“Honour, violence and gender – an international research review” is the first of its kind. Instead of focusing on specific parts, the international review describes understandings of the broad subject.
It is based on an extensive time period, a large number of articles and spans several different research disciplines. The combination of breadth and scope makes it unique.
“It is an impossible task for one researcher to be able to span the whole range of aspects, from the psychological to the sociocultural and structural levels, so everyone focuses on aspects of the whole. This is why a review like this one, presenting a wide range of research, is valuable. The diversity of research studies can be used as complementary parts, helping to provide practitioners, policymakers and researchers with reliable knowledge of the whole.” says Maja Lundqvist, analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research and one of the authors of the overview.
The review is based on 30 years of international research and brings together studies by different researchers in different scientific fields. It presents their research findings of how honour-based violence is expressed in various parts of the world, who is affected and who the perpetrators are, but also what it is that makes honour violence increase or decrease, respectively, and what kind of help is needed in different contexts: acute, long-term and preventive.
National and international understandings
The international research review is the result of an assignment from the Swedish government to the Swedish Gender Equality Agency, in collaboration with the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, University of Gothenburg. In this collaboration, the Secretariat has an independent role to produce an international research review. In Sweden three diverse perspectives have characterised both research and policy as well as the practical work with those exposed to honour-based violence: cultural, gender-based and intersectional. Certain specific forms of violence are described in the assignment, and understood in a Swedish context, as honour-related violence. However, within international research, there are several different explanations and understandings of gender-based violence, why it occurs and how these forms of violence manifest themselves.
The international framework is important, in order to put the Swedish situation in perspective, to develop understandings and approaches, and to participate in relevant international dialogues on research, policy and practice related to the field. The research review was developed in close collaboration with an international reference group of researchers in the field from Leeds Law School (UK), University of Economics and Technology (Türkiye), University of Denver (US) the Humboldt-Universität and Berlin Institute of Migration and Integration Research (Germany), and with librarians at KvinnSam, the University Library of Gothenburg.
Exposed groups and how the violence is understood
International research states that common explanations for honour-based violence, based on culture, religion and sexism, are insufficient. For example, there seems to be consensus that honour norms and honour-based violence thrive when people are subject to impoverished life conditions.
“Isolation, within and between families, communities and societies reinforces borders and thereby reinforces honour norms. In other words, reducing isolation co-exists with reduced expressions of honour-based violence” says Rúna Í Baianstovu, researcher at Örebro University and one of the authors of the overview.
International research about honour-based violence shows the same patterns as research on gender-based violence in general, namely that women and girls are the main victims. Importantly, these groups are intersected by a variety of other dimensions, affecting vulnerability and risk for exposure to violence. Socioeconomics, age and ethnicity – intersecting with gender – are the primarily described dimensions in the reviewed research.
The same dimensions are described when it comes to men. They are often studied as potential perpetrators and in relation to aggression, but also as victims. This is done both regarding exposure to explicit violence, as well as consequences of male honour beliefs and masculinity ideals. Gender is the most researched dimension in this field and honour-based violence is understood as gendered violence.
Research gaps
Honour systems that can lead to violence do not only violently control women and girls’ sexuality and behavior, they also control how men are expected to behave and they exclude LGBTQ persons. In the material there is very little research about the latter group.
What does 30 years of research say about the best methods for prevention? The broad and complex research field included in the international review provides crucial knowledge, but it also highlights knowledge gaps and suggest new arenas for future research.
“Recommendations on how to prevent honour-based violence are present in many of the included articles, although studies on specific evaluated or evidence-based methods are few. More research is needed, to be able to give good advice to policymakers and practitioners” says Susanna Young Håkansson, analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research and one of the authors of the overview.
“Honour, violence and gender – an international research review” sums up with key messages for policy, practice and research. To be as close as possible to the original texts, the international overview is written in English. A shorter, Swedish adaptation will be produced during the year.
The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research has long experience of and methods for working with scientifically based, international and systematic research reviews, focusing on the intersection between theory and practice. Based on the results of the review, the Secretariat will conduct a number of in-depth studies in 2025.
Read the full international research review here.
