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Gerry Campbell London, UK
Neelam Sarkaria London, UK
Karl A. Roberts University of Western Sydney Sydney, Australia
ISBN 978-1-137-53311-1
ISBN 978-1-137-53312-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53312-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
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Gerry Campbell: In memory of my twin sister Karen Marie Campbell who was taken from us aged 16 years. A life tragically cut short and denied the opportunity to enjoy, experience life to the full and fulfil her dreams. Also, in memory of my mum, Catherine Campbell 1929–2011; a loving, hardworking and formidable mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who sacrificed, supported and gave up so much, for so many. Much loved and ever present.
Karl A. Roberts: To my wonderful children, Henry and Matilda, and my fantastic wife, Vicki, each of you makes my life a loving and fantastic journey. And in loving memory of my mum, Jean Roberts 1939–2018, a life well lived. We will always remember and look for you in rainbows.
Neelam Sarkaria: This book is dedicated to my wonderful family and amazing, inspirational mother Bimla Wanti Kapoor who has continued to encourage me to achieve my dreams.
This book is about harmful traditional practices. Its aim is to provide the reader with knowledge to recognise these abuses and effective ways to respond and prevent them. The authors collectively have a wealth of experience in the fight against these practices sharing expertise in policing, law and psychology. The authors have collected together a detailed account of these practices, their effects and preventative strategies. It is their hope that through the pages of this book, readers will develop their knowledge and be able to confidently respond to the challenges that harmful traditional practices present.
London, UK
Sydney, Australia
Gerry Campbell
Karl A. Roberts
London, UK Neelam Sarkaria
We would like to thank all of our colleagues, teachers, researchers, writers and professionals, past and present working in the field of harmful traditional practice for their support, knowledge and inspiration over the years. Without all of you, this book would not be possible. We wish to acknowledge our families and friends for their constant support and for giving us the time and space to carry out this work. Also, thanks to Palgrave and the team of editors for their understanding and for helping to get this book through to completion. We wish to especially acknowledge all of the survivor and community groups working to end these practices in particular those individuals who, despite threats and their own suffering, show immense courage and leadership and speak out against these practices. Finally, to all victims and survivors of harmful traditional practices, past and present, we hope that your suffering was not in vain and that real change will come soon so that no one else needs to suffer as you have.
Table
Table
This book is about harmful traditional practices, how they can be identified, challenged and prevented. Within these pages we seek to provide professionals and others with up-to-date knowledge that is useful to their practice and allows them to provide the best possible service to victims and survivors. At the outset it is important to make clear that no matter what the justification presented by supporters and apologists—references to tradition, religion or culture—harmful traditional practices are, as the name implies, all forms of abuse that remove choice, freedom and agency from victims/survivors, cause significant harm to victims/survivors, and are fundamental breaches of a victim’s human rights.
The widespread abuse of women and girls (and some men and boys) through systematic disadvantage, violence and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment, including harmful traditional practices, is a matter of national and global concern. Abuse causes significant personal, financial and social costs impacting upon victims, survivors, witnesses, families, communities and services.1 These costs include serious physical and psychological injuries to victims and survivors, damage to families and communities, social exclusion and disadvantage and substantial economic loses. This pervades communities, transcending boarders, nationality, culture, gender, sexualities and socio-economic status.
The rates of violence and abuse against women and girls are staggering. In the UK in 2018/19 there are on average 100 domestic abuse murders of women, 12 honour killings, 1.4 million incidents of domestic abuse of which
1 Her Majesty’s Government Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016–2020.
© The Author(s) 2020 G. Campbell et al., Harmful Traditional Practices, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53312-8_1
approximately 750,000 were criminal offences and 450,000 sexual abuse victims/survivors.2,3,4 In addition, the Crime Survey for England and Wales to year ending March 2019, shows 2.4 million people aged 16–74 years surveyed stated that they had experienced domestic abuse in the previous 12 months. In the same period the police forces in England and Wales recorded 162,030 of which 58,657 were rapes.5 Research also reveals the high economic cost of domestic violence, including the lost economic output of women, estimated in the UK alone as £66 billion annually.6 In addition, the cost to health, housing, social service care, criminal and civil justice provision amounts to £3.9 billion per year.7
The focus of this book is upon harmful traditional practices, but what are they? To begin, it is important to define some key concepts that will underpin our subsequent discussions. These include providing definitions of culture, cultural practices, tradition, and how traditional cultural practices are differentiated from those that are harmful—so-called harmful traditional practices.
There are many definitions of Culture and much debate as to which is most appropriate. For the purposes of this book we define culture in accordance with definitions drawn from the field of cross-cultural psychology. Here culture is seen as a set of interrelated values, tools and practices that are shared among groups of individuals who have a common identity. Culture is very important and strongly influences many psychological and social processes, from how an individual perceives, interprets and interacts with situations through to how an individual sees themselves, in particular their sense of who they are and their self-esteem.8
2 Office of National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/ articles/domesticabuseprevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2019
3 Macfarlane, A, Dorkenoo, E., Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in England and Wales: National and local estimates. (City University London and Equality Now, 2015).
4 Balliol, H, Tackling Female Genital Mutilation in Scotland, A Scottish Model of intervention, (Scottish Refugee Council and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 2014).
5 Office of National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/ articles/domesticabuseprevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2019.
6 Walby, The Cost of Domestic Violence Up-date 2009 (Lancaster University, 2009).
7 Home Office, The economic and social cost of domestic abuse, Research Report 107, January 2019 accessed via https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/772180/horr107.pdf.
8 Fiske, A. P., Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R. & Nisbett, R. E. (1998). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Psychology (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 915–981). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Every culture generates its own series of cultural practices and values. Cultural practices have been formally defined as,
shared perceptions of how people routinely behave in a culture9 i.e. what people should do.
While cultural values have been defined as, shared ideals of a culture10 i.e. what people should think.
