Honour Based Violence against Immigrant Women in the West

Abstract

This thesis examines honour based crime in the context of the western world, and more specifically in the Canadian context. Honour killings in the west are increasing, also in Canada, yet little is known about them (Vatandoost, 2012). The purpose of my study was to advance current knowledge about honour crimes in the Canadian context in order to help prevent them. This thesis employed a method that combines a literature review and case study design. Specifically, this is a collective case study and includes analysis of four cases in order to gain understanding of honour based violence against immigrant women in the west, specifically in Canada. Findings reveal that honour crimes are not unique to Islam, and should not be thought of as cultural practices. The violence immigrant women experience is not only rooted in religion or culture. Immigrants experience social and economic vulnerability, racism, unemployment, lack of local language skills, and lack of extended family (Haque; Dossa; as cited in Vatandoost, 2012), all of which contribute to and support honour-based violence. A unique finding of the case analysis was that all fathers were poorly educated—a finding that did not emerge from the literature. Recommendations for the prevention of honour based crimes were made in the final chapter.