Honour Killings in the UK Communities: Adherence to Tradition and Resistance to Change

Abstract

Although honor killing is widely associated with Muslim communities, it can also be observed in other religious and cultural communities in the UK and elsewhere. As the author shall demonstrate in this paper, whether Muslim or not in communities where honour killings tend to occur, certain sociological structures and characteristics of communities introduce obstacle to internalizing new cultural norms and cultural change. In these communities, there are superficial social changes rather than deeper cultural changes. These communities can change, but only if the change can be accommodated and internalized with their cultural norms. It is, therefore, these characteristics, rather than religious beliefs or doctrine, which have provided an environment conducive for the occurrence of honour killings. So far, no attempt has been made to give an overall picture or characteristics of these communities of the UK where honour killings tend to occur. With a specific emphasis on why honour killings still occur in the UK, this paper attempts to make a start by focusing on characteristics of three religious minority communities of the UK, namely Muslim, Hindu and Sikh whose names have become associated with honour killings.