Honour-Based Violence

Dr Nazand Begikhani, University of Bristol, UK, Dr Aisha K. Gill, University of Roehampton, UK and Professor Gill Hague, University of Bristol, UK.

’The result of sustained and in-depth research on the part of the three authors and their activist allies, this publication is based on a study commissioned by the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq on honour-based violence in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora in the UK. The book is a richly substantive contribution to a growing scholarly literature. A lucid reflection on this scholarship informs the authors’ situating of the scope and challenges of the project, which draws on feminist perspectives, women’s activism and action research to explore these forms of violence and strategies of response to them. The authors are to be congratulated for a distinctive effort.’ Lynn Welchman, SOAS, University of London, UK ’Honour based killing is culture-dependent but nevertheless a universal phenomenon that needs confronting. This book is an important contribution to the growing feminist literature on this subject, the first of its kind to focus on Iraqi Kurds. This is especially important these days when Kurdish women, in the Middle East and in the diaspora, are becoming more organized and are establishing a feminist bulwark against the rise of Islamist fundamentalism and its brutal oppression of women.’ Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East London, UK

• Honour-Based Violence