It is important to note at this juncture that cultures comprise multiple interacting practices and values that can change over time and interact with gender and other characteristics of individuals. In attempting to understand harmful cultural practices it is therefore important not to consider cultures as static or monolithic or to consider the practices as the province of ‘other,’ ‘backward’ groups who need to be reformed by a ‘wise’ West.11
Cultural practices and values are important as they are part of the broad behavioural governance of a culture, defining what behaviour is and is not acceptable for its members. Cultural practices and values have a powerful influence upon individuals. Individuals may suffer significant distress, such as loss of self-esteem, anxiety and even shame, if they don’t behave in the prescribed manner. Indeed, continued membership of a group or the culture itself is often contingent upon behaving in ways that are consistent with the demands of these practices and values. Social exclusion, isolation and damaged self-esteem is a real outcome for those who fail to conform.12
It is perhaps true to say that many cultural practices developed because they were broadly adaptive for members of that culture, that is to say were broadly beneficial to all (or some) members of the group. Indeed, certain practices and values may have at one time allowed groups to thrive. For example, strictly mandating practices such as monogamous marriage would be likely to increase the chances of survival of babies born within the marriage. The marriage practice is a socially constructed reason for the mother and father to stay together and increases the likelihood that they will. This in turn means that there
9 Frese, M., 2015. Cultural practices, norms, and values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(10), pp. 1327–1330.
10 Ibid.
11 Gill, A. K. (2014) ‘Honour’ and honour-based violence in Gill, A. K., Strange, C. and Roberts, K., 2014. ‘Honour’ Killing and Violence. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
12 See Chap. 2 in, Roberts, K. A., Campbell, G. and Lloyd, G., 2013. Honor-Based Violence: Policing and Prevention. CRC Press.
would be two individuals to care for any babies born to that marriage. Two individuals, a father and mother, could work together increasing the likelihood that appropriate food could be found, and other care needs achieved. In the absence of strictly enforced monogamous marriage, there may be no social or other pressure for fathers, especially, to stay with the mother to care for the child, thus raising the risk of a child having to be cared for by a lone parent. To parent alone is significantly more challenging, meaning that some care needs may not be met. This therefore raises the risk of a baby failing to thrive and perhaps of infant mortality.
Other cultural practices were ways to cement group identity by making membership intentionally difficult to achieve. Example of this might include various (physical) trials and rites of passage that marked the point when boys became men, and where group membership was contingent upon successfully navigating these trials. Here, a sense of personal esteem comes from having achieved group membership. This in turn meant that an individual was more likely to have a personal stake in the group’s success and this increased the likelihood that they would work in the interests of the valued group.
Where cultural practices and values have been developed, held and repeated by members of a culture over long periods of time (sometimes centuries or more), they often attain the status of traditions, that is, traditional practices and traditional values. Thus, members of a culture may talk of concepts such as, ‘traditional social values,’ ‘traditional gender roles’ and ‘traditional marriages,’ and be strongly opposed to any ‘new’ ideas that could undermine these. Opposition towards new ideas often represents a real fear that the culture and way of life is under threat from the new ideas.
Although some traditional cultural practices were (and are) adaptive for some groups, others disadvantage, and even damage some group members. This may be because, in the modern world, these practices no longer confer the advantages they once did. However, this is often because some practices are (and may always have been) to the detriment of some members of the group relative to others.
Where traditional practices provide no tangible benefit (personal, medical, social or financial) and instead cause harm to the victim, these practices are Harmful Traditional Practices. This label highlights the harm the practices cause and the fact that they are motivated and justified by appeals to longstanding values and traditions.
Despite appeals to tradition, cultural or religious needs by those who advocate for or seek to excuse them, harmful traditional practices are fundamentally abuses of the human rights of victims/survivors designed to control their behaviour. All harmful traditional practices are forms of abuse that cause
significant harm to women and girls in particular (although some men and boys may also be victimised). The harms can range from physical injury, lifelong physical and mental health problems, to death either by suicide, ‘forced’ suicide or murder. As those most commonly affected by harmful traditional practices are women and girls, it has been argued that one reason for the continuation of many of these practices is that they serve as a mechanism for the maintenance of male authority.13
Harmful traditional practices cover a wide spectrum of behaviour and include honour-based abuse (HBA), forced marriage (FM), child and early forced marriage (CEFM), female genital mutilation (FGM), breast ironing, witchcraft, faith and belief abuse, and other related harmful practices.
Harmful traditional practices are internationally significant problems. The United Nations estimates that annually between 5000 and 20,000 honour killings take place across the world. Although it is important to recognise that the true prevalence of honour killings may never be known as cases may be classed as missing persons or suicide. More than 30% of women in the world today were married before the age of 18 years, and one in nine girls under 15 years of age experience forced marriage.14 In 2018, the UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) gave advice or support relating to a possible forced marriage to 1764 individuals.15 According to UN estimates, up to 3.8 million girls worldwide are affected by breast ironing.16 Breast ironing is particularly widespread in the West African nations of Cameroon, GuineaBissau, Chad, Togo and Benin. In Cameroon, up to 50% of girls as young as ten years old undergo painful breast ironing on a daily basis. Across the UK it is thought that about 1000 girls within the West African diaspora have been subjected to the practice. The figures could be much higher as there are currently no reliable prevalence data for breast ironing in the UK. The World Health Organisation (WHO)17 estimated that more than 200 million women
13 Ibid., para 73, p. 29.
14 International Women’s Health Coalition accessed on 6 May 2017 via https://iwhc.org/resources/ facts-child-marriage/.
15 Home Office, Forced Marriage Unit Statistics 2018, May 2019 accessed via https://assets.publishing. service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/869764/Forced_Marriage_ Unit_Statistics.pdf.
16 http://www.theweek.co.uk/71429/what-is-breast-ironing-and-how-common-is-it-in-britain accessed on13 September 2016.
