28
n Acting ‘western’ 31
n Control by in-laws 33
n Drug and alcohol abuse 34
n Economic factors 35
cHapter 4
honour Killings 37
introduction 37
how many honour killings in the UK? 37
honour killings among people of South asian origin 39
Profiling South asian killings 41
n Killings by close relatives and in-laws 41
n Women’s involvement in murder 44
n Role of religion and caste 45
n Killings by extended families 47
n Pre-planned attacks 50
n Killing of children 51
n Killings abroad 53
Kurdish honour killings 54
n Kurdish women killed for becoming ‘western’ 55
n Killers arriving from Kurdistan/Kurdish women
being killed abroad 57
n Ritualised nature of Kurdish honour killings 59
arabs and others 60
Men as victims of honour-killing 63
cHapter 5
female Genital Mutilation 65
introduction 65
origins of the practice 66
Muslim attitudes to fGM 67
attitude of other religions 69
fGM in the UK 71
n African 72
n Arab 74
n Kurdish 75
n South Asian 76
n Other groups 77
cHapter 6
Barriers to change 78
introduction: the reinforcing of traditional attitudes 78
Community attempts to block change 79
n Imported wives and husbands 79
n Segregation and self-segregation 82
n Islamist groups 85
n Community and religious leaders 88
Deterrents to women fleeing abuse 94
n Women being tracked down by community based groups 94
n Violence and threats against women’s groups and refuges 97
Difficulties of getting religious divorces 98
n Islamic marriages 98
n Sikh divorces 101
Government failures 102
n Local government/schools failures 103
n Government employees failing to uphold law 104
n ‘No recourse to public funds’ rule 107
Wrong government partners/advisors 111
n Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) 111
n Southall Black Sisters 112
Policing failures 114
Summary: Barriers to change 118

cHapter 7
Breaking the tradition 119
introduction 119
explaining changing attitudes 122
n Increased exposure to alternative cultures and lifestyles 122
role of nGos 125
n Working with children: challenging traditions 126
n Working with adults: changing attitudes 128
n Working with women 128
n Working with men 131
role of progressive religious groups 131
Government successes 134
n Growing police awareness 134
n Foreign and Commonwealth Office 137
n Legislation 139
cHapter 8
recomendations:
how the government
can accelerate change 141
n Low impact 144
n Medium impact 145
n High impact 145
cHapter 9
Conclusion 147
appendix 150
Bibliography 158
acknowledgements 159

introduction
In recent years, honour crimes have received an increasing
amount of interest from the media, the police and politicians.
This has been fuelled by the extensive coverage of the murder
of several young Kurdish and Pakistani women by their fami-
lies. This growing public concern has been largely welcomed by
women’s groups and has prompted the government to take steps
to tackle these crimes. However the media’s focus on honour kill-
ings and, to a lesser extent, forced marriages and Female Genital
Mutilation (FGM) has obscured the true scale of honour-based
crime. Honour killings represent only the tip of the iceberg in
terms of violence and abuse perpetrated against women in the
name of honour.
This study shows that honour killings, domestic violence, forced
marriage and FGM are not isolated practices but are instead part
of a self-sustaining social system built on ideas of honour and
cultural, ethnic and religious superiority. As a result of these ide-
as, every day around the UK women are being threatened with
physical violence, rape, death, mutilation, abduction, drugging,
false imprisonment, withdrawal from education and forced mar-
riage by their own families. This is not a one-time problem of
first-generation immigrants bringing practices from ‘back home’
to the UK. Instead honour violence is now, to all intents and pur-
poses, an indigenous and self-perpetuating phenomenon which
is carried out by third and fourth generation immigrants who
have been raised and educated in the UK.
This report focuses on four aspects of honour-based violence:
n Forced marriage
n Domestic violence
n Honour killings
 Some of the most frequently cited killings have been those of Rukhsana Naz, a 9-year
old woman of Pakistani origin in Derby in 998, Heshu Yones, a 6-year old Kurdish girl
in North London in 2003, and Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year old Kurdish woman in South
London in 2006. The Guardian: ‘Love, honour and obey – or die’, by Jason Burke. October 8
2000. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,37974,00.html
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