WUNRN
University of Cambridge UK - 20
June 2013
JORDAN - BELIEF THAT HONOUR KILLINGS
ARE "JUSTIFIED" STILL PREVALENT AMONG JORDAN'S NEXT GENERATION -
RESEARCH
New research into attitudes of
15-year-olds in Middle Eastern nation shows that the practice of brutal
vigilante justice, predominantly against young women, for perceived slights
against family ‘honour’ still holds sway for significant proportions of the adolescent
population.
A study into the
attitude of teenagers in Jordan’s capital city of Amman reveals that almost
half of boys and one in five girls believe that killing a daughter, sister or
wife who has ‘dishonoured’ or shamed the family is justified. A third of all
teenagers involved in the research advocated honour killing.
Importantly,
the study found that these disturbing attitudes were not connected to religious
beliefs. The research
is published in the journal Aggressive Behavior.
Researchers surveyed over 850
students, and found that attitudes in support of honour killing are far more
likely in adolescent boys with low education backgrounds.
After analysing the data,
researchers concluded that religion and intensity of religious belief were not
associated with support for honour killing. Instead, the main factors include
patriarchal and traditional worldviews, emphasis placed on female ‘virtue’, and
a more general belief that violence against others is morally justified.
The researchers, from
The study suggests a large
proportion of teenagers in Jordan believe that killing a woman deemed to have
‘dishonoured’ her family is “morally right”, and the findings reveal “risk
factors” for attitudes in support of the vigilante murder of women as
justifiable punishment in instances of perceived dishonour.
“While we found the main
demographic in support of HKA to be boys in traditional families with low
levels of education, we noted substantial minorities of girls, well-educated
and even irreligious teenagers who consider honour killing morally right,
suggesting a persisting society-wide support for the tradition,” said Professor
Manuel Eisner, who conducted the study with his Cambridge graduate student Lana
Ghuneim.
“Any meaningful attempt to reduce
attitudes in support of such practices requires a broader societal commitment,
including coherent messages against honour-related violence from political and
religious elites, and decisive action by the criminal justice system.”
The researchers sampled a total
of 856 ninth graders - average age of 15 - from a range of secondary schools
across
Participants completed a
questionnaire based on researchers’ newly-developed sliding scale of attitudes
towards honour killing, asking teenagers to place themselves on the scale in
relation to different situations where it may be justified to kill a person. The
participants were not allowed to confer while they filled out the
surveys.
In total, 33.4% of all
respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with situations depicting
honour killings. Boys were more than twice as likely to support honour killings:
46.1% of boys and 22.1% of girls agreed with at least two honour killing
situations in the questionnaire.
61% of teenagers from the lowest
level of educational background showed supportive attitudes towards honour
killing, as opposed to only 21.1% where at least one family member has a
university degree.
41.5% of teenagers with a large
number of siblings endorsed at least two honour-killing situations, while this
was only the case for 26.7% of teens from smaller families.
The government of
While stricter legislation has
been introduced - despite conservative fears - cultural support for violence
against women who are seen as breaking norms has remained widespread - even as
Jordan is considered by many to be “modern by Middle Eastern standards”, say
researchers.
The authors hope that their research will help governments to take firm action against attitudes that condone honour killing, and patriarchal violence against women more broadly.
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Journal of Aggressive Behavior 2013 Sep-Oct;39(5):405-17.
JORDAN, AMMAN - HONOR KILLING
ATTITUDES AMONG ADOLESCENTS - STUDY
The present study examines attitudes towards honor crimes amongst a sample of 856 ninth grade students (mean age = 14.6, SD = 0.56) from 14 schools in Amman, Jordan. Descriptive findings suggest that about 40% of boys and 20% of girls believe that killing a daughter, sister, or wife who has dishonored the family can be justified. A number of theoretically meaningful predictors were examined: Findings suggest that attitudes in support of honor killings are more likely amongst adolescents who have collectivist and patriarchal world views, believe in the importance of female chastity amongst adolescents, and morally neutralize aggressive behavior in general. Findings for parental harsh discipline are mixed: While the father's harsh discipline is predictive of honor killing attitudes, the mother's behavior is not. Furthermore, support for honor killing is stronger amongst male adolescents and adolescents for low education backgrounds. After controlling for other factors religion and the intensity of religious beliefs are not associated with support for honor killings. Models were tested separately for male and female respondents and suggested no systematic differences in predictors.
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