Law singles out minority culture to distinguish honour killings from domestic violence

Evidence

A contextualized approach to the problem of forced marriages and honour killings has been singularly lacking in law, where the idea of culture clash has held sway. In their construction as ‘honour killings,’ such murders are not understood as illustrations of a generic violence against women, a violence that dominant and minority cultures often fail to condemn. Culture, but minority culture only, assumes a pre-eminence that is discernable in the efforts made in legal documents and reports to distinguish honour killings from other instances of violence against women. For example, in her report to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the Council of Europe, Mrs Cryer of the United Kingdom began by explaining what the concept ‘crimes of honour’ is meant to capture. A crime of honour is one committed ‘as a consequence of the need to defend or protect the honour of the family.’ The origins of the crime in community/culture is what distinguishes it from other similar crimes in the West: ‘Crimes of honour’ should not be confused with the concept of ‘crimes of passion.’ — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 296

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article — cross-cultural moral framing of minority dress/behavior as the distinctive problem, contrasted against generic Western forms.