Interpreting Honor Crimes: The Institutional Disregard Towards Female Victims of Family Violence in the Middle East

Abstract

Despite international efforts to combat violence against women, women in some parts of the Middle East continue to suffer the most extreme form of degradation – honor crimes. These women are also victims of systematic discrimination due to the institutional failure to protect them against violence. This paper explores how the institutional disregard toward perpetrators of honor crimes are rooted in conventional values and policies that are justified by social norms and existing penal codes. Last, the paper will offers areas of further inquiry which could help to understand this phenomenon in terms of gender threat and social control towards women.