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Family honor (or honour) is an abstract concept involving the perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects the social standing and the self-evaluation of a group of related people, both corporately and individually. The family is viewed as the main source of honor, and the community highly values the relationship between honor and the family. The conduct of family members reflects upon family honor and the way the family perceives itself and is perceived by others. Family honor can be dependent upon many factors. Areas that are affected by family honor include multiple aspects of lifestyle such as social status, religion, clothing, eating, education, job or career, ownership such as real estate, and marriage.
People who live in cultures of honor perceive family as the central institution in their society, and a person's social identity depends largely on their family. Therefore, it is important for these individuals to fulfill expectations of family and society in order to be accepted by their family and experience feelings of belonging to this central institution that they are tied to through birth or marriage. In some cultures, maintaining family honor is perceived as more important than either individual freedom or individual achievement.
The ideology and practice of family honor varies from country to country. Individuals of certain cultures are often unaware or discerning in their understanding of differing cultural traditions. Many fail to grasp the concept of honor as the basis for traditions such as defending one's honor or their family's. Some cultures value family honor more than others. Many times a family's honor may overpower the actions or beliefs of the individual. However, a theme that is common within many traditions is the respecting of elders. Children of the family are to respect their elders who have earned what some call a "badge of 'honor'" representative of their age. Once an individual has lived many years, they have earned this badge of honor and should be shown respect, teaching their young the cultural traditions that have deemed them honorable.
One of the ideals of family honor is social class. Social class can be defined as a group of people categorized into a hierarchy based on the amount of money they have accumulated, how much education they have received, and the amount of power they hold within society, amongst other variables. People who play similar roles within society tend to have similar outlooks. Social standing affects the way in which families form. It determines how and who a person mates with, how they raise their children, and how people relate to one another.
Historically, honor is a quality ascribed to an individual in two ways: either by obtaining it through their birth into an honorable family or being assigned as honorable by powerful people who hold higher status in the society. An individual's parental Kinship, is the traditional source for their honor. Because honor is passed through paternal lineage in most patrilineality, these societies historically considered having sons as a source of pride and honor. For example, in the Moroccan culture, it is still a preference among women to have sons instead of daughters. Morocco is a typical patrilineal society in which the son has a more important function for the family such as the son supports his parents once they have aged compared to the daughter who will marry into a different group becoming a loss to the family. In such societies men also hold more sexual rights compared to women besides the supportive role men obtain from caring for their aging parents. Women in these societies are perceived as threats to family honor.
Within cultures, honor is an important and highly esteemed theme. It can be maintained through living up to one's word and promises, providing for the family, and keeping a certain social status. Honor can be affected by women and men through ways in which a woman can shame her family through disapproved actions, and a man heightens his family's honorable status. Ensuing constant pressure to uphold her family's honor, a woman can suffer psychological and social damage.
Societies in which "family honor" is considered highly important generally place a correspondingly high degree of restriction of the freedom of women. In these cultures, a family may defend its honor, or may seek reparation or revenge if the family honor is perceived to have been abused or treated with disrespect. In Ancient Rome, sexual activity of married women outside of their marriage was seen as dishonor to the family and it was legal for men to kill their wives or married daughters that shamed the family through adultery. Reasoning for the designation of women to private and/or nonmale areas comes from the ancient tradition of a woman's place in the world. Women are not seen as independent individuals, but rather extensions of their male counterparts' identity and honor.
In Ancient Rome, chastity and loyalty of members of a family was an important factor contributing to family honor in addition to social standing and accomplishments of that family. For example, if a married woman committed adultery, her father had the legal right to kill her whereas her husband was required to divorce her. If the husband chose not to divorce his wife, he would jeopardize his honor and be labeled as a pimp.
The use of violence may be collective in its character, where many relatives act together. The roles of women and men in this type of honor culture varies between persecutors and the oppressed, for instance a son in a family may be forced to enter into an arranged marriage by his older relatives while controlling his sisters.
An example of this can be seen in Sierra Leone, Africa where young girls are mutilated every year. The number of girls mutilated in Africa per year has risen to 3 million. Rugiatu Turay, founder of the Amazonian Initiative Movement, protects young girls from being circumcised by other women in secret societies like Sande society and other female practitioners who still engage in the ceremonial tradition today. Girls as young as the age of five assist in the mutilation of other young girls in the country. At the age of 12, Turay was snatched by female family members, held down and had her clitoris cut off with a knife. She was beaten, forced to walk, and had hot pepper water poured in her eyes. As she was mutilated, the women sang, danced, and clap ceremoniously. According to these women, Turay had become a woman. However, females are generally mutilated under the age of 15. Girls who are trained to assist in this ceremony are trained as young as five years old. Turay has convinced 400 practitioners to stop the practice of female mutilation, but 97 million females have been mutilated within the country and the numbers remain constant, even increasing. The practice has been enforced by politicians within the country and locals refer to the practice as a ceremony that initiates womanhood, prepares females for marriage, and restricts their sexual conduct.
