Women’s bodies and Men’s Honour : Supporting Middle eastern migrant women who have experienced honour violence

Abstract: This thesis is a study of gender and honour, focusing on NGO’s who work to support women in Sweden who have escaped honour violence. The purpose of this thesis is to find out and explain how they make sense of honour and more specifically, to investigate how does Swedish authorities can help the Middle Eastern women who are victims under this tradition. My focus through this thesis will be on the data analysis, moreover, using intersectionality as an analytical tool will help to explain the intersections which lead to the honour killings. The results show that the honour violence still exists in the Swedish society as well as the Middle East, in addition, some Middle Eastern people who moved to Sweden still believe and practice the honour culture in the Swedish society. More than that, I got the answers for all the research questions which helped me to clarify the relation between honour and its intersections which helped me to know the reasons why does the Honour violence/killings can happen. The answers agree that the honour violence is connected to the shame and guilt cultures. The meaning of honour is different in different cultures. Most of the honour related cases have women as victims. The honour has many intersections, most of them related to virginity, homosexuality, out marriage relations and rape. The Swedish organisations offer help for the victims of honour.  More than that, reading my thesis will give the reader the understanding of the phenomena of Honour, its intersections and how it does exist in the Middle Eastern culture and its old traditions.