17 http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/prevalence/en/ accessed on 13 September 2016.
and girls alive today have undergone FGM. Furthermore, there are an estimated 3 million girls at risk of undergoing FGM every year. FGM has been documented in 30 countries, mainly in Africa, as well as in the Middle East and Asia, and all Western industrialised nations. Finally, in London, 60 crimes linked to witchcraft and faith-based abuse were recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service with many of the cases involving children.
Given the scale of the problem, it appears that many professionals are limited in their awareness and knowledge of harmful traditional practices. In its most recent report, the UK’s Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC ), reemphasised the importance of professionals in tackling harmful traditional practices such as FGM.18,19 However, the HASC also condemned the professions for submitting incomplete data returns to them and for not complying with the law in relation to the mandatory reporting of ‘known cases’ of, just one harmful traditional practice, FGM in girls under 18 years old.20,21 HASC recommended that tougher sanctions be brought against professionals who fail to comply with the statutory personal requirement to report and that the duty to report must not be seen as optional as
a decision not to report puts children’s lives at risk and is complicit in a crime being committed.22
Relatedly, there has been a fall in the number of cases of honour-based abuse (HBA) recorded by police. In 2018/19 the UK Crown Prosecution Service reported that the volume of referrals from the police of HBA-related
18 The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons’ departmental select committees. It has 11 Members of Parliament (MPs), drawn from the three largest political parties. The House of Commons appoints the Committee with the task of examining the expenditure, administration and policy of the Home Office and its associated public bodies. At the end of an inquiry the Committee will often produce a ‘Government must respond within two months’.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairscommittee/role/.
19 Home Affairs Select Committee Ninth Report for Session 2016/17: Female genital mutilation: abuse un-checked.
20 Regulated Professionals are defined by Serious Crime Act 2015, Section 74(11).
21 This is a statutory requirement defined by Serious Crime Act 2015, Section 74.
22 Home Affairs Select Committee Ninth Report for Session 2016/17: Female genital mutilation: abuse un-checked. Recommendation 12, Para 5.
offences fell to 80 cases from 145 in 2017/18 leading to 72 prosecutions and 41 defendants convicted.23 One reasons for the drop in recorded offences, given no otherwise change in worldwide prevalence of HBA, could be related to a lack of knowledge on the part of investigators leading to misidentification of cases. Certainly, the number of police investigations referred to the CPS has been falling year-on-year in recent times.24
The lack of awareness and knowledge of harmful traditional practices has also shown itself with regard to the sparsity of prosecutions for related offences.
For example, the UK has had legislation in place criminalising FGM since 1985, yet there has to date been only been one, ultimately unsuccessful, prosecution for this offence.25 In its most recent report, the HASC makes a damning assessment of this situation stating:
It is beyond belief that there still has not been a successful prosecution for an FGM offence since it was made illegal over 30 years ago. This is a lamentable record and the failure to identify cases, to prosecute and to achieve convictions can only have negative consequences for those who are brave enough to come forward to highlight this crime. In the absence of successful prosecutions, FGM remains a national scandal that is continuing to result in the preventable mutilation of thousands of girls.26
Given this, there appears to be an urgent need for professionals to be supported with knowledge and information to empower them to recognise harmful traditional practices and the associated warning signs, and for them to act appropriately, especially the need for them to comply with their wider safeguarding duties.
Notwithstanding the scale of the problem, Harmful traditional practices are preventable. However, we need to recognise that no one group can do this alone. Instead, successful prevention requires partnership working. Importantly, this includes strong coalitions of partners drawn from the whole
23 CPS Violence against Women and Girls crime report 2018–2019 accessed on 21 April 2020 via https:// www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/cps-vawg-report-2019.pdf
24 Ibid.
25 With the enactment of the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.
26 Home Affairs Select Committee Report for Session 2016/17: Female genital mutilation: abuse unchecked, para 56.
of society where each brings to bear their perspective and contextual expertise. In this book, we will stress the importance of partnership working and the development of coalitions of professionals, including civil society and affected communities,27 in preventing and tackling harmful traditional practices.
Within this book, drawing on our own experiences, those of other professionals and the wider literature, we aim to provide readers with the knowledge to recognise the perpetration of harmful traditional practices and advice regarding how best to respond. If recognised early, the observable warning signs of harmful traditional practices provide opportunities for effective intervention and prevention; for some individuals this may mean saving their life or preventing repeated harm.
As noted, within these pages we will focus particularly upon HBA, FM, CEFM, FGM, breast ironing, and witchcraft, spirit possession and faithbased abuse. For each of these practices, we describe its characteristics and warning signs, explore its prevalence, its impact upon victims/survivors, relevant legislation and other preventative measures. We also include a chapter describing other less well known and less studied types of harmful traditional practice. The legislation we discuss explores various relevant international treaties and agreements, and national laws, with a particular focus on UK legislation. This is because UK legislation is perhaps more well-developed with respect to some of these practices than in some jurisdictions and is more familiar to the authors. That said, lessons from the UK experience are very much applicable elsewhere. In other chapters we explore approaches to effective police investigation and prosecution of related offences. In our final chapter, we will examine the relationship between harmful traditional practices and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, the religious courts, Shari’a and Beth Din. Here we identify the characteristics of these alternative dispute resolution systems and various challenges that they present.
Certain types of harmful traditional practice are perhaps more familiar to the reader; these include FGM, FM and HBA. In contrast, whilst there is a
27 Our reference to affected communities relates to cultures that are known to perform harmful traditional practices such as FGM, FM, breast ironing and so on. We use this term in contrast to some writers who use the term practising communities. This is because, not everyone in affected communities undertakes, supports or otherwise condones the harmful practices, and some members actively campaign against them.
growing awareness of breast ironing as a harmful practice, knowledge of it remains sketchy meaning that it may not be identified. This book is one of the first to explore this form of abuse. Similarly, abuse linked to witchcraft and faith is on the increase and little is currently known about this among many professionals.28 The abuse generally presents itself as forms of exorcism and witchcraft, victimising both adults and children, and resulting in significant physical and psychological harm, even death. However, half of UK police forces do not record such cases and many local authorities are unable to provide figures about perpetration.