An ideology of preserving family honor is deeply rooted is society and is not affected by high levels of education. Many women in Turkey are well educated but still are expected to be modest and sexually chaste in order to preserve the perceived honor of their families. If a family's honor is perceived to be breached, it can bring social shame to the entire family. In such cases, traditionally the family would decide the fate of the woman accused of dishonoring her family. This might involve forcing the young woman into a shotgun wedding, while in extreme cases a young male in the family was given the duty to cleanse the family name through an honor killing. With recent changes to criminal law that removed reduced sentences for honor killings, women that are accused of bringing shame to the family are sometimes forced to commit honor suicides by their families, especially in the predominantly Kurdish South-East regions, a region that greatly values traditions. Families who do not want their sons to face possible incrimination have encouraged their daughters to commit suicide. The number of female suicides over the years has increased greatly. Stories have surfaced revealing girls who are given tools with which to kill themselves such as rope to hang themselves, poisons to drink, or a gun to shoot themselves. Some murders have also been disguised as suicides in order to protect family members. Female family members are not the only ones that may be punished to preserve family honor. It is proposed that the death of a male homosexual physics student, Ahmet Yildiz, was an honor killing.
Members of the Republican People Party have stated that in the six months preceding Hatice Firat's death a woman had been killed every day because of domestic violence.
In mainly Muslim Kosovo, the impact on family honor of admitting one has been raped, has discouraged some women from applying for compensation as victims of atrocities committed during the 1998–99 Kosovo War. Not All Kosovar Women Raped During War With Serbia Apply For Compensation>
The most serious honor related crime is often organised and deliberate. Incidents include torture, forced suicides, forced marriages, rapes, kidnapping, assault, mortal threats, extortion and protecting a criminal.
In a 2009 study by the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF), about 70,000 individuals of ages 16–25 stated they could not freely choose whom to marry. The MUCF report is limited to people aged 16–25 and for instance excludes adult women who wish to divorce but are threatened with violence due to family honor. Women in such situations face a greater threat as they are persecuted by both their own extended family and that of the husband. Some women's shelters report that nearly all women who seek refuge with them are fleeing honor based violence. In 2012, the county administrative board of Östergötland got a mandate to coordinate efforts against honor culture-based violence and persecution.
According to an investigation of 3,000 cases by newspaper Göteborgsposten, the most common scenario are girls being supervised and banned from being outside the home after school hours, who are forced Islamic veil and girls risking a forced marriage. About 80% of the child victims have been physically abused, most frequently with bare hands but also being beaten with belts or cables. In several cases the children have been burned with kitchen utensils or metal objects.
According to John Åberg, the exact number of people who experience honor-related oppression in Sweden is unknown. State statistics put the number around 70,000. Researcher Astrid Schlytter claims, based on research conducted on British and other European populations, that the number of people who experience honor culture (Swedish: hedersförtryck) could be as high as 240,000. "The exact number of how many people that experience oppression in the name of honor is uncertain, yet official state reports put the number somewhere around 70,000. An article in the daily newspaper Aftonbladet, citing researcher Astrid Schlytter, stated that up to 240,000 young people are restricted by honor culture. This figure has also been mentioned in political debates."
Men are the dominant figures within their households and embody a decisive, authoritative role. Contrary to popular belief, women hold as much weight within their homes as their husbands. They are the matriarchs of the family, and the family's health and stability relies on the mother. Although they need to be protected, women are cherished within their families as important figures.
Hispanic families strongly display their emotions towards one another. Family members show that they care and love one another through taking care of each other. They search for reinforcement and support within their own homes more often than they would in today's society. The Hispanic culture has what is called Curandero. This is a system in which families consult the help of a religious figure called a curandero who gives medical, psychological, and social advice. Families make offerings unto the curandero such as money, candle lighting, creating metal or wooden offerings (shaped in the form of the body part in need of healing), etc.
Many families believe that all personal or familial issues should be kept within the home. The Hispanic culture values modesty for all individuals including males and children in addition to females who are historically expected to behave in a modest fashion. Family members that suffer from mental illnesses are reluctant to inform their family members of this information in fear that their family members will criticize them.
In the aspect of childbirth, men are required to wait until after the mother has given birth and dressed in a decent manner to visit his wife and newborn child. Mothers typically accompany the new mother during birth. Much like the American culture, Hispanic women take time to rest after childbirth, but traditionally they returned to heavier labor jobs as opposed to jobs normally held by women within society.
Michael Herzfeld, an anthropologist, argued that the idea of women losing their chastity derived from those who wished to explain a woman's new role within society. The idea of women expanding their roles outside of the home in society went against the ideas and morals that were upheld centuries before. In order to defend this morality, many highlighted the customs of the past as something that should have been continuously practiced and enforced even in a new modern era.
Many women were subjected to sexual trials in which they were criticized for being dishonorable. Women during this time were similar to their ancestors. They engaged in practices such as sex before marriage, consenting to unions, and taking on the head role within their homes. However, these acts were perceived in an extremely contrasting manner during this period (after World War I). Because of this, many were uncertain of how they should approach the act of preserving sexual honor.
Towards the end of the 1930s, the definition of honor within Brazilian society has transformed completely. In result, in 1940, a penal code derived definitions of the term honor. Sexual crimes became a breaking of not family honor but "social customs". With the Vargas regime (Dictator Getúlio Vargas who ruled from 1937–1945), came a new form or definition of honor. Many attribute the change in the meaning of honor and a devaluing of its meaning to Vargas' rule. Vargas attributed the aspect of authority to the meaning of honor. Vargas closely tied traditional Brazilian family honor with the aspect of the nation's honor. Through his regime, Vargas intended to create a hierarchy of social, authoritative classes. However, debates over class, and gender in relation to honor and the nation of Brazil continued to take place. Women continued to transform their traditional roles and these changes could not be neglected.
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