A comparative discourse analysis of honor-based violence in a Swedish media context

Abstract: This thesis aims to highlight the complexity of honor-related violence and femicide in Swedish society and how it is represented in media based on who the victim and perpetrator is depending on ethnic and religious backgrounds. The thesis will be based on a comparative discourse analysis of forty Swedish media articles concerning honor killings (hedersmord) and femicide (kvinnomord) in Swedish translated to English. The analysis focuses on what is associated with each of these words concerning the victim and perpetrator and if it is interpreted as an honor killing or a femicide depending on assumptions of ethnic or religious background in majority and minority contexts. The result of the thesis presents the dichotomy of honor killings as something belonging to practices of the “other” or “non-Swedish” while femicide, being presented as something domestic within Swedish culture it is not presented as something structural or collective as honor killings are.