Throughout this book, we have included the accounts of survivors to highlight the impact of harmful traditional practices. These are very important in providing context to this book, and as illustrations of the immense bravery of and suffering endured by survivors. We hope that their accounts of the fear and hurt they have experienced will enable readers to better understand the impact of offending and to galvanise and empower support for them.
One common theme across harmful traditional practices is the lifelong physical and psychological harm to victims and survivors. It is important therefore to acknowledge and respect the immense courage displayed by victims/survivors who come forward to report their experiences. This must never be underestimated. For many, if not all, the decision to come forward is life changing with significant dangers of further abuse from family and community members for their reporting. Because of this, those working to protect victims/survivors often have just one-chance to make the best response, believing victims/survivors and acting appropriately to protect them.29
In order to help prevent harmful traditional practices, the associated offending, and to safeguard individuals at risk, we aim to empower readers to recognise the impact, identify the warning signs, and make the most appropriate responses to these practices. The book is designed so that each chapter can be read as a stand-alone account giving the reader detailed familiarity with each of the practices and approaches to them. However, we do hope that readers will explore all of the chapters as each has links with the others and together, they provide as complete a picture as we can provide of the current state of knowledge. It is our sincere hope that empowerment of readers begins within the pages of this book.
28 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34475424 accessed on 13 September 2016.
29 Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Multi-agency practice guidelines: handling cases of forced marriage, (June 2009).
In this chapter we will discuss honour-based abuse (HBA). Under the umbrella of HBA a range of offending can take place driven by honour-based attitudes and beliefs. We will describe what honour is, how it is applied in unequal and discriminatory ways to males and females, and how honour motivates abuse. This chapter will serve also to provide a context for the other harmful traditional practices discussed in this book.
There has been much debate into the appropriate use of terminology to describe abuse related to honour concerns, attitudes and beliefs. There have been consistent objections to the use of the word ‘honour’ (‘Izzat’ within South Asian communities), arguing that this term undermines victims and survivors and may give succour to perpetrators by implying that there may be some honour within violence and abuse. Many have argued that there is no honour in abusing others. Some commentators and civil society organisations, such as the UK’s Freedom Charity,1 have called this offending dishonour violence/crime, shameful violence/crime or shame-based violence. Other definitions describe it as a form of gender-based violence or a form of violence
1 The Freedom Charity, which was founded in 2009 by Aneeta Prem supports victims of forced marriage, female genital mutilation and dishonour crime.
© The Author(s) 2020 G. Campbell et al., Harmful Traditional Practices, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53312-8_2
against women.2 Such has been the strength of this debate that on 31st January 2017, a UK Member of Parliament, Ms Nusrat Ghani, introduced a private Members’ Bill to the House of Commons that sought to prohibit the use of the term ‘honour killing’ in official publications.3,4 The Bill was subsequently withdrawn.
Whilst acknowledging this debate, agreeing that there is no honour at all in abusing others, and that the term ‘honour’ in this context is something of a misnomer, we argue that, in the interests of consistency and continuity, it should continue to be used. This is because ‘honour’ is now so well entrenched that it is widely understood by communities, policy makers and academics. Especially important here is that consistent use of terminology means that victims and survivors and potential victims and survivors are more likely to understand what is involved and what to do if they have concerns or are under threat of honour-based abuse. We also argue that HBA is not only violence against women and that to refer to it in this way excludes the full range of victimisation. As we shall see, it involves various forms of abuse directed towards females, males and children.
It is also important to note that within this chapter and throughout this book we have used the term honour-based abuse (HBA) as opposed to the more common term, honour-based violence (HBV). We have done this because we feel that HBA is the best overarching description for the range of crimes (violence and abuses) perpetrated in the name of honour. As well as overtly violent acts towards a victim such as beatings, sexual violence and even homicide, an examination of the range of behaviour carried out in the name of honour includes acts that may be less overtly violent but which are abusive and lead to traumatic consequences to many of their victims and survivors (see the various chapters within this book). This includes acts such as imprisonment, kidnapping, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, exorcism, financial abuse and coercive control to list a few.
We also distinguish HBA from domestic violence and abuse (DV/A). This is because, whilst there are some similarities with DV/A—HBA, like DV/A involves intra-familial offending5—the important difference relates to the
2 Hossain, S & Welchman, L, ‘Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women, (Zed Books, 2005).
3 Ms Nusrat Ghani is the Conservative MP for Wealden constituency and entered the House of Commons following the general election in May 2015. She is a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. For further information visit: https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/nusrat-ghani/4460
4 Crime (Aggravated Murder of and Violence Against Women) Bill 2016–2017.
5 The cross-government definition of domestic violence and abuse is: any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can
involvement of the perpetrator’s extended family and/or other community members in HBA.6 Also, in many cases of HBA there may be tacit community support for and concomitantly few attempts at preventing the abuse, especially where other community members share a common concern about honour.7
The UK National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) helpfully defines HBA as: An incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation, coercion or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse), which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family and / or community’s code of behaviour.8
We argue that this definition of HBA provides the best operational definition for public authorities, civil society groups and other organisations to work to. This definition more accurately describes the depth and breadth of crimes and abuses perpetrated against victims and survivors in the name of honour.
