The honour/shame complex revisited: Violence against women in the migration context

Abstract

This article is based on the life histories of two immigrant women of Turkish origin living in Sweden. Fictive names are used in the article. The women are given in marriage at a very young age to attach them to men who will take over the function of their control from their fathers. By analyzing the life histories with the help of Delaney and Bourdieu's theoretical approaches, I try to explain the implicit idea in the honour/shame complex whereby protection of women is maintained through control on their sexuality. The control is accelerated to the extent that women live in immigrant enclaves. The function of women as carriers and bearers of group identity gains importance in case of the immigrant situation where ethnic identity becomes an issue to consider. Women are abused when they violate the boundaries of the definition of acceptable femininity by their ethnic community. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.