Honour Killings and Criminal Justice

Social and Legal Challenges in Turkey

Ferya Taş-Çifçi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780429791574
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Derecho
• Subtopic: Derechos civiles en la legislación

Despite recent reforms to the Turkish Penal Code, the country retains a high level of honour-based violence. This book analyses the motives behind honour-based violence in Turkey and examines the criminal justice system's approach to this type of crime. The work takes a socio-legal approach to explore the concepts of honour, patriarchy, and hierarchy, along with the roles of culture and tradition. It also examines how the legal system deals with this phenomenon, focusing on the decisions of the criminal courts in honour killing cases and drawing on prisoner interviews. These analyses show the extent to which the State follows a patriarchal approach when dealing with honour killings and inform recommendations for improving the legal and criminal justice system so as to deter crimes of this nature.

1
Introduction

1. Honour-based violence and honour killings

Honour-based violence (HBV) is a reality in most parts of the Middle East, Asia, the Muslim world, and Western countries. The severity of HBV has been widely realised over the past few decades and the conceptualisation of HBV has been developing. A wide range of definitions have been offered in order to frame and conceptualise the crime, but there is still no definitional consensus on either HBV or honour killings¹ (or so-called honour killings).²

1 For criticism about the term of ‘honour killing,’ see Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain, ‘Introduction: “Honour”, Rights and Wrongs’ ‘Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women (London, Zed Books 2005) 8; see also Sercan Tokdemir, ‘Honor Crimes in Turkey: Rethinking Honour Killings and Reconstructing the Community Using Restorative Justice System’ (2013) 4 Law & Justice Review 257, 258.

2 Rochelle L Terman, ‘To Specify or Single Out: Should We Use the Term “Honor Killing”?’ (2010) 7 Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 1, 7; Aisha K Gill, ‘Honor Killings and the Quest for Justice in Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in the United Kingdom’ (2009) 20 Criminal Justice Policy Review 474; Welchman and Hossain (n 1) 4; Joanne Payton, ‘“Honour,” Collectivity, and Agnation: Emerging Risk Factors in “Honor”-Based Violence’ (2014) 29 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2863, 2864–67; Lindsey N Devers and Sarah Bacon, ‘Interpreting Honor Crimes: The Institutional Disregard Towards Female Victims of Family Violence in the Middle East’ (2010) 3 International Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory 359, 360–62; Moira Dustin and Anne Phillips, ‘Whose Agenda Is It?: Abuses of Women and Abuses of “Culture” in Britain’ (2008) 8 Ethnicities 405, 412; Karl Anton Roberts, Gerry Campbell, and Glen Lloyd, Honor-Based Violence: Policing and Prevention (London, CRC Press 2014) 1–2; Mohammad Mazher Idriss, ‘Key Agent and Survivor Recommendations for Intervention in Honour-Based Violence in the UK’ (2018) 42 International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 321; Gökçe Yurdakul and Anna C Korteweg, ‘State Responsibility and Differential Inclusion: Addressing Honor-Based Violence in the Netherlands and Germany’ (2019) Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society <https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxz004> accessed 06 February 2020; İhsan Çetin, ‘Gelenek ve Modernite Arasında Türkiye’de Son Dönem Kadın Cinayetleri’ (2014) 30 Sosyoloji Dergisi 41, 45.

Some of these definitions address HBV as type of violence that is committed either to protect or to restore ‘honour,’³ and any behaviour that challenges patriarchal authority or that may be accepted as sexual misconduct by the society are considered as an honour violation.⁴ As discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, this society involvement provides evidence of cultural and traditional norms that create honour codes allowing and sometimes even legitimising different forms of violence. The literature also highlights that HBV as a wider concept encompasses different types of violence, including but not limited to domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and honour killings;⁵ this last is the most severe form of HBV and is committed in order to restore honour.

3 Christina Julios, Forced Marriage and ‘Honour’ Killings in Britain: Private Lives, Community Crimes and Public Policy Perspectives (Surrey, Ashgate 2015) 7; Nazand Begikhani, Aisha K Gill, and Gill Hague, Honour-Based Violence: Experiences and Counter-Strategies in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish Diaspora (Surrey, Ashgate 2015) 6–8; Welchman and Hossain (n 1) 4–10; Rupa Reddy, ‘Domestic Violence or Cultural Tradition? Approaches to “Honour Killing” as Species and Subspecies in English Legal Practice’ in Aisha K Gill, Carolyn Strange, and Karl Roberts (eds), ‘Honour’ Killing & Violence: Theory, Policy & Practice (Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan 2014) 30.