In order to define HBA, it is important to understand what is meant by honour. Honour is associated with concepts such as respect and the esteem of others, and self-esteem. Honour can be defined as a positive character trait associated with integrity and good moral character, leading individuals with such qualities to be described as honourable.9 Being described in this way has advantages, including earning the trust and respect of your peers and may be associated with achieving status and reputation. Pitt-Rivers10 highlights that honour has both public and private aspects. Its private aspect relates to an individual’s sense of self-worth, and this is strongly encompass, but is not limited to: psychological, physical, sexual, financial emotional accessed on 21 April 2017 via https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-violence-and-abuse
6 Hester et al., Victim/survivor voices – a participatory research project Report for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Honour-based violence inspection (University of Bristol, 2015).
7 Hossain, S & Welchman, L, ‘Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women, (Zed Books, 2005).
8 Ibid.
9 Vandello, J. A. & Cohen, D, ‘Male honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence’, [2003] Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84, at p. 997.
10 Ibid.
influenced by its public aspect. The public aspect of honour is related to the good opinion of others, that is, reputation, how trustworthy an individual is and their perceived status.11 Honour is very important in honour cultures (those cultures that value honour, see below), precisely because it is intrinsically linked to an individual’s reputation and status within a community.
In any discussion of honour and HBA, it is important to note that as far as their members are concerned, different groups and communities differ in viewing the relative importance of honour. Some communities can be considered to be honour cultures12 where the maintenance of personal and family honour is a central organising principle defining the sorts of behaviour that are acceptable and unacceptable. For other cultures honour is less important, although honour concerns and expectations may still have an influence on behaviour. For example, some individuals may be expected to attend particular schools or universities, take up specific occupations to follow family tradition or may marry only within their birth faith, and conforming to these expectations is strongly tied to a sense of familial honour, integrity and wellbeing.
Given that honour concerns can be found in many communities and groups, what is important for our discussion is not that a particular community or group has or even prioritises honour concerns, that is, a so-called Honour Culture, but to examine how breaches of honour codes are dealt with. Only where breaches of honour codes are dealt with by abuse or violence can HBA be said to occur. This is very important because it leads to the conclusion that HBA is possible within any culture, nation, community or group that values honour and where individuals respond to challenges or losses of honour with abuse or violence. It is also important to stress given the above point that it is non-sensical, as some commentators have suggested, to locate HBA only within certain nations or cultures, for example, Arab, Kurdish or Pakistan, and to blame any instance of HBA upon members of these communities—so-called othering of cultures.13 Indeed, a 4-year study of nearly
11 Julian Pitt-Rivers, “Honor and Social Status,” in Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society (eds. J. G. Peristiany, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965).
12 Ibid.
13 Bredal, A. Ordinary verse other violence. In Gill, A.K., Strange, C. and Roberts, K., 2014. Honour Killing and Violence. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
2000 honour killings in Pakistan found that whilst the majority of victims and survivors were from Muslim backgrounds, many were also from Christian and Hindu backgrounds.14 Similarly, honour is of high significance in many Southern States within the USA where there is good evidence for a Southern Culture of Honour.15,16 The danger in ‘othering’ cultures or groups is that HBA is attributed exclusively to unchanging beliefs, customs and characteristics of the ‘othered’ groups without consideration of individual characteristics or more patriarchal values that underpin much violence especially against women.17,18
Honour cultures are more likely to value traditional gender roles in which there is discrimination and inequality between males and females.19 Indeed, codes of honour, whilst being applicable to both males and females, typically place different obligations upon them. Males within honour cultures have political and social power and are expected to protect and defend the honour of others.20 They are encouraged to develop sensitivity to insults and threats to reputation and are expected to act quickly when their honour and that of their family is being challenged.21 A failure to do so is seen as weakness and may lead to attacks to destabilise the individual male, their family or group. Male sensitivity to dishonour in honour cultures, especially concerning the behaviour of female relatives, leads them to operate a number of different strategies to control, monitor and limit the behaviour (especially the sexual behaviour) of female relatives. For example, they may limit the ability of females to socialise outside their family or community, to take up paid employment, the
14 Muazzam Nasrullah, Sobia Haqqi, Kristin J. Cummings, ‘The epidemiological patterns of honour killing of women in Pakistan’ [2009]. European Journal of Public Health 19 (2) at p. 193.
15 Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor: Ethics and Behaviour in the Old South (Oxford University Press, 1982).
16 Cohen, D. and Nisbett, R. E., 1994. Self-protection and the culture of honor: Explaining southern violence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20 (5), pp. 551–567.
17 Gill, A. K, All they think about is honour. In Gill, A.K., Strange, C. and Roberts, K., 2014. Honour killing and violence. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
18 Nisbett, Richard E., and Dov Cohen. “Violence and honor in the Southern United States.” Guns in America: A Reader (1999): 264–274.
19 Heise, L, ‘Integrated, Ecological Framework’, [1998] Violence Against Women Vol. 4, Issue 3, at p. 262.
20 Ibid.
21 Fisher et al., ‘Field test of the cognitive interview: enhancing the recollection of the actual victims and witnesses of crime’ [1986] Journal of Applied Psychology 74 (5), at p. 722.
type of work undertaken, their use of public transport, and more broadly their ability to freely make autonomous decisions.22 Within honour cultures, females are seen as the principal responsibility of the male head of the family and any breach of honour reflects both on the individual and the family head. The head of the family’s ability to protect and control the conduct of family members, particularly females, is seen as a representation of his ability to protect his own honour.23
Females are expected to maintain their own honour and that of their family through their deference, fidelity, chastity, modesty and purity. Any behaviours perceived not to conform to this are challenged, frequently with acts of abuse.24 The abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional and psychological (including threats, harassment and intimidation). In addition, breaches of honour codes that go unchallenged are likely to be perceived to be a sign of weakness on the part of males with responsibility for the female.
Honour is maintained by behaving in ways that are consistent with various culturally defined norms and is lost by failing to behave in a manner that is consistent with them (Pitt-Rivers 1966; Bowman 2007). If one behaves in accordance with honour norms, then one maintains a good reputation and one’s social status is maintained. This also applies to ones’ family. Honour may however be challenged or even lost as a result of behaving in ways that are contrary to honour-based norms.
