Overview

This book explores the contemporary phenomenon of forced marriage and 'honour' killings in Britain. Set against a background of increasing 'honour'-based violence within the country's South Asian and Muslim Diasporas, the book traces the development of the 'honour' question over the past two decades. It accordingly witnesses unprecedented changes in public awareness and government policy including ground-breaking 'honour'-specific legislation and the criminalisation of forced marriage. All of which makes Britain an important context for the study of this now indigenous and self-perpetuating social problem. In considering the scale of the challenge and its underlying causes, attention is paid to the intersections of gendered power structures that disadvantage female members of 'honour' cultures as well as feminist theories that seek to explain them. The book features five key case-studies of 'honour' killings and draws from a wide range of narratives including those of 'honour' violence survivors, grassroots service providers and legislators. Such myriad of perspectives reveals the complexity of the 'honour' issue and the deep ideological divisions that characterise it. With the UK's multiculturalist discourse unable to reconcile protecting patriarchal minority cultures with safeguarding gender equality and human rights, the book raises fundamental questions about the country's future direction. Following a long trend of state-sponsored integrationist policies, the government's response to the 'honour' question points decisively in the direction of a post-multicultural British nation.

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9781472432490

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Reviews

'This is a strongly argued and passionate account of the violence some women from minority ethnic communities face in today's British society. Drawing on original empirical research, Christina Julios makes public that which is often deemed to be private. Significantly, the book moves away from an individual analysis to examine violence as the systematic violation of human rights. This is an important and timely book.' Sally Hines, University of Leeds, UK

'This is a strongly argued and passionate account of the violence some women from minority ethnic communities face in today's British society. Drawing on original empirical research, Christina Julios makes public that which is often deemed to be private. Significantly, the book moves away from an individual analysis to examine violence as the systematic violation of human rights. This is an important and timely book.' Sally Hines, University of Leeds, UK 'The book goes beyond the simplistic explanation of culture, religion and ethnicity, encompassing different contentious views, theories and approaches in dealing with this multi-layered social and political problem. It draws from a wide range of data and information provided by grassroots organizations, academic sources, media groups and official national as well as international institutions. No doubt it enriches the existing limited literature on forced marriage and honour-based violence.' Nazand Begikhani, University of Bristol, UK

Julios has written an outstanding book documenting this appalling problem, and the agony of the thousands of individual victims. She is courageous and unsparing in her critique of the patriarchal attitudes which she (rightly) finds ultimately responsible. (...) I commend this book to anyone who thinks that gendered religious beliefs and behaviour are culturally innocent, or that multiculturalism has a future. Unusually accessible as a social science monograph, it is a heart-stopping exposure of violence and cruelty against (mainly but not exclusively) young women, that all people of good will must do all they can to resist. - Adrian Thatcher, Exeter

'This is a strongly argued and passionate account of the violence some women from minority ethnic communities face in today's British society. Drawing on original empirical research, Christina Julios makes public that which is often deemed to be private. Significantly, the book moves away from an individual analysis to examine violence as the systematic violation of human rights. This is an important and timely book.' Sally Hines, University of Leeds, UK 'The book goes beyond the simplistic explanation of culture, religion and ethnicity, encompassing different contentious views, theories and approaches in dealing with this multi-layered social and political problem. It draws from a wide range of data and information provided by grassroots organizations, academic sources, media groups and official national as well as international institutions. No doubt it enriches the existing limited literature on forced marriage and honour-based violence.' Nazand Begikhani, University of Bristol, UK Julios has written an outstanding book documenting this appalling problem, and the agony of the thousands of individual victims. She is courageous and unsparing in her critique of the patriarchal attitudes which she (rightly) finds ultimately responsible. (...) I commend this book to anyone who thinks that gendered religious beliefs and behaviour are culturally innocent, or that multiculturalism has a future. Unusually accessible as a social science monograph, it is a heart-stopping exposure of violence and cruelty against (mainly but not exclusively) young women, that all people of good will must do all they can to resist. - Adrian Thatcher, Exeter

Author Information

Christina Julios is Associate Lecturer at The Open University, UK and Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. She was a member of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Domestic Violence External Consultation Group; Census Diversity Advisory Group; the Department for Work and Pensions Ethnic Minority Working Party; HM Revenue and Customs’ Voluntary and Community Sector Steering Group; Women’s Resource Centre Policy Forum; and the Crown Prosecution Service’s Race Equality Board.

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