End honor violence — The stories of silenced
In the #takeaction podcast and with his article about honor violence, a journalist Nils Adler shares the stories of women who have been silenced by their family or community all in the name of so-called ‘honor’.
Nils Adler is a British-Swedish Journalist. Nils has written for a wide range of publications and his photographs have been featured in the Guardian and El País. He has reported from a number of regions including the UK, Turkey, Ukraine, Malta, Iraq, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Belarus, and Iraqi Kurdistan.
Nils Adler has been writing an article about honor-based violence. He has been working with a British Women’s rights organization IKWRO and has traveled to Kurdistan to investigate “honor” based violence there as well as researching the issue in Europe.
“Honor based violence is normally a collective and planned punishment, perpetrated mainly against women and girls, by their family or community; because it is believed the person has done something perceived to bring shame on the family or the community.”
Definition by IKWRO’s CEO, Diana Nammi in Nils Adler’s article Losing Face; When violence is justified in the name of so-called ‘honour’.
Listen the podcast below:
Telling stories of those being silenced in the name of honor
In his article Losing Face; When violence is justified in the name of so-called ‘honour’ Adler writes about Banaz Mahmod:
“Banaz was the first case of honor killings that was widely rewritten in Britain and her story would be the subject of a documentary titled Banaz: A Love Story produced and directed by the British-Norwegian documentary and human rights activist Deeyah Khan. The documentary would reveal how the British police did not act despite Banaz’s repeated warnings.”
Banaz: A Love Story, directed by filmmaker Deeyah Khan, chronicles the life of Kurdish-British woman Banaz Mahmod and her eventual death at the hands of her own family. Her murder, labeled by her family as an “honor killing”, occurred in spite of her repeated efforts to gain help and protection from the police.
This documentary details how Banaz was forced to marry at the age of 17 to some man ten years’ her senior. The marriage quickly turned violent and Banaz struggled to secure a divorce. After falling in love with another man of her choosing, she was confined and abused by her family. Despite reaching out to the police five times, Banaz was killed in a plot organized by her father. This led to an effort by Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode to recover Banaz’s body and seek justice for the young woman. (Watchdocumentaries.com)
Honor based violence and killings are a reality even in Finland and throughout Scandinavia.
Nils continues in his article:
“Just like the case of Fadime Sahindal in 2002 which elicited a nationwide discussion in Sweden regarding honor-related violence, Banaz’s case would symbolize the issue in the UK. In the following years, however, the media would increasingly concentrate their attention on honor killings rather than on other forms of honor-related crimes and their causes.”
In Finland, police don’t have enough understanding and education with honor related violence. It can be hard for them to understand that when a teenage girl with an immigrant background comes and seeks help, she should be taken seriously, as there might be a threat of honor violence, and not only by her close family but from the whole community. There have been cases in Finland, where the police have been belittling the situation and thought it to be just a case of teenage rebellion against parents, with sad consequences for the girl as she has been a victim of honor violence.
Also, Female Genital Mutilation is a form of honor violence, it is a concrete action of protecting the honor, control sexuality, and to make sure a girl is to be married as a virgin. Protecting the hymen is in some cases taken into extremes with control, as the girl is not allowed to do sports, and for example, ride a bicycle. Forced hijab and control over what a girl or woman is allowed to wear, is a concrete way of honor violence as it is done in the name of saving family honor.
There have also been cases in Finland, where a woman is not allowed to have an Islamic divorce, even in cases of domestic abuse, this is a form of honor violence as well as she is trapped in the marriage with her abuser. Divorce might put a shame, not only on the woman but also over her children and family. Control (marriage, divorce, dressing, behaving…) is a form of violence and when done in the name of saving honor, it is honor-based violence.
Forced marriages are tied to honor violence
In many forced marriage cases, the girl is to move in with her husband, and on many occasions, with her in-laws too. In many of the cases, the in-laws use the wife as a house-keeper, and they need to endure humiliation and violence. This was the reality for Sara of whom Nils also writes in his article:
Her story had begun in 2010 after she moved to the UK following an arranged marriage to live with her new husband and his family. Just two weeks after arriving in the country, her sister-and-law and mother-in-law had called her to the kitchen table and laid out a set of rules that Sara would be forced to live by, rules designed to humiliate and condition her into a life of domestic servitude. “I wasn’t allowed to use the same toilet I was made to clean and disinfect every day” explains Sara “instead I was made to use a hospital commode”. Every day would follow the same strict schedule of cooking, washing and cleaning. It’s the exhaustion that Sara remembers most vividly “around midnight my sister-in-law would always want a massage, this could last up to two hours, and I would have to be up before anyone else to clean the whole house.” Sara felt helpless. When she had married her husband, she had promised to uphold both her family’s and her in-law’s honour by staying with him. Divorce was not an option, so she spent the next eight years behind the four walls she now refers to as ‘prison’.
Even today Sara is in danger of honor violence by her in-laws and community, she still can’t openly speak about what had happened to her, or move outside the safety house freely, without fear.
Follow up recommendation for the article Losing Face
The article is yet to be published, if you are interested in reading the article as a whole, please follow Nils Adler on Twitter and get notified as he publishes the article on his website or join our Happy newsletter! We also recommend checking out the website of freelance photographer Pascal Vossen to see photos for the article Losing Face.
Recommendations for further reading and watching by Nils
Books:
Murder in the name of honor by Rana Husseni
Mäns Heder (mens honour) by Devin Rexid and Astrid Schytter
Värför mördar man sin dotter? (why would you murder your daughter?) by Emre Güngör and Nima Dervish
Documentaries:
Banaz: a love story (2012) (link above)
A girl in the river: the price of forgiveness
Fiction which touches on issues related to honor culture: Honor by Elif Shafak
Shame by Salman Rushdie
Organizations that supported the project of Nils Adler and are doing amazing work:
IKWRO (UK), Karma Nirvana (UK), Halo Project (UK), GAPF (Sweden), Asuda (Iraqi Kurdistan)