For those who value honour, loss of honour can be very damaging. There is evidence that loss of honour is keenly felt, accompanied by feelings of damaged reputation, reduced self-esteem and even shame (‘Sharam’ in Southern Asian cultures). Loss of honour may also result in social isolation as others ostracise an individual or their family due to the perceived dishonourable behaviour. See for example Roberts,25 for a review of the effects of losses of honour.
22 United Nations. 2006. “United Nations In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women.” Report of the Secretary-General, A/61/122/Add.1, para. 78.
23 Roberts, K. A, Campbell, G, & Lloyd G, Honour-Based Violence, Policing and Prevention (CRC Press 2014).
24 Meetoo, V and Mirza, H, ‘There is nothing honourable about honour killings: gender, violence and the limits of multiculturalism’, [2007] Women’s Studies International Forum, 30 (3), at p. 187.
25 Ibid.
To avoid these negative consequences, there is a strong motivation for individuals who value honour to act in ways that minimise the risk of losing it or to attempt to regain lost honour. A variety of acts, some of which are abusive can then result in an individual or family’s efforts to maintain or prevent the loss of honour. Breast ironing and FGM, for example, can be thought of as forms of HBA designed to minimise the risk of a family losing honour by reducing the risk of ‘problem’ behaviours by their daughter. Similarly, forced marriage ensures that a family does not lose honour as a result of a family member marrying an ‘unacceptable’ person.
Another form of preventing losses of honour can be surveillance. There is evidence of women being ‘policed’ and ‘surveilled’ by family, community members or paid or unpaid bounty hunters.26 Here individuals report back to a family on the movements and behaviour of an individual. For those engaged in surveillance activities, their behaviour also serves them in securing their own status as someone who upholds honourable values. ‘Surveillance’ can begin at school with a brother(s) or male cousin(s) providing a ‘protective’ and watchful eye. The control and monitoring of female relatives are such that swift action (usual some form of HBA) will be taken if there are any transgressions from expected behaviour and conduct. From a criminal justice perspective, this monitoring and surveillance behaviour can be classified as stalking and harassment.
Honour-norms may also include an expectation of a violent attack directed towards the perceived source of dishonour.27 In many honour cultures, men are educated to be sensitive to slights to their honour and there is an expectation that retaliatory action will be swift. Fischer,28 discussing cultures of honour, noted that:
from an early age, small boys were taught to think much of their own honor and to be active in its defense. Honor in this society meant a pride of manhood in masculine courage, physical strength, and warrior virtue. Male children were trained to defend their honor without a moment’s hesitation—lashing out against their challengers with savage violence.
Often, where honour is perceived to have been lost due to the behaviour of a family member, extreme shame may by experienced by other family
26 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/29/taxi-driver-bounty-hunter accessed on 18 April 2017.
27 Nisbett, R. E., & Cohen, D, Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South (New Directions in Social Psychology), (Westview Press, 1996).
28 Fischer, D. M, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (OU Press, 1989).
members. This may predicate extreme violence. This is because shame consists of strong and often painful feelings about self and this can lead to feelings of extreme anger or rage leading in turn to extreme violence.29 This can be seen in many honour killings. To illustrate this, we have included two case studies of honour killings where Heshu Yones and Shafilea Ahmed were both killed by their parents (see the case study boxes below).
It is also important to note that although women and girls are significantly more likely to suffer, HBA is also perpetrated against some men and boys. This is often in relation to their ‘unacceptable’ (to the woman’s family) relationship with a female, because of their sexual orientation, their failure to take decisive action to defend the family or community’s honour, or where they have failed to carry out the orders of more senior male family members. The abuse can involve physical assault, ostracism, emotional abuse and homicide.
HBA is often justified by perpetrators and those who condone it as being a reflection of their cultural traditions or as mandated by their religious beliefs.31 Some argue that religion allows the moral correction of individuals, and even the use of force against those that do not conform to or are perceived not to conform to religious teachings.32 However, these claims are simply wrong. No major religion, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam or Sikhism supports the use of violence against women and children. Indeed, the Qur’an states that Allah condemns those who change his creation, and that causing any physical harm is unlawful.33
29 Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L. & Barlow, D. H, ‘Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Distinct Emotions?’ [1996] Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70(6), at p. 1256.
30 Alesha was given a suspended 12 months’ imprisonment sentence.
31 The UN Secretary General’s in-depth study of all forms of violence against women, 2006, paras. 66, 69 at pp. 27–28 A/61/122/Add.1.
32 Qu’ran: 4:119.
33 Qu’ran: 2:19.
Shafilea Ahmed, born in Britain of Pakistani origin, was one of four children born to her father Iftikhar and mother Farzana. Her parents were from a rural Gujrat district village called Uttam. Shafilea was an intelligent, popular and ambitious young woman who wanted to be a barrister. She was murdered at the hands of her parents on the evening of 11 September 2003 at their home in Warrington, Cheshire, UK. Her decomposed body was found the following February over 100 miles away by the river Kent, in Cumbria.
Shafilea was frequently a victim of physical abuse at the hands of her parents, which she had disclosed to a social worker and other professionals. She ran away from home on several occasions to escape the violent abuse she was facing. Her parents’ subsequent criminal trial heard that the regular beatings of Shafilea were designed to destroy her developing sense of independence and her desire to lead a ‘Western’ lifestyle. Her parents deemed that she was bringing shame on the family.
In 2003, Shafilea was drugged and taken on a flight from the UK to Pakistan by her father along with her younger sister and brother. The intention was to force her into a marriage. In order to escape this Shafilea ingested bleach, which resulted in her being hospitalised in Pakistan and then in the UK.