4 Welchman and Hossain (n 1) 5; David Tokiharu Mayeda, Sunmin Rachel Cho, and Raagini Vijaykumar, ‘Honour-Based Violence and Coercive Control Among Asian and Youth in Auckland, New Zealand’ (2019) 25 Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 159, 160.

5 Julios (n 3) 7; Begikhani, Gill, and Hague (n 3) 4–5.

In looking at the literature, it is evident that individual and/or collective honour and honour/shame relationships form the common ground of concepts of female sexuality, patriarchy, culture, and traditions.⁶ HBV is considered to be a form of gender-based violence in general – violence against women (VAW) in particular – and considers women to be the primary victims of this violence.⁷ Apart from these conceptual definitions, the literature also provides important information about the regions in which HBV is committed,⁸ emphasising that HBV cannot be attributed to one region: It is committed worldwide.⁹

6 Anna Korteweg and Gokce Yurdakul, ‘Religion, Culture and Politicization of Honour-Related Violence: A Critical Analysis of Media and Policy Debates in Western Europe and North America’ (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development 2010) Gender Development Programme Paper 12 2; Unni Wikan, In Honour of Fadime: Murder and Shame (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press 2008) 70, 73; Aisha K Gill and Avtar Brah, ‘Interrogating Cultural Narratives About “Honour”-Based Violence’ (2014) 21 European Journal of Women’s Studies 72, 73; Anna Korteweg, ‘“Honour Killing” in the Immigration Context: Multiculturalism and the Racialization of Violence Against Women’ (2014) Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies 183, 2; Lila Abu-Lughod, ‘Seductions of the “Honor Crime”’ (2011) 22 Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 17, 17; Amnesty International, ‘Culture of Discrimination: A Fact Sheet on Honor Killings’ (2005) <https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/pdfs/honor_killings_fact_sheet_final_2012.doc> accessed 06 February 2020.

7 Begikhani, Gill, and Hague (n 3) 6–8; Aisha K Gill, ‘“Crimes of Honour” and Violence Against Women in the UK’ (2011) 32 International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 243; Welchman and Hossain (n 1) 4; Korteweg and Yurdakul (n 6) 3; Mohammad Mazher Idriss, ‘Not Domestic Violence or Cultural Tradition: Is Honour-Based Violence Distinct From Domestic Violence?’ (2017) 39 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 3.

8 Radhika Coomaraswamy, ‘Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Violence Against Women’ (United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights 2002) E/CN.4/2002/83 <https://undocs.org/E/CN.4/2002/83> accessed 06 February 2020.

9 ‘So-Called “Honour Crimes”’ (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2003) 9720.

Some definitions of HBV, especially honour killings, specifically include family members as perpetrators. For instance, one of the earlier definitions of honour killings provided by Abu-Odeh states: “Killing of a women by her father or brother for engaging in, or being suspected of engaging in, sexual practices before or outside marriage.”¹⁰ Warrick, Sev’er and Yurdakul, Korteweg, and Khan also highlight in their conceptualisations the involvement of family members in perpetrating these killings.¹¹ As this book analyses in Chapters 4, 5, and 6, court records consider honour killings to be a form of violence committed by family members. Research conducted in the Turkish context by Bağlı and Özensel, Dogan, Onal, and Fındıkçı also underline the fact of family members’ involvement in committing these crimes.¹² As Appendix 2.1 shows, the majority of honour killings are committed by relatives; however, it is also evident that non-relative perpetrators (especially intimate partners and ex-husbands) also commit these killings for the sake of honour. Therefore, conceptualising HBV and honour killings by only considering family member involvement places limits on HBV.

10 Lama Abu-Odeh, ‘Crimes of Honour and Construction of Gender in Arab Societies’ in Mai Yamani (ed), Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives (Reading, Garnet Publishing Limited 1996) 141.

11 Catherine Warrick, ‘The Vanishing Victim: Criminal Law and Gender in Jordan’ (2005) 39 Law & Society Review 315, 232; Aysan Sev’er and Gokcecicek Yurdakul, ‘Culture of Honor, Culture of Change: A Feminist Analysis of H...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• PART I Honour killings and social challenges
• PART II Honour killings and legal challenges
• Appendices
• Index