In September 2003, during one of the many beatings at the hands of her father and mother, Shafilea had a plastic bag forced into her mouth suffocating her. Shafilea’s mother was heard to say, ‘Just finish it here’. Shafilea was never seen alive again. The other children were present in the family home on that night and the actions of the parents were witnessed by another of their daughters.
Shafilea’s body was placed into her father’s car and driven 100 miles up the M6 motorway to Cumbria where he dumped her body. No one from her family attempted to report Shafilea missing to the police—as often happens in such cases. The other children were told that, if asked, Shafilea had run away, as she had done this previously. One of Shafilea’s schoolteachers did however report her missing.
In February 2004, following heavy rain fall, Shafilea’s decomposed body was discovered by workmen by the river Kent in Cumbria. She was subsequently formally identified by DNA and clothing.
During the police investigation both parents and other extended family members were arrested. The parents accused the police of discriminatory behaviour and on one occasion stormed uninvited into a police press conference gathered to discuss Shafilea’s murder, accusing the police of racism.
Police continued with the investigation and in late 2010 they got a breakthrough following the arrest of Shafilea’s sister Rukish aka Alesha who was involved in staging a robbery at the family home.30 She was an eyewitness to Shafilea’s murder and during that arrest disclosed to the police investigators what she had witnessed.
On 7 September 2011, the Ahmeds were charged with their daughter’s murder. Following a criminal trial in 2012, they were both convicted of Shafilea’s murder and were given a life sentence with a minimum sentence of 25 years each.
During sentencing the judge Justice Roderick Evans said:
(continued)
(continued)
Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child …. However, you could not tolerate the life Shafilea wanted to live.
Before her murder, Shafilea had disclosed details of her abuse to professionals including a schoolteacher, social and homeless worker, to school friends and a male friend. Telling them that she was being physically abused by her parents and had grave concerns about being forced to marry a cousin in Pakistan. A good student, she was however absent from school for days and weeks at a time and regularly had bruising to her face and neck. This leads us to question whether or not effective intervention opportunities were missed in this case.
HBA is a fundamental abuse of an individual’s human rights. This accords with the United Nations’ (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).34 Despite this, in the UK there is currently no statutory definition or offence of HBA, although as we shall see in later chapters, there is specific legislation regarding female genital mutilation, and forced marriage. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS), following its 2015 inspection into so-called honour-based violence, did however recommend that honour-based violence/abuse be made a criminal offence.35
In attempting to prevent HBA, it is important to understand the victim’s cultural background and national origins. This means that to prevent HBA, it is critical for multiagency cooperation and for professionals to engage with communities, NGOs and others. Indeed, the relationship that law enforcement and government officials have with the wider community or distinct sections of it is crucial with respect to assessing such risks.
34 http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm
35 Ibid.
2 Honour-Based Abuse and Violence
There are a number of so-called red flag or trigger events, which may be predicators of honour-related offending taking place. Where these are identified in families or social contexts where honour values are likely to be strong, there is an increased risk of victimisation and professionals need to act swiftly to protect potential victims and survivors . It is important to note that any one of these factors alone are not sufficient to predict HBA, but taken together with due sensitivity to the cultural context, and a focus upon the orientation towards honour of a family and the cultural group to which they are members, can alert professionals to a heightened risk of HBA that should trigger action. We invite the reader to examine the two case studies in this chapter with respect to the warning signs detailed below, as each case features a number of them.
The following are warning signs, consisting of various trigger events and incidents, that can raise the risk of HBA among groups where honour values and beliefs are important, that is, within honour cultures:
• An extra-marital affair.
• An individual seeking a divorce.
• A boyfriend or girlfriend disapproved of by family members.
• Intimacy, sexual relationship and/or pregnancy outside marriage.
• An inter-faith relationship.
• The victim being identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
• Rejection of or escape from a forced marriage.
• Behaviour—notably of females, which is deemed to be inappropriate, for example, inappropriate dress, wearing of cosmetics and similar, kissing or other displays of intimacy, ‘being too Westernised’;
• A victim reporting her/his abuse to the police and other public authority. In this scenario the risks of abuse to victims and survivors escalate when they report their victimisation.36
36 Hester et al., Victim/survivor voices – a participatory research project, Report for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Honour-based violence inspection, (University of Bristol, 2015).
Surjit Athwal was an HM Customs and Excise officer. She was lured to India in 1998 on the pretext of attending family weddings. She was murdered on the orders of her mother-in-law and husband after she sought a divorce.
Following her marriage to Sukhdave, Surjit and her husband lived with his mother and brother. In 1989, Surjit was joined by her sister-in-law Sarbjit after her marriage to Sukhdave’s brother. As the matriarch, the mother-in-law ruled the household.
Within her marriage there were many arguments around Surjit’s desire to lead a more Western lifestyle. Surjit also suffered repeated domestic abuse. As a result of these experiences, she left the family home. However, she was tracked down by her husband who threatened to kill her if she didn’t return home. After returning home, Surjit insisted on socialising with her friends. This angered her husband who physically assaulted her.
Evidence suggests that Surjit’s husband had accused her of having an affair and started to follow her to work when she became pregnant with her second child.
At a family gathering her mother-in-law told those present, ‘She’s [Surjit] bringing shame on the family. We have to get rid of her’. A plan was made to take Surjit to India on the pretext of attending family weddings and a clothes shopping trip.
Sarbjit, Surjit’s sister-in-law, aware of the dangers of breaching the family honour code, made two brave efforts to alert the police service. On the day that she was due to travel with her mother-in-law to India, Sarbjit courageously made an anonymous phone call to CrimeStoppers (a UK-based charity) to report that a murder may take place.37 She followed this up with an anonymous letter to Hayes Police station (Metropolitan Police Service) in London. (Tragically, this letter was found years later, un-opened at the police station).
Two weeks later, Surjit’s mother-in-law returned back alone to the UK declaring that Surjit had stayed on in India. A month or so later, she confessed to Sarbjit, that Surjit was put in a jeep with two men on the pretext of going on a clothes shopping. Surjit was drugged, stripped of her jewellery, and her body was discarded into the Ravi River, which runs along the border with Pakistan. Eventually, a report was made to British police by Sarbjit.
The murder investigation was beset by difficulties. For example, false letters were sent to the police in Punjab claiming to be from Scotland Yard, and there were false accounts from witnesses who had allegedly spoken to the victim after the time of her death.
Throughout this time, Sarbjit received direct and indirect threats from the Athwal family. This included a night when her mother-in-law slept in the same bed as her and the following morning stated, ‘You’ve never met our family in India, so I’ve decided I’m going to take you on a trip’.38 Following the arrests of
(continued)
37 CrimeStoppers is a UK registered charity, which allows the public to anonymously provide information about criminal activity.
38 It is apparently common in the Sikh culture to sleep with an older relative. A rejection of such a request is viewed as being disrespectful.
(continued)
her in-laws, Sarbjit reported being assaulted and threatened by her husband to get her to retract her statement.
The expressions of intimidation were not limited to family members. A temple elder approached Sarbjit at a temple and described her mother-in-law as a ‘holy woman’ and that Sarbjit should tell the police that she was mistaken. This was not an isolated incident as Sarbjit was intimidated and ostracised by other community members.
On 19 September 2007, Surjit’s mother-in-law Bachan Athwal aged 70 years and Surjit’s husband, Sukhdave Athwal, were convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Athwal family, sadly, have been unable to fully grieve as Surjit’s body has never been found. Despite her courage, Sarbjit is shunned by community members who believe she has brought dishonour on her family.
HBA takes many forms, including murder, rape, kidnap, stalking, false imprisonment, coercion, intimidation, threats to kill and many more abuses. We recognise that the UK in particular has been on a long journey regarding HBA and our collective experience and understanding have evolved over time. During this time, there has been much discourse about the use of terminology including the word ‘honour’ to describe this form of abuse. We argue that the most useful term that describes this form of offending is honour-based abuse.
We have noted that all communities have some form of honour code; however, it is when attempts to maintain or defend honour involve harmful practices and result in criminal behaviour and abuses, that the behaviour of individuals involved must be addressed. This means that focus should be on those individuals within communities who utilise abuse in order to protect and maintain honour.
As discussed in this chapter, males and females have different roles within honour cultures to protect, defend and maintain individual, family and the community’s honour. However, it is evident that women and girls face significant discrimination and inequality by the disproportionate expectations placed on them.
It is of critical importance that all professionals—legal, healthcare, social care, education and law enforcement—and communities are able to recognise HBA and understand their role in safeguarding victims and survivors. In this chapter we have identified a number of warning signs, which could be used to enable early intervention and support for victims and survivors to prevent crime and abuse.
In this chapter we will discuss female genital mutilation (FGM). We will begin by defining what FGM is and detail its history. We will then explore its worldwide prevalence, its impact, relevant legislation including a discussion of notable FGM prosecutions, and finally, we will explore responses to FGM. At the outset of this chapter, it is important for us to note that, whilst the word ‘mutilation,’ is used as part of the internationally recognised definition of this practice (and we use it here for clarity), we strongly believe that it is for victims/survivors to define their experience of the act in their own terms. FGM is a serious form of child abuse and a serious breach of the human rights of victims and survivors, the physical and emotional consequences of which can be devastating and lifelong. It is a global problem, with the number of girls undergoing, exposed to or otherwise living with the consequences of it increasing.1,2 As a consequence, professionals across a range of disciplines have an important role to play in safeguarding girls at risk. However, many professionals are blind to or ignore the warning signs of FGM. This is illustrated by the fact that, despite FGM being a specific criminal offence since 1985 in the UK, to date there has only been one successful prosecution.3 There are many reasons for this blindness to FGM. There can be failure to
1 Macfarlane, A., Dorkenoo, E., Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in England and Wales: National and local estimates. City University London and Equality Now, 2015.
2 NHS Digital, Annual statistical publication for FGM during 2018/19 accessed 17 December 2019 via https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/female-genital-mutilation/ april-2018%2D%2D-march-2019
3 R v N (Female Genital Mutilation) Sentencing Remarks of Mrs Justice Whipple 8 March 2019.
© The Author(s) 2020 G. Campbell et al., Harmful Traditional Practices, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53312-8_3
raise concerns because of a lack of knowledge about FGM, fear of challenging a (barely understood) practice that is considered (incorrectly) to be of religious or cultural importance to its practitioners, or failure to recognise FGM as serious child abuse because it takes place within otherwise loving and nonabusive families, that is, families not normally expected to be at high risk of abusing their children. This chapter therefore aims to raise awareness of FGM, to challenge lack of knowledge and dispel some of the myths surrounding it in the hope that this pernicious form of child abuse may be better identified and prevented.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of FGM is accepted as the standard definition. The WHO defines FGM as comprising:
all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. 4
This definition captures the essence of FGM, stressing the non-medical and therefore abusive reasons for the removal of otherwise healthy tissue. This is the definition of FGM that we will use in this chapter.
Various different types of genital mutilation occur. In defining FGM, Zwang provides us with a useful description of the anatomical structure of female external genital organs and reminds us of the seriously abusive nature of FGM stressing that any removal of healthy tissue for non-medical reasons is mutilation. Zwang also encapsulates the misogyny inherent in this abuse by highlighting how FGM involves destroying genetically determined and essential anatomical characteristics that are shared by all women and girls. Zwang stated that5:
4 UN, Female genital mutilation, A joint statement by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA, 1997 accessed on 31 July 2017 via http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/41903/1/9241561866.pdf.
5 ‘Mutilations sexuelles feminines. Techniques et Resultants, Female Circumcism, Excision and Infibulation, ed. Scilla Mclean, Minority Rights Group Report No. 47, December 1980.